News

Franz Nicolay Announces Solo Tour

20th Dec 2010

Former Hold Steady keyboardist Franz Nicolay will be touring the UK in January in support of his recently released acclaimed second solo album Luck And Courage. Performing as part of a three act bill, together with Jack Terricloth (lead singer of World/Inferno Friendship Society) and Dave Hause (lead singer of The Loved Ones), it will be a night filled with Folk, Punk Rock and Americana, each act playing a solo set followed by a hootenanny featuring all three singing together.

Franz Nicolay January 2011 UK Tour
Friday 7 London The Gaff, Holloway
Sunday 9 Hull The New Adelphi
Monday 10 Derby The Vaults
Tuesday 11 Bristol The Croft
Wednesday 12 Liverpool The Sink
Thursday 13 Manchester Tiger Lounge
Friday 14 Edinburgh Bannerman's
Saturday 15 Leeds The Packhorse
Sunday 16 London The Windmill, Brixton
Monday 17 Brighton Prince Albert

FRANZ NICOLAY was a member of Brooklyn rockers The Hold Steady until his departure at the end of 2009, and punk orchestra World/Inferno Friendship Society. In 2009, he released his solo debut Major General (link – home of Richmond Fontaine, Mark Eitzel, Chuck Prophet). He recorded Luck & Courage in Brooklyn over two weeks during spring 2010, with producer Jim Keller (Willie Nelson, Franz Ferdinand) and spent the past summer as a touring member of agit-punk band Against Me!

Of Luck And Courage, Q magazine said: Sprawling but fleet-footed…its execution is beguiling” and the album was awarded 5/5 Album of the Month status by themusiccritic.co.uk: “Luck and Courage is a masterclass in instrumentation, arrangements and poetic musings… [It] is a work of grand proportions that deserves to be heard. This is Nicolay's Sgt. Pepper.”

Nicolay has been hailed as a charismatic “born performer”, “a storyteller and entertainer in the cabaret and vaudevillian tradition”. From the stoic pathos of 'This Is Not A Pipe' and the small-town grotesque of 'My Criminal Uncle' to the ferocious noir of 'Have Mercy' and the tender marriage ballad 'The Last Words of Gene Autry', Luck & Courage marks his arrival as an aphoristic and heart-wrenching songwriter to be reckoned with.