Withered HandWithered Hand; the musical project of Edinburgh-based visual artist Dan Willson.

After playing in various bands throughout his teens, guitarist and artist Dan Willson was a principal member of four-piece Edinburgh indie band Barrichello from their inception in 1999. Barrichello released three EPs, the first self-released and the following two on Edinburgh label SL Records. The band enjoyed a measure of success, touring Scotland and the UK including a 10 date UK tour, culminating in a London show with fellow Edinburgh band Ballboy. They were awarded single of the week in The List and the last two EPs received radio play across Scotland and also on BBC Radio 1's John Peel show. The band split amicably in 2002 citing musical differences.

In 2003, Dan teamed up with childhood friend Neil Sylvester and Caroline Evans to form art-rock outfit Peanut, where Dan was able began to give his own idiosyncratic voice free reign through his song writing and accompanying drawings. They build up a loyal live following in Edinburgh, across Scotland and in London and fostered connections with bands from the New York 'anti-folk' scene, being asked to support Schwervon! and Major Matt Mason USA on live dates in Scotland. Peanut shared bills with, amongst others, The Rezillos, Uncle John and Whitelock and Hawk and a Hacksaw and played the London Antifolk Summer Festival in Islington in August 2005. Both Neil and Caroline’s external commitments and the arrival of Dan’s first child meant the band were unable to record more than demos for a projected album and they eventually went on hiatus in 2005.

..the ghosts invoked are those of the Yummy Fur – spiky angular guitar work, with some grinding Fall-like guitar lines and wobbly vocals and shouty choruses, often bassless and augmented by tinpot drumming. A triumph of invention over ability. live review of Peanut, Is This Music? Magazine June 2005

Continuing to draw strength from the example of the DIY music community in New York, Dan continued working on solo material after Peanut’s demise and in 2006 debuted this more introverted and increasingly autobiographical material as a solo singer/songwriter, under the stagename Withered Hand. He quickly became a sought-after solo performer and part of a resurgence in loosely folk-based contemporary pop music in Scotland, playing shows with the likes of Frightened Rabbit, Found, Woodpigeon (Canada) and Eagleowl, as well as touring Sweden with Swedish musician Sebastian Fors. As his live set developed he began to recruit musician friends to collaborate on and embellish songs, meaning a Withered Hand performance or recording can often incorporate such luminaries of the Edinburgh alternative music scene as Neil Pennycook and Chris Bryant (Meursault), acclaimed Edinburgh drummer Alun Thomas (St Judes Infirmary, Paul Vickers and The Leg, Ballboy), cellist Hannah Shepherd, Bart Owl (Eagleowl, The Second Hand Marching Band and others) and folk singer Jo Foster (Fence Collective).

I got to play a show in Edinburgh, Scotland this year with withered hand and Jo Foster and that show was really great, I had never heard either of them before. Just really really beautiful singing and/or storytelling lyrics from people who are not out there touring all of the time, so they seem really fresh and wholly involved in the spirit of it. Kyle Field (aka Little Wings) indiejudas.com

Initially experimenting with recording alone in a rudimentary home studio, Dan released some early Withered Hand demos via the internet. Versions of some of these songs went on to form the basis of his first EP,‘Religious Songs’, released jointly on DIY imprint Bear Scotland and SL Records in summer 2008. The EP received rave reviews from the internet music blogging community around the world and the support of radio stations and press across Scotland and the UK, including being profiled on BBC Radio Scotland’s ‘BBC Introducing’ podcast for new Scottish music and aired on terrestrial radio in Paris, France.

...the title track from Withered Hand's new EP (released on new label Bear Scotland) combines themes of faith, doubt, sex and inexplicably uncomfortable furniture without blinking an eye. A key member of the delightful but short-lived anti-folk outfit The Love Gestures, he's also recently played at the Fence Collective's Homegame Festival in Anstruther and at a special Scottish Hobo Society event as part of the (sob) last ever Triptych. Milo McLaughlin, The Skinny, May 08

A long time coming, Withered Hand’s Religious Songs makes a case for Willson as one of Scotland’s finest exports. Fast Forward Weekly (Canada) 22 May 08

Religious Songs is an intense, eccentric, bittersweet and very wry ep. Unsteady guitars, wounded sentiment and tipsy violins reveal an emotional screw-up with a strong-enough hold on reality to channel the bitter and the sweet in equal measure....Keep an eye on Withered Hand because on the basis of this very strong debut there’s a good chance that one day Dan will make a clock-stopping album to file next to Moving Up Country, American Water or Farewell Sorrow. Fireescapetalking.blogspot.com, June 08

How can you expect to be happy, when you listen to death metal bands?' beseeches Edinburgh versifier and DIY renaissance man Dan Willson, aka the fantastical Withered Hand, on his recent Religious Songs EP. It's a scratchy, grassroots unification of alt-pop, skewed folk and punk intention, released on heroic local imprint Bear Scotland: a bedroom enterprise so audacious it has its own (excellent) coat of arms. tennentsmutual.com, September 08

Withered Hand continues to develop an impressive live following, increasingly playing on bills with similar left-field artists of international standing, such as Americans Little Wings and Calvin Johnson of Beat Happening fame (K records), Major Matt Mason USA (olive juice music), Jeff Lewis (Rough Trade) and Scotsman Malcolm Middleton. After a barnstorming performance at last years Fence Collectives Home Game Festival in Fife he's been asked back to perform alongside the likes of King Creosote and James Yorkston and was a headline show at the last ever Triptych festival in Edinburgh and played at the inaugural Tennents Mutual festival in Stirling. Dan is also an active and supportive member of the Edinburgh DIY music community, through his involvement in the imprint Bear Scotland and his activity as occasional promoter to being one of the key figures (and poster artist) behind Edinburgh’s Retreat music festival.

...wannabe religious cult leader Withered Hand, who told The Skinny exactly why being involved was a complete no-brainer: "The local underground music scene generally disappears off the map when the Festival rolls around and that's a shame when it’s been so vibrant recently. Edinburgh is much more than a pretty backdrop to the latest "hilarious" review show or world class opera. I think that can be overlooked unless the communities that already exist here poke their little heads up and make themselves known while the festival visitors are still here." Amen to that. The Skinny, August 08

Raging eccentric Withered Hand – a fantastically flaky, tiny-voiced Edinburgh strummer reminiscent of alt-folk loon Daniel Johnston – made for a somehow fitting finale. His set climaxed with the spectacle of a low-slung banjo being raked with a violin bow, Jimmy Page-style, in a kind of elemental fusion of folk, punk and hard rock. If Homegame can continue to survive just so that happens once more every year, the world will surely be a better place for it. The Scotsman 31 March 08

After being awarded funding from the Scottish Arts Council at the end of 2008, Withered Hand embarked on recording a début album, with acclaimed US Producer and long-term admirer Kramer (Bongwater, Shimmy Disc, Low, Galaxie 500 etc) The finished album is scheduled to be released on SL Records in September 2009.

Having completed the album sessions and toured the highlands playing solo shows throughout early March, Dan returned to record a new EP with Fence Collective supremo King Creosote over the course of two days in the AIA Hall, Anstruther, Fife. This EP, titled 'You're Not Alone', will be the first joint Fence/SL release and will be released at the Fence Collective's Homegame Festival in April, where Withered Hand is making a hotly anticipated full-band appearance before heading out to Europe in May to play solo dates in Berlin, Paris, London and Amsterdam.

Epic anti-folk vs skewed pop, Withered Hand are a must-see LIMBO Feb 2009

In the world of Withered Hand, music is not just a performance, but a way to communicate with friends as well as a crowd. The Skinny, New Blood feature March 2009

Aside from his career as an acclaimed songwriter and musician, Dan is also a celebrated artist, having had his graphic work exhibited nationally and internationally, commissioned by Artist Newsletter and Swedish magazine Stardust, and featured in an exhibition with cult musician Daniel Johnston. Dan recently performed a Withered Hand acoustic set at The Edinburgh Art Festival’s Artlate event at the Collective Gallery, where his work was also represented in the exhibition. He continues to develop his practice as a visual artist alongside his songwriting, designing the artwork for his releases and many of the posters and flyers for his live shows.

Last updated in March 2009

• 

  Withered Hand

  Good News

  Album

  Download Now Buy CD more info

  On this impressive debut Dan Willson’s alter ego attains the celestial lustre of that holy grail of lapsed evangelical folk nouveau, the first Palace Brothers album. Ben Thompson, Mojo

  Tracklisting:

  1. 1 - Providence
  2. 2 - Cornflake
  3. 3 - Love In The Time Of Ecstacy
  4. 4 - Joy
  5. 5 - New Dawn
  6. 6 - Religious Songs
  7. 7 - No Cigarettes
  8. 8 - I Am Nothing
  9. 9 - Hard On
  10. 10 - For The Maudlin
• 

  Withered Hand

  You're Not Alone

  EP

  Download Now Buy CD Listen more info

  Gorgeous, and a must for modern folk fans The Skinny

  Tracklisting:

  1. 1 - No Cigarettes
  2. 2 - Oldsmobile Car
  3. 3 - Big Ten Four (Paul's Song)
  4. 4 - R U Courageous
• 

  Withered Hand

  Religious Songs

  EP

  Download Now Buy CD Listen

  You know how some people, especially old-fashioned people, hang their carpets on clotheslines and then beat all the dust out of them? Or how some people knock their snowy boots against the side of the car before getting in? Here's Edinburgh's Withered Hand using mandolin, guitar, cello and his voice to shake all the dust from him, all the stray feelings, all the loose longings; so that at end of song he'll be just a body and the light in his eyes. It's a song beautiful and full. Said the Gramaphone

  Tracklisting:

  1. 1 - Religious Songs
  2. 2 - New Dawn
  3. 3 - Takeaway Food
  4. 4 - I Am Nothing

• Thursday 1st April

  Slaughtered Lamb, London

  Electroacoustic Club present King Creosote and His One Man Band plus Withered Hand

  Doors 7:30 £12.50 adv

  More info Electroacoustic Club Website

• Monday 5th April

  with Benni Hemm Hemm

  Bibelot, DORDRECHT

• Tuesday 6th April

  with Benni Hemm Hemm

  Cafe Video, GHENT

• Wednesday 7th April

  with Benni Hemm Hemm

  D:qliq, LUXEMBOURG

• Thursday 9th - Saturday 10th April

  with Benni Hemm Hemm

  Motel Mozaique Festival, ROTTERDAM

• Sunday 11th April

  with Benni Hemm Hemm

  Cafe Mokka, THUN

• Monday 12th April

  with Benni Hemm Hemm

  Sonderbar, FELDKIRCH

• Tuesday 13th April

  with Benni Hemm Hemm

  Scherbe, GRAZ

• Wednesday 14th April

  with Benni Hemm Hemm

  Chelsea, VIENNA

• Friday 16th April

  with Benni Hemm Hemm

  E-werk, ERLANGEN

• Saturday 17th April

  with Benni Hemm Hemm

  Glashaus, BERLIN

• Sunday 18th April

  with Benni Hemm Hemm

  Hafenklang, HAMBURG

• Sunday 19th April

  with Benni Hemm Hemm

  Kulturbunker, COLOGNE

• Thursday 6th May

  Eat Your Own Ears presents

  Woodpigeon, Laura Gibson and Withered Hand

  Union Chapel, London

  Doors 7:30 £11 adv

  More info Eat Your Own Ears website

• Tuesday 17th August

  The Edge

  Withered Hand

  Electric Circus, Edinburgh

• Thursday 19th August

  BBC 6 Music

  Withered Hand live session on Marc Riley

• Friday 20th August

  Fence Records' Haarfest

  FOUND, Withered Hand and Meursault

  Cellardyke Town Hall

• Saturday 28th August - Sunday 29th August

  Pilrig St. Paul's,Leith Walk, Edinburgh

  RETREAT! III festival

  Saturday 28th August: eagleowl - 7VWWVW - Wounded Knee - Skeleton Bob - FOUND - Jesus h. Foxx - Withered Hand - Enfant Bastard

  Sunday 29th August: Benni Hemm Hemm - Conquering Animal Sound - The Wee Rogue - Rob St John - The Douglas Firs - Milk - Meursault - The Leg

  plus film screenings, record stalls, book stalls, and food!

  Music: 2.30pm – 11pm

  plus free download featuring all the bands playing at www.retreatfestival.co.uk

Last updated 11 August 2010