Sam Russo unveils new single, announces UK album release shows

Sam Russo has just shared a brand-new single and video, Gator Lodge.

The track is taken from his forthcoming album Hold You Hard, which is due out on August 8. The musician promises that it will “take you to some of the places my music has taken me”, having written it “with my feet in the sand in California, walking around gravestones in Chicago, lost in a Washington State casino, and sweating through some long Florida nights”.

Sam continues: “I brought all that back to a Suffolk industrial estate to make a record that celebrates feeling and living in the moment, no matter how painful those moments can be. It’s full band, it’s acoustic, it’s all heart. It’s a record that covers a lot of ground emotionally, and it took everything I’ve got to get it out. These are the best songs I’ve ever written, and I got to record them with some of the best musicians I know. I’ve never been more excited to put out a record.”

To get excited about what’s to come, check out the new video for Gator Lodge below, which Sam explains is about a “motel in Gainesville that has a little piece of my heart”.

“Being there, wanting to stop time. I wrote the lyrics on the curb of Gator Beverage at sunset, right in the middle of The Fest, and finished the music next to a steel galvanising plant on an industrial estate in Haverhill. That kinda sums up the whole record. We shot the video at our practice space with a ‘borrowed’ projector. See how many gators you can count.”

Catch him live at the following next month:

Sam Russo UK album release shows

August

8 Bristol Specialist Subject Records
29 London Signature Brew
30 Manchester The Rat and Pigeon

“I can’t wait to celebrate release day at Specialist Subject in Bristol,” Sam enthuses, “and we’re going big with our full band release shows with the help of our friends in London and Manchester.”

Read this next:

• Split Chain: “Life is not easy and never will be – this album is a depiction of all that shit”
• Jools are the delightfully surprising new band you need to know
• “It ain’t about the machine that’s behind you, it’s about how long you can stay in the ring”: How Skindred and Those Damn Crows played the long game and won