Andy Shauf has announced the first dates of an upcoming US tour beginning February 6th in Seattle, WA. The tour will take him down the west coast through February 14th in San Francisco, CA. The Regina, Saskatchewan singer/songwriter is also confirmed for the SXSW Music Festival in Austin, TX in March. A current itinerary is below.

The tour will come on the heels of Shauf’s new album The Bearer Of Bad News, which will see a wide release on February 3rd, 2015 via a partnership between Tender Loving Empire and Party Damage Records . A first taste of the album, “I’m Not Falling Asleep,” debuted online last month and a second track, “Hometown Hero,” can also now be streamed below.

There’s an innate stillness and depth to Shauf and his music – a quiet, riveting strength that subtly steals its way into a listener’s bones. He’s a storyteller: a singer of heartbreak and regrets, isolation and loneliness, small-town heroes and smaller-town killers. Throughout The Bearer of Bad News, Shauf studies the universal through two to five-minute microcosms, spinning tales as few others can where accidental, redemptive victories (the jaunty charmer “Hometown Hero”) stir alongside evocative, heartrending tales of self-doubt and lost loves (“I’m Not Falling Asleep,” the achingly “Covered In Dust,” “You’re Out Wasting”). There’s not one, but three cinematic murder ballads that slowly unfold like the greatest of tragedies: “Wendell Walker,” an epic account of adultery and betrayal, as well as “Jerry Was A Clerk” and “My Dear Helen,” sister songs that tell two sides of one unintended death. Shauf’s tender, singular tenor guides the way over muted instrumentation of softly-strummed guitars, dampened drums, weathered piano, and clarinet, which lends its unique timbre to frequently brighten – or hauntingly underscore – the songs’ darker undercurrents.

Written over four years, and recorded throughout one in a makeshift studio set up in his parent’s basement, Shauf plays nearly every instrument on The Bearer of Bad News. The album was crafted on his grandfather’s timeworn guitar and heavily influenced by the aforementioned – and newly learned – clarinet, which was a Christmas gift from family.

Andy Shauf tour dates:

JAN. 23 FREDERICTON, NB SHIVERING SONGS FESTIVAL
JAN. 24 HALIFAX, NS IN THE DEAD OF WINTER FESTIVAL
JAN. 28 WINNIPEG, MB BIG FUN FESTIVAL
JAN. 30 CALGARY, AB FESTIVAL HALL*
JAN. 31 EDMONTON, AB MERCURY ROOM*
FEB. 4 VICTORIA, BC UPSTAIRS CABARET*
FEB. 5 VANCOUVER, BC FOX CABARET*
FEB. 6 SEATTLE, WA SEATTLE SECRET SHOWS
FEB. 8 PORTLAND, OR MISSISSIPPI STUDIOS
FEB. 11 LOS ANGELES, CA HOTEL CAFE
FEB. 14 SAN FRANCISCO, CA AMNESIA (early show)
FEB. 19 SASKATOON, SK THE REFINERY*
FEB. 20 REGINA, SK THE ARTESIAN*
MAR. 17-22 AUSTIN, TX SXSW
MAY 29 OTTAWA, ON NATIONAL ARTS CENTRE
* with Marine Dreams