Frank Turner has announced details of his forthcoming release. No Man’s Land will be released on August 16th via Xtra Mile Recordings/Polydor Records. Frank worked with With producer Catherine Marks (St. Vincent, Local Natives) at the helm and featuring a dynamic cast of all-female musicians. The album dedicated to telling the fascinating stories of women whose incredible lives have all too often been overlooked. “These stories should have been told already,” says Turner of the album and its accompanying podcast series, “Tales From No Man’s Land” which launches its first episode today. “And I suspect if they were men they would be better known.”

The women featured on the album’s 13 tracks come from across wide geographical and historical lines. There’s Byzantine princess Kassiani (The Hymn of Kassiani), Egyptian feminist activist Huda Sha’arawi (The Lioness), and Resusci Anne (Rescue Annie), an apocryphal drowned virgin whose face was used as the model for the medical CPR mannequin across the world (“You can’t not write a song about a woman who died never having been kissed and then became the most kissed face in history,” reasons Turner). There’s the serial killer from the Deep South who plucked her victims from lonely hearts pages (Nannie Doss), the jazz-obsessed heiress who fought for the Free French (Nica Rothschild), a rowdy coach house landlady from 17th century Camden Town accused of witchcraft (Jinny Bigham), the Wild West vaudeville star shot by a smalltown outlaw (Dora Hand). These are just a few of the fascinating characters who feature on No Man’s Land and have long been ignored by the mainstream.

“It’s bringing together my two main interests in life, which have always been separate from each other – history and songwriting,” explains Turner, who can be found seeking out long-forgotten historical sites on self-guided psychogeographical strolls when he’s not packing out arenas or headlining festivals.

First single ‘Sister Rosetta’ is about the unparalleled Sister Rosetta Tharpe, one of the most important and influential musicians in American History. On it you can hear guitar breaks lifted from Tharpe’s own back catalogue. “Which I found challenging, because she’s a way better guitar player than me,” admits Turner.

“It’s not telling anyone what to do or how to live or how to be,” he explains, prepared for a variety of different reactions to the project, including those who might be wondering if it’s really his place to be singing songs of disenfranchised women. “If there was a crowded field of people writing songs about Princess Kassiani then I would see the argument for me bowing out, but there isn’t,” he states. “No-one else is writing these songs right now. That’s why I want to share these stories.”

Frank Turner
No Man’s Land
(Xtra Mile Recordings/Polydor Records)
Tracklisting

1. Jinny Bingham’s Ghost
2. Sister Rosetta
3. I Believed You, William Blake
4. Nica
5. A Perfect Wife
6. Silent Key
7. Eye of the Day
8. The Death of Dora Hand
9. The Graveyard of the Outcast Dead
10. The Lioness
11. The Hymn of Kassiani
12. Rescue Annie
13. Rosemary Jane

Frank Turner
Live

JULY
4th Coventry Empire (Solo Show Benefit for Wayout Arts)
5th Ashton Hall, Lancaster (Solo Show Benefit for Morecambe Food Bank)
6th & 7th King Tuts, Glasgow (Solo Show)
11th2000 Trees Festival, Cheltenham
12th Wasteland Festival, Newcastle
14th Folk By The Oak Festival, Hatfield

AUGUST
3rd Wickham Festival, Fareham
4th Tunes in the Castle, Exeter
9th Cropredy Festival, Cropredy
22nd Cottingham Folk Festival (Solo Show)
25th Greenbelt Festival, Kettering