Adelaide Country Duo Hana & Jessie-Lee Announce Full Band Tour In Honour Of Debut Album

Americana/alt-country-peddlin' Adelaidians Hana & Jessie-Lee are on the cusp of releasing their debut album, Southlands and, to celebrate, they're setting off for a rare full-band tour in support of the release this April and May.

Getting under way at Melbourne's Old Bar on Saturday 22 April, the tour will see the accomplished musos bringing along a line-up of backing instrumentalists to form Hana & Jessie-Lee's Bad Habits to stages in San Remo, Sydney, Old Bar and Newcastle.

The band departs the tour for the shows in Queensland — Nambour and Brisbane — before rejoining the fray for Mt Gambier, Penola and Adelaide, where they wrap up with a home-town show on Sunday 21 May at The Wheatsheaf Hotel.

In the wake of January's gorgeous single Maryses, Hana & Jessie-Lee will usher Southlands into the world the day before they hit the road, on Friday 21 April, and promise that the wider 10-track album boasts more than a few tricks up its sleeve to excite the ears when it does finally land, Hana explaining in a statement: "I think people are going to be a bit surprised with the change of direction from our previous single."

The album was recorded at Melbourne's Secret Location Sound, and was produced by Nick Finch (Graveyard Train), mixed by Matt Chow and mastered by Nao Anzai. Despite the physical distance between the musos and producer Finch, he was a key part of the album's overall shape, Hana said.

“[The album] started as a rough idea and very quickly became a moving machine with nearly all songs written in the space of six months and 725 kilometres between us, channelling my love of old country, alt-country and soul through Nick Finch's arrangement ideas as well as his skills in song craft and lyrics," she said.

"The moment we realised we had something special, though, was when a gang of our favourite leading lady soul singers from Melbourne — Anna Lienhop, Zoe K, Kate Alexander, Katie Scott, Kat Mear — came into the studio to lay down some gospel backing vocals around a single mic. They nailed it so quickly we ended up getting them on four of the tracks."

The album was pressed onto orange 180-gram vinyl; pre-orders are available now, and the first 10 get a super-special orange-and-mystery-colour mixed edition along with a free sticker and poster designed by Tommy Doom of Mimsy's Trailer Trash Tattoo in Brisbane.

For a full rundown of dates, venues and other details about the Southlands tour, see theGuide.