Delaney Davidson and Barry Saunders Announce 'Happiness Is Near' Album Release Tour + Unveil Single 'Man Of Few Words'

Exemplars of Aotearoa songwriting magnificence, Lyttelton's multi-award winning Delaney Davidson and Barry Saunders, iconic frontman of The Warratahs, have announced the long-awaited follow-up to 2019's collaborative album Word Gets Around. Like a shining beacon to guide us through the winter gloom, Happiness Is Near will be out in full on 27th September (on vinyl LP, compact disc and digitally available for preorder HERE), with an accompanying release tour taking the Canterbury luminaries to a variety of cosy halls and venues this spring — playing headline shows together at Leigh Sawmill Café in Õmaha, Frieda Margolis in Tāmaki Makaurau, Te Whanganui-a-Tara's Suite Gallery, and a run of Hawkes Bay Small Halls Sessions. Word Gets Around was a knockout release, earning the duo the 2020 Tūī award for NZ's Best Country Artist.

Filmed and edited by Davidson in his home studio, the video for the pair's pointed new single 'Man Of Few Words' presents a gently flickering, haunting series of portraits gazing back at the viewer — "A hundred thousand or more, with nothing to say in the face of it all. Shell shocked, resigned, staring out from an interior of watching it all pass by". Do not miss these real deal legends showing us how it's done from late September onwards, plus note: capacity is strictly limited so take action pronto...

"As the album began to stack up we looked for the balance. Just chucking the songs down. Loose as. Barry playing most of the lead guitar, pulling in some strange greek psychedelic spirit. It was made in the living room. This was a quieter collection. More folky. Just two guys with their guitars and their songs.". — Delaney Davidson

"It’s been great working together we both have a love and a view of the world , some of which makes its way into the music, our conversations are as much about family, recipes, films and the way of the world, but music is at the centre of it.". — Barry Saunders

Delaney Davidson And Barry Saunders - Happiness Is Near Tour

Friday 27th September - Hawkes Bay Small Halls Sessions*
Saturday 28th September - Hawkes Bay Small Halls Sessions*
Sunday 29th September - Hawkes Bay Small Halls Sessions*
Saturday 12th October - Leigh Sawmill Cafe, Õmaha / Leigh
Sunday 13th October - Freida Margolis, Tāmaki Makaurau / Auckland
Monday 14th October - Freida Margolis, Tāmaki Makaurau / Auckland
Tuesday 22nd October - Suite Gallery, Te Whanganui-a-Tara / Wellington
Wednesday 23rd October - Suite Gallery, Te Whanganui-a-Tara / Wellington

Auckland, Wellington and Leigh tickets on sale HERE via UTR
*Hawkes Bay tickets available at www.delaneydavidson.com

Experience Davidson and Saunders' new single 'Man Of Few Words' from Happiness Is Near...

Hit play on Delaney Davidson and Barry Saunders' 'Out Of Our Hands' from 2019's Word Gets Around...

Press release:

Barry saw it written on a wall late one night on Russian TV, behind a reporter broadcasting from Odessa. Happiness Is Near became the thread running through this next collection of songs.

When the world is taking huge steps, and we are sitting in uncertain times, waiting and watching can feel like losing momentum. Like fear and like doubt. This album is a reminder to move, to think and to act.There are still shadows in the trees, and there are still big clouds up ahead, but there is also something friendly waiting for you out there. Still possibility. Still an adventure to be had.

The movement of the road will bring joy, challenge, despair, hope, meditation, solace, and triumph. But mainly it will bring momentum. And movement is life. In the middle of isolation and loss, from looking back, it’s easy to forget there are good times just around the corner!

Barry, “ I can’t work out if the world is changing or I am just standing still? In some ways the more things change the more they stay the same, I think people’s needs are the same, you can have the world you want, don’t have to join anyone’s circus.”

Some songs were the result of our work together and some had come to us solo. They were looser songs, less band, more reflective, more folky. Like we were looking into a void to see what the shapes were that made up this vacuum we felt connected us.

Delaney, “As the album began to stack up we looked for the balance. Just chucking the songs down. Loose as. Barry playing most of the lead guitar, pulling in some strange greek psychedelic spirit. It was made in the living room. This was a quieter collection. More folky. Just two guys with their guitars and their songs."

Barry, “it’s been great working together we both have a love and a view of the world , some of which makes its way into the music, our conversations are as much about family, recipes, films and the way of the world, but music is at the centre of it.”

Barry’s childhood in the plains and rivers of Selwyn, singing together at my dads funeral, giving Barry a guitar strap with Long Gone Daddy stitched into it symbolising both our dads. late am TV broadcasts from faraway countries, a midnight drive together through the farmlands of Wairarapa his concern for people growing top today, for his two kids, our musings on outsider life, falling firework sparks slowly fading through the air into some deep blue river, songs written in dreams, a tattoo of a song bird, industrialism, capitalism, mad evil people steering the world into the ditch, blind greed, a doomsday fireball, flowers and children.

Our partnership has become deeper and at the same time more distant. Less time together and more care. It’s always amazing to see what comes from Barry and his world of green black windbreaks and burning white sun, magpies, pale grass and fresh crisp blue mornings, it always feels like home somehow.