Penny and Sparrow share “Voodoo,” the latest single off the band’s forthcoming album Olly Olly, which releases January 21 via Thirty Tigers. With spare vocals over an impressionistic acoustic arrangement, “Voodoo” offers a mesmerizing reimagination of The Beatitudes as an ode to sexual empowerment. The song was recently featured on Apple Music’s Record Bin Radio with Kelly McCartney.
Listen to “Voodoo” via YouTube HERE.
Pre-order Olly Olly HERE.
“Voodoo is a sex parable,” explains the duo of Andy Baxter and Kyle Jahnke. “It follows two lovers in a bedroom under a glow-in-the-dark-star-green ceiling. Somebody puts a D’angelo vinyl on and the listener is invited to remember, ponder, grapple with and/or celebrate the erotic right alongside the characters. Bonus fact: using Beatitudinal language to poetically describe a scene like this scene was immensely satisfying. It feels like reclamation.”
Penny and Sparrow have previously released four songs from their forthcoming album: “Need You,” “Alabama Haint,” “Gogogo” and “Adeline,” which Atwood Magazine called “Intimate and effervescent…a beautiful show of emotional radiance.”
Olly Olly marks the first time the pair has worked without an outside producer and recorded songs that completely forgo the use of acoustic instruments. The 12 songs that comprise the album were written during the last year, when the band found their calendar completely empty. The duo found themselves amidst a tumultuous period where Jahnke moved to Waco, TX and became intensely lonely in a new city he could not explore or build a community in, while Baxter was based in Florence, AL where he had just begun therapy for the first time.
“Andy and I talk about the process of making this record like a sort of musical Rumspringa,” Jahnke says. “It was an opportunity to truly become ourselves, to evolve outside of the roles we’d been put in—or put ourselves in—because of the way we’d grown up.”
“The idea of calling out to everyone in hiding to reveal themselves and be free just resonated with us on a fundamental level,” says Baxter about the central theme surrounding the album and its title Olly Olly. “In a sense, that’s what we’re doing with this album.”
Olly Olly follows Penny and Sparrow’s critically acclaimed 6th studio album Finch which debuted at #2 on the Billboard Heatseekers Chart and #4 on the Billboard Vinyl Album Sales Chart, and has since racked up more than 40 million streams. The album was praised by NPR Music, The Associated Press, No Depression, Paste and many more. NPR’s World Cafe called the album “a collection of new songs that showcase the duo's celestial harmonies, songs with stories that unfold like wild, vivid dreams,” while Atwood Magazine called it a “masterpiece.”
Penny and Sparrow World Tour Dates:
03/18: Birmingham, AL - Saturn *
03/19: Atlanta, GA - Variety Playhouse *
03/21: Bluffton, SC - Roasting Room *
03/22: Charlotte, NC - Neighborhood Theater *
03/24: Asheville, NC - Orange Peel *
03/25: Chattanooga, TN - Walker Theater *
03/26: Raleigh, NC - Cat’s Cradle *
03/27: Annapolis, MD - Ram’s Head *
03/29: Washington, DC - Union Stage
03/30: New York, NY - LPR
04/01: Boston, MA - Brighton Music Hall
04/02: Montreal, QC - Ritz ^
04/03: Toronto, ON - Adelaide Hall ^
04/05: Ann Arbor, MI - The Ark *
04/06: Chicago, IL - Lincoln Hall *
04/08: Minneapolis, MN - Cedar Cultural Center *
04/09: Kansas City, MO - recordBar *
04/10: St. Louis, MO - Old Rock House *
04/12: Louisville, KY - Headliners *
04/13: Cincinnati, OH - Ludlow Garage *
04/21: Florence, AL - Shoals Theater *
04/22: Nashville, TN - Basement East *
04/23: Knoxville, TN - Bijou Theater *
04/28: Houston, TX - Heights Theater *
04/29: Austin, TX - Paramount Theater *
04/30: Dallas, TX - Majestic Theater *
05/10: Phoenix, AZ - Crescent Ballroom *
05/11: San Diego, CA - Belly Up *
05/13: Los Angeles, CA - Regent Theater *
05/14: San Francisco, CA - Chapel Theater *
05/17: Portland, OR - Aladdin Theater *
05/18: Seattle, WA - Neumos *
05/20: Salt Lake City, UT - State Room *
05/21: Fort Collins, CO - The Armory *
05/22: Denver, CO - Gothic Theater
09/07: London, UK - Nell’s
09/08: Manchester, UK - Night & Day
09/09: Dublin, IE - Academy 2
09/10: Glasgow, UK - Attic Bar
09/14: Paris, FR - Les Estoiles
09/15: Amsterdam, NL - Melkweg
09/16: Cologne, DE - Theater der Wohngemeinschaft
09/17: Hamburg, DE - Haekken
09/19: Stockholm, SE - Nalen Klubb
09/21: Oslo, NO - Krøsset
09/22: Berlin, DE - Privetclub
09/23: Prague, CZ - Cafe V Lese
09/24: Vienna, AT - B72
09/25: Munich, DE - Heppel & Ettlich
09/28: Zurich, CH - Papiersaal
09/29: Stuttgart, DE - Club Cann
09/30: Milan, IT - Arci Bellezza
10/01: Frankfurt, DE - St. Peters Kirche
* - with Lera Lynn
^ - with Annika Bennett
Olly Olly Tracklist:
01) Adeline
02) Alabama Haint
03) Need You
04) Baking In The Summer
05) Cheyenne
06) Lacuna
07) Eden/Lia
08) Voodoo
09) Over-Under-Lude (feat. Tobe Nwigwe)
10) Gogogo
11) Innkeepers
12) Get Along
