Charles Esten announces his first ever solo tour around the UK, he is scheduled to kick off his six-date tour in Birmingham on the 15th of January 2019, and conclude in Gateshead on the 21st of January 2019. The actor and musician, known for his role as country singer Deacon Claybourne on the hit American TV show Nashville, will be joined by openers the Adelaides for January shows in Birmingham, London, Bristol, Manchester, Glasgow and Gateshead. Tickets are on sale at 9am on September 14.
Before Esten confirmed his solo UK tour, he headed to the UK on a farewell Nashville tour during which he spoke of hoping to return to the UK on a solo tour, he said: “That would be on the cards for me. If that doesn’t happen I would be shocked and saddened. I plan on making that happen in one form or another. I would love that. We’ve been Anglophiles, my wife and I, from the very beginning back when we lived there. It was just amazing to go back there. I’ve been able to go back there and do Whose Line Is It Anyway? and then I get to go back there with Nashville and reignite that love affair. I would love to do that. I’m virtually certain that will be happening before too long.”
This come after, the 51-year-old singer/song-writer, announced via Facebook in July 2016, that he was planning to release a single a week, “I was thinking I might make 22 songs, which would be the equivalent of two albums,” says Esten. Since then he has released a new single every single Friday under the #EverySingleFriday.
Speaking about the #EverySingleFriday, Esten, said: “I wanted to get my music out, so it suddenly occurred to me – put your music out,” he tells PEOPLE. “Don’t wait for somebody. Don’t wait for permission.” Through all the competing priorities, he says, the songs never became “the side thing and if I’m going to be honest, there were many times in the studio where I’d look at my watch and go, ‘Aw, jeez, I gotta go to work’ – like I was heading toward some coal mine! So I think that might speak to the place the project has in my heart and my life.”
Esten’s turnout is an astonishing array of differing musical styles, sounds and themes, all with a country vibe. Songs range from heartbreaking (“Dancing All Around It”) to frivolous (“I Love You, Beer”), from soulful (“Everything to Me”) to rockabilly (“I Love You (But I Don’t Like You)”), and from naughty (“A Lotta Shouldn’t Oughta”) to faith-filled (“Come to the Table”).
In the meantime, the project has allowed Esten to fully embrace his identity as a singer/songwriter, he adds, “Acting had the strong hand for so long,” he says. “EverySingleFriday is just putting things things back in balance to say that I’m both.”
15/01/2019 – Birmingham Town Hall – Birmingham
16/01 – London O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire – London
17/01 – St Georges – Bristol
19/01 – Manchester RNCM Concert Hall – Manchester
20/01 – Oran Mor – Glasgow
21/01 – Sage 2 – Gateshead
