Hovvdy Announce ‘Big World,’ Share “Try Try Try” and a Long Run of Tour Dates

Hovvdy’s new album, Big World, arrives in the wake of a real step up for the duo. After the sprawling, self-titled double record that landed among 2024’s best albums, Charlie Martin and Will Taylor are back with something they say is meant to feel leaner, sharper, and a little more direct. That shift matters for a band that has spent years building patiently from Austin and, more recently, from Nashville, where both musicians are now based.

Since that last album, the pair have stayed busy in ways that suggest Hovvdy’s world has widened without getting less personal. They worked with runo plum, while Martin appeared on Teethe’s well-regarded Magic Of The Sale. They’re also only just beginning to test out careers writing for other artists, and that outside work seems to have fed back into the way Big World was made. Recorded between Nashville and Asheville with longtime collaborator Ben Littlejohn producing, the album was built from instrumentals the duo had already demoed fully, while the lyrics were left open until they got to the studio. It is a small but telling break from habit, one that suggests a band trying to keep its own process from settling into routine.

Martin framed the new record in especially clear terms in a press release, contrasting it with the openness of the last one.

“The last record felt like such a generous offering: a double-album, deeply personal, you can literally hear me crying on some songs. With this one, we wanted to take on the challenge of making something more concise and to the point, and give the fans something that feels like a shorter but more exciting ride.”

The lead single, “Try Try Try,” makes that intent easy to hear even before you get to the full tracklist. It moves with a tight, propulsive power-pop churn, though Hovvdy leave the vocal edge looser and less polished, with Martin and Taylor’s voices sitting in that familiar space between drawl and distortion. The Michael Rees-directed video keeps things low-key, with the band and friends playing through the song in a basement, a setting that matches the song’s rougher, less formal energy.

Along with the album announcement, Hovvdy also mapped out a long stretch of live dates, including support slots for Wilco and Bleachers. The schedule takes them across the U.S. and Europe, from Boston and Philadelphia to Amsterdam, London, Antwerp, and Green Man, before a dense fall run that reaches from Omaha and Seattle to Austin, New York, Toronto, Chicago, and two nights in Nashville. It is the sort of routing that makes clear how far the band’s profile has traveled without changing the basic shape of the project: two songwriters, a room, and a steady sense of accumulation.

Big World is out 8/14 on Arts & Crafts. Pre-order it here.

TRACKLIST:

01 “Life So Wide”
02 “Way Down”
03 “JJ”
04 “What I Had”
05 “Blast”
06 “Starry”
07 “Try Try Try”
08 “Junk”
09 “You Will Go Far”
10 “Give It Away”
11 “Untitled”
12 “Wannabe (Radio Queen)”

TOUR DATES:

6/12 – Columbia, MD @ Merriweather Post Pavilion *
6/13 – Philadelphia, PA @ TD Pavilion at Highmark Mann *
6/16 – Boston, MA @ MGM Music Hall at Fenway *
6/17 – Boston, MA @ MGM Music Hall at Fenway *
8/17 – Nijmegen, Netherlands @ De Vereeniging ^
8/18 – Amsterdam, Netherlands @ Paradiso ^
8/20 – London, UK @ Eventim Apollo ^
8/21 – Crickhowell, UK @ Green Man Festival
8/22 – Glasgow, UK @ Glasgow Royal Concert Hall ^
8/25 – Antwerp, Belgium @ OLT Rivierenhof ^
8/26 – Antwerp, Belgium @ OLT Rivierenhof ^
10/10 – Omaha, NE @ Reverb Lounge
10/11 – Denver, CO @ Globe Hall
10/12 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Metro Music Hall
10/14 – Seattle, WA @ Neumos
10/15 – Vancouver, BC @ Hollywood Theatre
10/16 – Portland, OR @ Aladdin Theater
10/18 – Sacramento, CA @ Harlow’s
10/19 – San Francisco, CA @ The Chapel
10/20 – Los Angeles, CA @ Sid The Cat Auditorium
10/22 – San Diego, CA @ Quartyard
10/23 – Phoenix, AZ @ Valley Bar
10/25 – Ft Worth, TX @ Tulips FTW
10/26 – Austin, TX @ Mohawk
11/04 – New York, NY @ Webster Hall
11/05 – Hamden, CT @ Space Ballroom
11/07 – Northampton, MA @ The Iron Horse
11/09 – Toronto, ON @ Horseshoe Tavern
11/11 – Chicago, IL @ Thalia Hall
11/12 – Minneapolis, MN @ Fine Line
11/13 – Milwaukee, WI @ Vivarium
11/14 – Detroit, MI @ El Club
11/16 – Lakewood, OH @ Mahall’s
11/18 – Charlotte, NC @ Amos’ Southend
11/19 – Atlanta, GA @ Masquerade – Hell
11/20 – Nashville, TN @ The Blue Room
11/21 – Nashville, TN @ The Blue Room