Dan Whitehouse ONLY LOVE album launch BIRMINGHAM w/ special guests

Award-winning singer-songwriter Dan Whitehouse returns to the UK stage this June with a run of intimate shows previewing and launching his forthcoming album Only Love.

Dividing his time between Tokyo and Wolverhampton, Dan Whitehouse has developed a reputation for moving, genre-defying work straddling song, story and soundscape. “I write folk songs, but not folk music,” he says, and his live performances reflect that eclectic spirit, whether he’s sat behind a piano, strapped to a guitar, or joined by long-time collaborator and multi-instrumentalist Gustaf Ljunggren. Dan’s expressive and delicately nuanced vocals mine a deep, rich seam of emotions and ideas.

These June dates offer an early glimpse into Only Love, a new body of work for piano and voice, created in collaboration with celebrated pianist David O'Brien who joins Dan for the tour finale and official album launch in Birmingham. Only Love, the album, looks unflinchingly at fatherhood, distance and the harsh emotional realities of a life lived in between continents.

Whitehouse’s young son lives in Japan, while his work remains in the UK. A 90-day visa shapes the rhythm of their relationship – arrival, connection, agonizing departure. Those fleeting, intense moments form the white-hot emotional core of this new album. Alongside new material, the performances will draw from Whitehouse’s wider catalogue, including The Glass Age and Voices From The Cones, making for an audience experience that is profound.

Gustaf Ljunggren is a Swedish multi-instrumentalist and composer.

Jasmine Gardosi is the former Birmingham Poet Laureate 2022-24. They are a multiple slam champion, beatboxer, and Honorary Doctor of Letters (Birmingham Newman University). They are a winner of the Out-Spoken Prize for Poetry and winner of the Saboteur Award for Best Spoken Word Performer.

Their work exploring identity, LGBTQ+ issues and mental health has appeared on Button Poetry, at the Tate Modern, Glastonbury Festival and across BBC Radio, including BBC Radio 3's The Verb, Radio 4 and BBC Asian Network. They were featured on Sky Arts' BAFTA-winning show Life & Rhymes alongside Benjamin Zephaniah, and their poem about the pandemic, filmed on a rollercoaster, was broadcast across America on PBS after going viral on Twitter. Their performance with the BBC Symphony Orchestra at Symphony Hall was broadcast on BBC Four and can be watched here.

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A two-time recipient of an Honorable Mention for Outstanding International Entry in the Button Poetry video contest, their work has been featured on their channel to tens of thousands around the world. Their video-poem about trans voices, 'Say It Anyway', was commissioned by the Brontë Parsonage Museum as their Writer In Residence to mark the bicentenary of Anne Brontë, and was featured at Flatpack Festival.

They are a previous BBC Arts Young Creative and Poet in Residence for the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. They were invited by the British Embassy in Tallinn to headline Estonia's historical, first-ever queer poetry slam.