Only to the most casual of music fans is the name Colin Hay not familiar. But once you mention his previous band Men at Work the penny drops. Men at Work may be a thing of the past but Hay very much continues his solo career and also tours with Ringo Starr & His All Starr Band. He released his latest album “Fierce Mercy” earlier this year and his tour promoting it is coming to the Pantages Theatre on 11/4. A few tickets are still available HERE
Recorded in both Los Angeles and Nashville and mixed by Vance Powell (Chris Stapleton, Jack White) and Gordon Hammond (Buddy Miller, Don Williams), Fierce Mercy explores themes of love and loss, mortality, and even the odd UFO sighting, but always with the singular perspective and insightful wit that define Hay’s work. He has created a new classic in his impressive repertoire (this is his 13th solo release), using a palette of pop songcraft, Americana flourishes, and soundtrack-ready strings. Fierce Mercy is animated by its pensive, honest, and impassioned lyrics, and, Hay adds, by a sense of urgency felt deeply in the song “The Last to Know,” which introduces the album’s title concept of “fierce mercy.”
“When you’re in your 20s, you think you’ve got all the time in the world,” Hay said. “You get older, and you go through a quickening. Everything seems to get faster.”
Using his gift for expressing struggle in a way that resonates with a wide variety of people, he compares this to the messages mankind is getting on a global level: “With the changing weather patterns, or the polar ice caps melting, we’re getting all of these warnings, and a lot of them are incredibly fierce. But they still feel somewhat merciful — they’re not destroying us totally. We’re all being told, ‘Listen, you can still maybe address this, and it won’t get to the point where I have to take you all out. You’ve still got a shot.’”
Some of the songs are deeply personal: “She Was the Love of Mine,” is an elegy for the singer’s mother, who died three years ago. Some are novelistic: “Frozen Fields of Snow” recounts the story of a war veteran returning to his childhood home after outliving the other members of his unhappy family. “Sometimes lyrical ideas will come into your head, so you follow them and see where they go,” Hay says.
Tour Dates:
Oct 25 Hangar Theatre Ithaca, NY
Oct 26 The Oaks Theater Oakmont, PA
Oct 27 Music Box Supper Club – Concert Hall Cleveland, OH
Oct 28 Royal Oak Music Theatre Royal Oak, MI
Oct 29 Taft Theatre Cincinnati, OH
Nov 01 20 Monroe Live Grand Rapids, MI
Nov 02 Pabst Theater Milwaukee, WI
Nov 03 Barrymore Theatre Madison, WI
Nov 04 Pantages Theatre Minneapolis, MN
Nov 15 Largo at the Coronet Los Angeles, CA
