ARIEL POSEN’S NEW LP, BANNATYNE, OUT MARCH 20, 2026
WATCH / SHARE “EMPTY-HANDED FT. CITY AND COLOUR” HERE
BUY / STREAM “EMPTY-HANDED FT. CITY AND COLOUR” HERE
PRE-SAVE BANNATYNE HERE
EUROPEAN TOUR BEGINS FEBRUARY 12 - TICKETS HERE, FULL DATES BELOW
Photo Credit : Josh Kirschner // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES
For Ariel Posen, songwriting and guitar playing have always gone hand-in-hand. He's spent a decade building a bridge between those two worlds, balancing his work as a hotshot instrumentalist — including collaborations with everyone from John Mayer to Tom Jones — with solo albums rooted in melody and autobiographical storytelling. The result is a career that's every bit as diverse as his music. With performances at Eric Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festival, his own Fender Stratocaster signature model, and a powerful voice that matches his fretwork, Posen explores uncharted territory, blurring the lines between genre and generation along the way.
On his upcoming album, Bannatyne, that exploration leads Posen back to the place where everything began. Named after an avenue in his hometown of Winnipeg, Manitoba, it's a record about reexamining one's past in order to fully appreciate the present. Woven into the album's 12 songs are larger-than-life riffs and upbeat tempos (a nod to the 1990s rock music that soundtracked Posen's childhood), along with the syncopated grooves and explorative, unexpected textures that have always steered his work. Equally influenced by the raw energy of his live shows, where Posen has been known to plug in and stretch out showcasing the chops that prompted Rolling Stone to call him "a modern-day guitar hero", and the tight craft of his songwriting, Bannatyne is a full-circle snapshot of an artist in evolution, chasing down new horizons while still honouring his musical roots.
Today, he shares a new single from the album, “Empty-Handed” featuring City and Colour’s Dallas Green. “This song is about the kind of regret that lingers long after everything else has moved on,” says Posen. “It’s waking up every day feeling the same weight, replaying what you lost, and trying to make sense of it. At the same time it is about owning your part in the fallout, knowing you can’t undo it, and learning to live with the echo of what could’ve been. There can be peace in the sorrow.”
Posen wrote this song and immediately heard Dallas Green’s voice on the choruses after he recorded it in the studio. Luckily for him, he called Dallas and he obliged. It was almost as if the song was written for Dallas to sing on it alongside Posen.
Ariel and I have been pals for a while now and I've always been impressed with his extraordinary guitar playing, shares Green.. “But the truth is he's got a great sense of melody in his songwriting as well. This song was stuck in my head the second I heard it. It was a pleasure to be a part of such a banger.”
WATCH / SHARE “EMPTY-HANDED FT. CITY AND COLOUR” HERE
BUY / STREAM “EMPTY-HANDED FT. CITY AND COLOUR” HERE
MORE ABOUT ARIEL POSEN + BANNATYNE
"This is an album about coming home," says Posen, who played guitar for hometown pals, The Bros. Landreth — earning a JUNO Award along the way — before launching his solo career with the critically-celebrated debut How Long. "It's about looking back and appreciating where you come from, even as you're heading somewhere new."
WATCH / SHARE “FUTURE PRESENT TENSE” HERE
BUY / STREAM “FUTURE PRESENT TENSE” HERE
"Heading somewhere new" has been Posen's focus for years, ever since How Long introduced his blend of soulful Rock & Roll, R&B, and amplified Americana in 2019. Follow-up releases like Headway and Reasons Why widened that sound considerably, while the Mile End project — a trio of records filled with improvised guitar instrumentals — highlighted a different form of expression. Bannatyne covers new ground, too. There are appearances by fellow Canadians Dallas Green and Kathleen Edwards (who shares vocal duties with Posen on the sparse, slow-burning love song "More Me With You"). There are seize-the-day anthems like "Future Present Tense", punctuated by layered harmonies and bursts of fuzz guitar. There are alternate guitar tunings, smoothly-sung vocals, and lyrics about the homes we all leave behind, delivered by a road warrior who's been carving out his signature sound with every album. It's a powerful mix, and while Posen has never been shy about honouring his influences, the album simply sounds like him.
WATCH / SHARE “VAGABOND” HERE
BUY / STREAM “VAGABOND” HERE
"Every record is the sound of me finding myself, more and more," he says. "I'm not just a songwriter and I'm not just a guitarist. I'm both of those things. I'm taking these worlds that I feel very connected to, and I'm combining them together, leaning in either direction whenever I want. With Bannatyne, the idea was to be a little dirtier, rawer, and unpolished in my performances. I didn't worry about chasing absolute perfection and cleanliness. I just stuck with whatever felt right."
Co-produced by Posen and longtime collaborator Murray Pulver, Bannatyne certainly feels right. This is Posen's unique vision of electrified roots music: song-driven, fretwork-fueled, and unmistakably his own.
PRE-SAVE BANNATYNE HERE
TOUR DATES
Feb 12 - EBELTOFT - KULTURLOFT -Ebeltoft, Denmark
Feb 13 - AMAGER BIO -Copenhagen, Denmark
Feb 14 - MUSIKHUSET POSTEN -Odense C, Denmark
Feb 15 - NOCHTSPEICHER - Hamburg, Germany
Feb 17 - PRIVATCLUB - Berlin, Germany
Feb 18 - LUX CLUB LINDEN - Hannover, Germany
Feb 19 - ARTHEATER - Köln, Germany
Feb 22 - DE OOSTERPOORT - Da Groningen, Netherlands
Feb 25 - DE HELLING - Utrecht, Netherlands
Feb 26 - MUZIEKGEBOUW EINDHOVEN - Eindhoven, Netherlands
Feb 27 - MUZIEKGIETERIJ - Maastricht, Netherlands
Feb 28 - ROTOWN ROTTERDAM - Rotterdam, Netherlands
Mar 2 - NALEN KLUBB - Stockholm, Sweden
BANNATYNE TRACKLIST
01 Future Present Tense
02 Surrender
03 No Way Out
04 Dead To Me
05 Empty-Handed ft. City And Colour
06 Your Ghost
07 Vagabond
08 Shed Your Skin
09 More Me With You ft. Kathleen Edwards
10 Accept That
11 Meridian
12 Bannatyne
ARIEL POSEN ONLINE
INSTAGRAM
FACEBOOK
TIKTOK
YOUTUBE