Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe has announced a new studio album, Gnomes & Badgers, due out March 8th via Seven Spheres Records, marking the group’s first new recording in five years. In support of the 11-track new album, KDTU has shared the first single, “I’m Your Biggest Fan”, and added a new crop of tour dates.
Today’s iteration of Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe features guitarist DJ Williams, lap steel guitarist Seth Freeman, trumpeter Chris Littlefield, organist David Veith, bassist Chris Stillwell, and drummer Zak Najor. On the studio album, the band is joined by The Rolling Stones keyboardist and Allman Brothers Band alum Chuck Leavell, guitar-slinging singer-songwriter Lukas Nelson, New Orleans guitar hero Anders Osborne, Austin producer and multi-instrumentalist Adrian Quesada, and NOLA R&B royal Ivan Neville.
Check out the album’s first single, “I’m Your Biggest Fan,”now:
As a press release notes about the new album:
Throughout ‘Gnomes & Badgers,’ singer and saxophonist Karl Denson fronts the Tiny Universe as if he’s preaching the gospel. Merging funk, soul, rock, jazz, blues and more, his energy and spirit are contagious, while his songwriting speaks to a larger message of fellowship—across generations, genders, religions, and cultures. Not surprisingly then, Denson is none too pleased with the current state of political discourse. The result of this discontent is ‘Gnomes & Badgers’—his hard-grooving answer to these tragically divisive times.
“As a writer and a human being, I’m affected by what goes on around me,” Denson says. “I’ve always been interested in politics, and what I’m seeing now just disturbs me. I saw this idea of Gnomes & Badgers—which are the different people in the world, the different parties on the left and the right—as a great way to frame the political debate and the debate about listening to each other.” He continues, “Somebody needs to say something, and hopefully, I can say it in a way that will make people reconsider how they think about things.”
Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe will support Gnomes & Badgers with shows through May, including an official set at New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival on April 26th, as well as a tribute to the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin, at The Orpheum Theater on May 3rd, and summer festival appearances at High Sierra Music Festival and Floydfest. Denson then picks up his reoccurring role as touring saxophonist with The Rolling Stones on their U.S. summer tour. Additional shows will be announced shortly.