Jake Bugg is back! The rock troubadour returns with his seventh album, Alamo, and first on Thirty Tigers, on November 13. Alongside the announcement, Jake has also released the album’s first taste, ‘Never Can Tell’, and details of a 2027 UK and EU solo tour, including a show at London’s Union Chapel on Friday, February 26.

Produced by multi-Grammy-winning duo and longtime collaborators Jimmy Hogarth (Anohni, Amy Winehouse, Paolo Nutini) and Steve McKewan (Chris Stapleton, Carrie Underwood, Eminem), Alamo sees Jake return to his folk-leaning roots – raw, real and unguarded. Now 32, the 11-track album is a testament to his matured craft as a songwriter and an open-hearted revelation of his journey as a man through love and loneliness and back again. It’s an album that rolls along with pure, lush and authentic country music arrangements that get straight to the heart of the matter with nothing to hide behind.

There’s a battle-born spirit that runs through Alamo. The finger-pickin’-good, Dylan- and Cohen-inspired rootsy road song ‘Day By Day’ sees Bugg offer that “I’d like to make a difference, I’d like to make some sense, but everything is closing in” – an ode to just waking up every day and trying to leave the world a better place than you found it, despite what it throws in your face. On the tender and yearning opener ‘When The Night’, Jake pines “I find myself wishing I was someone else,” asking the album’s core question, as Bugg puts it, of “what does isolation really feel like and lead you to do?” The album’s title track sees Jake navigate the pains of being in a relationship that’s crumbling around you, while the poignant ‘Cloud In The Sky’ finds Jake at his most open, untangling ghosts from the past.

“After all the years of touring and making records, it just felt like the right time to look inward. The last couple of years have been tough for me and I’ve had a lot of struggles. I’m trying to navigate those and figure out where they stem from,” Jake says of the record. “‘Alamo’ was only going to work if I was going to be honest and be as vulnerable as possible. I’ve always had a lot of defences and barriers around me. I thought it was time to bring those down.”

Photo credit: Kevin Westenberg

The album’s first cut comes in the form of the infectious, country-tinged ‘Never Can Tell’. A rollicking, guitar-driven anthem about navigating the friendships that find their way to you after finding success, the track is Jake at his direct and honest best.

“It’s really fucking hard to know who to trust in this day and age, especially growing up how I did and having to be vigilant and observant of the people around you,” Jake said of the track. “The song is about that. Life throws so many parallels at you and it’s hard to know which way to go. People tell you different things and you’ve just got to go with what your gut tells you.”

Jake has also announced a stripped-back and intimate solo tour across the UK and EU in 2027. Kicking off at the Albert Hall in Manchester on Saturday, February 6, the 10-date UK and Ireland leg will see Jake play a hometown date at Nottingham’s Royal Concert Hall and culminate with a show at London’s Union Chapel on Friday, February 26.

Pre-sale tickets begin Friday, September 4 at 10am BST, with general sale on Friday, September 11 at 10am BST. Jake will also be heading to Nashville to headline Musicians Corner in Centennial Park on September 18 as part of AmericanaFest. For more information, click HERE.

Jake Bugg 2027 UK Tour Dates

February

  • Saturday, February 6 – Albert Hall, Manchester
  • Tuesday, February 9 – 3Olympia, Dublin
  • Thursday, February 11 – The Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh
  • Sunday, February 14 – Old Fruitmarket, Glasgow
  • Wednesday, February 17 – Glasshouse, Gateshead
  • Thursday, February 18 – Sheffield City Hall, Sheffield
  • Saturday, February 20 – Liverpool Philharmonic, Liverpool
  • Sunday, February 21 – Bristol Beacon, Bristol
  • Tuesday, February 23 – Royal Concert Hall, Nottingham
  • Friday, February 26 – Union Chapel, London

After nearly 15 years of dominating the charts and smashing festivals while standing apart from trends with his unique and authentic singer-songwriter approach, Jake Bugg has done a lot of growing since his first album went triple platinum and hit Number One in the UK.

Just as with his debut, the album artwork was shot by legendary photographer Kevin Westenberg. Sure, Jake’s older, wiser and comfortably in Memphis in this picture, but it’s another pure image with no trickery. What you see is what you get: a man still here to take on the world.

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