London-born Scotland-based XAN TYLER’s women’s empowerment inspired album Holding Up Half the Sky reached No.4 in the Official Scottish albums chart in May 2024. Xan has since been in high demand with gigs including three nights opening for The Blow Monkeys and confirming her debut appearance at Celtic Connections in January. Xan will be joined at Green Note by her long-time band mates John Rooney (lead guitar) and Adam Scott (bass) as well as a four-piece woodwind section.

Pinning the record down to one genre has proved tricky for some journalists with one describing Xan herself as ‘genre agnostic’. HUHTS moves effortlessly from baroque pop and indie through blue-eyed soul with a nod to Wickerman folk but the stories of sisterhood, survival and aging are clear and both fascinating and inspiring. Songs such as Rebecca’s Desk, a Tom Waits inspired waltz about author Rebecca Solnit’s writing desk, Forever Things a piano and cello ballad about the pain of motherhood via Molly Drake (mother of Nick) and then there’s the haunting Devil’s Hand about the victims of the witch trials.

Produced by Boo Hewerdine, Holding Up Half The Sky is Xan’s debut solo album but it is not her first rodeo. Xan has had an extensive career that includes recording two albums and touring with dub reggae legend Mad Professor, collaborating on Let It Come Down with Shimmy Disc icon Kramer, releasing with techno titan Timo Maas and being signed to Creation Records as one half of electro-pop duo Technique.