Skerryvore have announced a new album and a major run of Scottish shows as the award-winning band prepare for the next chapter of their career.
Beautiful Mistakes will be released on 6 November, with new single Fly offering the first taste of what the band describe as their most ambitious and personal record to date.
The album follows the success of 2023’s Tempus, which reached No.1 on both the Official Scottish Albums Chart and Folk Albums Chart and gave Skerryvore a Top 40 breakthrough on the Official UK Albums Chart.
The new record sees the band explore the idea that imperfection should be embraced rather than hidden, while taking a looser and more instinctive approach in the studio.
For the first time, Skerryvore worked with producer Jamie Squire, known for his close association with The 1975.
Singer and songwriter Alec Dalglish said the album had emerged from a more organic recording process.
“Making this album has been a much more organic process, where we often started acoustically, quite small, with the idea that the listener should feel like they’re in the room with us,” he said.
“Some of the songs still ended up sounding huge, but I think there’s a maturity there, and we really captured the live element of it all.”
Lead single Fly looks back at the early years of the band and the sense of camaraderie that helped shape Skerryvore.
Dalglish said: “It made sense for this to be the first song emerging from Scarinish, at the top of the album. I was trying to capture that feeling of brotherhood and raucousness from the band’s early days. A tribute to where it all started as such.”
Several tracks on Beautiful Mistakes are rooted in particularly personal experiences.
Singing Up In Heaven is a tribute to Dalglish’s late father, while instrumental opener Scarinish takes its name from the Tiree village on the island where founding members Daniel and Martin Gillespie grew up.
Other songs explore more universal themes, including new love on In Your Eyes and the end of a relationship on Oh My Love.
The album also pushes into different musical territory, from the more direct social commentary of The Game to the pop-influenced Second Chance.
While I’m Breathing features singer-songwriter Tamzene and marks the first duet recorded by the band.
Skerryvore have built an international following by combining traditional Scottish influences with rock, pop and contemporary folk, with their live reputation earning them Scotland’s Live Act of the Year award four times.
The band have also documented their stage show on the live album Skerryvore XX (Live At Floors Castle).
Their new headline tour begins on the same day Beautiful Mistakes is released, opening at Edinburgh’s Corn Exchange on 6 November.
A Glasgow show at the O2 Academy follows on 7 November, before further Scottish dates in Kelso, Dumfries and Fort William.
After a run of concerts across England, the band return north for shows in Dundee, Dunoon, Stirling and Aberdeen in December.
The Scottish dates are:
6 November – Edinburgh, Corn Exchange
7 November – Glasgow, O2 Academy
12 November – Kelso, Tait Hall
13 November – Dumfries, Easterbrook Hall
14 November – Fort William, Nevis Centre
5 December – Dundee, LiveHouse
17 December – Dunoon, Queen’s Hall
18 December – Stirling, Albert Hall
19 December – Aberdeen, Music Hall
The tour also includes performances in Sunderland, Cambridge, London, Manchester, Belfast and Dublin.
Beautiful Mistakes features 13 tracks, including Scarinish, Fly, Singing Up In Heaven, The Game, In Your Eyes, While I’m Breathing, Oh My Love, The Lighthouse and the title track.
The band are also continuing to expand internationally, with shows in the US, Germany and Switzerland already lined up as part of their 2027 plans.