Multi-platinum award winning songwriter, Ross Golan will bring his acclaimed concept album The Wrong Man to The Other Palace this month, performing the work live in the UK for the first time. One of today’s most sought after songwriters – named BMI’s songwriter of the year in 2016 – Golan has penned global hits and chart-topping songs for Celine Dion, Nicki Minaj, Lady Antebellum, Michael Bublé, Selena Gomez, Demi Lovato and Maroon 5.
A work of emotionally charged storytelling and extraordinary musicianship, The Wrong Man was born from a folk song about a man falsely accused of murder in Reno, Nevada. As the album unfolds, Golan spins a tale of sordid romance and cold-blooded murder, desperation and acute tragedy that transports listeners from the seedy underbelly of Reno to a death-row holding cell. The album, released in July, has been transformed into a stage musical, which premiered Off-Broadway in autumn 2019 to sell-out success. The production marked the auspicious reunion of Hamilton collaborators director Thomas Kail and orchestrator Alex Lacamoire, and starred three-time Tony nominee Joshua Henry as the protagonist.
Golan, a life-long musician originally from Chicago, wrote the title track to the album in 2005 whilst touring other work. As he developed the story over several songs, he began performing the nascent album in living rooms across Hollywood and, as word spread, took the collection of songs to cities as far flung as Sydney and Nashville before landing an album deal with Interscope Records.
With Grammy award winning producer Ricky Reed (whose previous collaborators include Lizzo, Leon Bridges and Maggie Rogers) and a band featuring musicians Mike Elizondo and Trevor Lawrence Jr. (Dr. Dre’s rhythm section), Golan spent 18 months shaping the album and its genre-defying sound that endlessly shifts from gritty folk to guitar-fuelled rock with flashes of country and hip-hop.
Since first performing The Wrong Man, Golan has adapted the narrative for an award-winning underground musical and teamed up with director John Hwang (a filmmaker who’s worked with Beyoncé and Rihanna) to create a feature-length animated version of the album, which premiered at the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival.
The Wrong Man will be performed by Ross Golan at The Other Palace Studio, Thursday 20 February at 8PM.
