MICAH P. Hinson will bring his new band project, The Holy Strangers, to The Crescent Community Venue in York on September 24 at the invitation of York promoters Please Please You.

The Americana singer and songwriter from Texas describes his accompanying autumn album, Micah P. Hinson Presents The Holy Strangers, as being a "modern folk opera.”

"It tells the story of a war-time family, going from birth to love, to marriage and children, to war and betrayal, murder to suicide – spanning all of the strange and glorious places life can lead," he says. "We follow their story, we see their decisions, we see their faults and their beauty. We live with them, we die with them."

Two years in the making, the album was written and recorded by Hinson in Denison, Texas, where he incorporated ancient reel to reels, analogue keyboards and old Tascam and Yamaha desks. The recording only entered the digital realm once pre-mastering took place.

"Split across two pieces of vinyl, the 14 tracks which make up The Holy Strangers are at times sparse and haunting; at other times luscious, maybe even euphoric," says Please Please You's Joe Coates. "From the Johnny Cash-style country single Lover’s Lane, to the album’s broad, spoken-word centrepiece Micah Book One, The Holy Strangers covers a lot of ground over the course of its hour-long running time."

Micah P. Hinson Presents The Holy Strangers will be released on September 8 on Full Time Hobby. Hinson will be touring Europe throughout September and October with a full band, and tickets for the 7.30pm York gig are on sale at £15 at pleasepleaseyou.com and in person at The Inkwell, in Gillygate, York, and Jumbo Records in Leeds.

More immediately at The Crescent, Bill Ryder-Jones will visit York on Tuesday on his Intimate Venue Acoustic Tour when the West Kirby singer, songwriter, producer, composer and former member of The Coral from 1996 to 2008 will be supported by Westerman at 7.30pm. Tickets cost £10 from the same outlets and online.