Kate Nash has announced her sixth studio album Cailín, a love letter to her Irish heritage, due out on 22 January 2027 via Kill Rock Stars. The platinum-selling artist has also unveiled new single Spilt Milk, which was premiered by Huw Stephens on BBC 6 Music, and confirmed Irish tour dates for this autumn and February 2027. Cailín is available to pre-order now.
Eleven years in the making, the record was produced by KoOoLkOjAk and recorded on the west coast of Ireland at Stiúideo Cuan, under the watchful eye of pioneering trad musician Charlie Lennon. It is a raw, raucous set that combines traditional Irish sounds with punk energy, nods to hip hop production and Nash’s knack for a killer hook, drawing on folklore and mythology while exploring family, forgiveness, love, colonialism, inequality, religion and internalised shame.
Spilt Milk takes a sideways look at reproductive rights being eroded for women and minority groups. “Spilt Milk was initially written about abortion law in Ireland before they repealed the 8th (which only happened in 2018),” Nash explains. “It’s about not having control over your own body, not being listened to and feeling like the powers that be are getting bigger, scarier and more crushing. With the overturning of Roe v Wade and women’s sexual health rights being rolled back in the US this song feels pertinent to today. The song questions why the female voice is so ignored and why we’d be expected to accept this.” The video, directed by Tom Beard, can be watched below.
Nash holds dual nationality, with her mother born in Dublin, and grew up in an Irish community in North Harrow. Visiting her mother’s “loving, vibrant Irish family” in Ireland every summer, she found music infused into everyday life in a way that felt natural and instinctive. “All my earliest musical memories were in Ireland: live music in the pub, going to Sharon Shannon gigs, seeing the best accordion player you’ve ever seen and it’s a bored-looking eight-year-old boy in a puffer jacket,” she says. “There’s a natural respect for musicians as it’s embedded into the fabric of everyday life.”
The single follows Nash’s earlier 2026 cover of Sinead O’Connor’s “Famine”, which will also appear on Cailín and calls on listeners to educate themselves about Britain’s role in An Gorta Mór, also known as the Great Hunger. Nash is open about her English heritage, but spent a lot of time exploring her Irish roots for this record, educating herself on a history she says England has largely failed to address. “The English don’t know their history. I’m English too, I’m saying, this has not been taught to me. We have ignorance and we need to understand things, to give ourselves context.”
The album captures the collaborative spirit of impromptu pub performances, from uilleann pipes to claps and flutes. Contributors including Niamh Dunne, Lottie Cullen, Aimée Farrell Courtney and Biird’s Lisa Canny play fiddles, flutes, the bodhrán, harp and banjo, while Nash herself plays tin whistle, the first instrument she learnt. “God bless my parents for putting up with it,” she says.
Following a sold-out show at the Roundhouse, plus performances at the Fleadh, All Together Now, Galway International Arts Festival and Bearded Theory, Nash will play Other Voices Derry on 25 and 26 September. This edition marks the beginning of the 25th anniversary year of Other Voices. She also announced three intimate Irish shows, which went on sale on 27 August and sold out immediately.
She will return to Ireland in February 2027 for a run of headline dates. Tickets are available here.
Kate Nash Irish dates:
- 25 and 26 September 2026: Other Voices, Derry
- 4 October 2026: Coughlan’s, Cork (sold out)
- 5 October 2026: Cleere’s, Kilkenny (sold out)
- 6 October 2026: Ruby Sessions, Dublin (sold out)
- 8 February 2027: Cyprus Avenue, Cork
- 10 February 2027: Dolan’s, Limerick
- 11 February 2027: Róisín Dubh, Galway
- 13 February 2027: Button Factory, Dublin
- 14 February 2027: Mandela Hall, Belfast
Cailín tracklist:
- I Guess I Never Learnt A Thing
- Cailín
- Freedom of Me
- Famine
- Spilt Milk
- Wild Atlantic Way
- Crying Irish Saints
- Póg Mo Thóin
- Lady Gregory
- Pay Up
- Christmas Eve
Image credits: Ellius Grace
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