AN artist described as Ireland's best kept song-writing secret will perform in Weston-super-Mare in September to promote his next album and has recently released his first single.

John Blek's track Country Mile features the voices of Dutch trio Woolf, as well as the arrangements of Dresden-based Broken Strings.

Production was provided by long-time collaborator Brian Casey, with the material recorded at Wavefield Recordings.

Mr Blek said: "Part of the joy of my life is getting to meet other artists.

"I played some shows with Woolf in the Netherlands, and we immediately clicked.

"The first time I heard them sing together, I knew I wanted to work with them and hear their voices add a new depth to my own songs.

"It was the same with Moritz Brümmer and Filip Sommer [of The Broken Strings], who I met on an artist in residence programme in Dresden back in 2022.

"A good friend of mine had been struggling with depression.

"He had been distancing himself from his partner, who had been doing all she could do to take care of him.

"He was beginning to come out the other side of a particularly bad period, and he asked me if I would write a song for him to give to his wife to help him say thank you for understanding.

"We spoke about it, and I went away and wrote Country Mile.

"It wasn't a foreign idea to me; unfortunately, I've found myself in the same situation on many occasions.

"So many people have.

"Hopefully, this song will offer a little solace to those who care and those who need it.

"This is a very important record for me.

"It's the first of mine that is entirely autobiographical from start to finish.

"Also, in the past, I have tried to be quite restrained when it came to the production of my songs, but this time around, I wanted to adopt a more is more approach.

"I wanted to allow each song to dictate its own natural path and take it as far as I could with the resources available to me."

Cheer Up, which is Mr Blek's ninth studio album thus far, will be released on September 6 on Mr Blek's label, Bigger River Recording Co.

Mr Blek will perform at Loves in Weston-super-Mare on September 20.