Please join us on Friday, September 18th at 4:00 PM to help celebrate Bernie Taupin’s upcoming album, The Sea Has No Mercy! Taupin will be joined by award winning producer Frank Liddell for a conversation about his forthcoming record before signing TSHNM art prints along with copies of his memoir and previous albums for attendees. We are so happy to be able to host Bernie in the record shop while he’s in town for the Americana Music Association’s annual conference & festival, AmericanaFest 2026! The Sea Has No Mercy is due out October 23rd on vinyl LP & CD via Vertago Records / Mercy Nashville. All who preorder Taupin’s new album in advance from Grimey’s will receive a The Sea Has No Mercy art print + wristband for the post-discussion signing. Wristbands are required to participate in the signing for all 13+ and they guarantee your entrance to the event. (Kids 12 & under don’t need wristbands if attending with wristband-holding adults.) You can read more about The Sea Has No Mercy and place your preorder on our site here.
Bernie Taupin is one of the all-time greatest storytelling songwriters, and his creative connection with his friend and cultural icon Elton John is one of the most successful and enduring partnerships in music history. Yet despite his myriad array of accomplishments, Bernie Taupin is now set to achieve something he has never done before with his new solo album. Remarkably, The Sea Has No Mercy will be the first album that he has entirely self-written. As such, it’s the soundtrack to his own life - a record that presents a master craftsman at his most personal, distilling 76 years of lived experience into 10 songs that are reflective and revealing, vivid and thoughtful, sometimes hushed, sometimes joyful, sometimes elegiac.
Taupin describes the album as a late-life manifesto. It’s only natural, therefore, that it was inspired by his acclaimed 2023 autobiography Scattershot and a retrospective documentary that has been in development for a few years. Ultimately, the three projects will be innately interlinked.
Taupin says, “I couldn’t have made this album as a younger man. I couldn’t have written any of these songs. They’re all completely indicative of Bernie Taupin at 76-years-old. They need the life behind them. Everything on this record is hugely personal. Every single line, every word, means something to me, whether from a past, present or storytelling perspective.” The album dispenses with volume and sparkles in favour of warm, atmospheric folk informed by intimacy and closeness.
The project was recorded in Nashville with producer Frank Liddell, along with a core band composed of Music City legends: guitarist Adam Wright, bassist Glen Worf and keyboard player Michael Rojas - a trio collectively nicknamed The Tennessee Stone Cutters. It also features guest vocal appearances from Americana superstar Brandi Carlile and Bernie’s daughter, Georgey, as well as contributions from country legend Lee Ann Womack, the Jeremy Jordon Ensemble and percussion master Jay Bellerose.
We’re so excited to be able to host Bernie Taupin and Frank Liddell at Grimey’s hope you’ll be here for their conversation. You can place a preorder for the new Bernie Taupin album in the record store or on our webstore here and lock-in your wristband & art print for the signing and securing your spot in the shop for what we expect to be a pretty packed event! (Please note, preordered copies of The Sea Has No Mercy will be available for pickup starting on 10/23. We anticipate mail orders will ship out on or around 10/23 as well.) See you soon, Nashville!!
