Richard Thompson has lined up a month of tour dates to support The Old Kit Bag, his first new recording in four years.

The English singer-songwriter and purveyor of despair has lined up twenty-two dates thus far, commencing April 21st in Boulder, Colorado. Though more dates are expected, the tour currently runs through May 25th at the Strawberry Music Festival in Groveland, California.

The Old Kit Bag was released in the U.K. last month, and has a May 6th street date in North America on SpinArt/Cooking Vinyl. The album, the follow-up to 1999's Mock Tudor, was produced by John Chelew and features longtime Thompson cohort Danny Thompson (no relation) on bass, with Michael Jerome on drums and Judith Owen providing backing vocals. Thompson himself plays the usual potpourri of stringed instruments, including guitar, dulcimer and mandolin, along with the accordion and harmonium.

According to Thompson's site, the U.S. release will include some bonus tracks unavailable on the U.K. release.

Old Kit Bag track listing:

Gethsemane
Jealous Words
I'll Tag Along
A Love You Can't Survive
One Door Opens
First Breath
Destiny
Got No Right
Pearly Jim
Sight Unseen
Outside of the Inside
Happy Days and Auld Lang Syne

Richard Thompson tour dates:

4/21: Boulder, CO, Boulder Theater
4/23: Hastings, NE, French Chapel
4/24: Minneapolis, First Avenue
4/25: Madison, WI, Barrymore Theater
4/26: Chicago, House of Blues
4/28: Ann Arbor, MI, Michigan Theater
4/30: Northampton, MA, Calvin Theater
5/2-3: New York, Town Hall
5/4: Philadelphia, Keswick Theater
5/5: Washington, DC, 9:30 Club
5/6: Durham, NC, Carolina Theater
5/7: Atlanta, Variety Playhouse
5/9: St. Louis, The Pageant
5/10: Lawrence, KS, Liberty Hall
5/12: Tempe, AZ, Marquee Theater
5/13: Tucson, AZ, Rialto Theater
5/14: Solana Beach, CA, Belly Up Tavern
5/16: West Hollywood, House of Blues
5/17: San Francisco, The Fillmore
5/19: Portland, OR, Aladdin Theater
5/25: Groveland, CA, Camp Mather

ANDREW DANSBY
(March 25, 2003)