M. Ward Announces New Album A Wasteland Companion for April 2012 Release + Spring Tour Dates

It has been three years since M. Ward’s last solo endeavor, Hold Time.  Since then, the troubadour has travelled quite a bit, contributed towards Monsters of Folk’s debut release, released a couple of She & Him records with the lovely Zooey Deschanel, and even received a two grammy nominations.  After a long wait, Ward’s solo career will return at full force with the emergence of his new record, A Wasteland Companion, and a spring tour.

A Wasteland Companion comes out April 10, 2012 via Merge Records.  Expect it to be heavily influenced by Ward’s life on the road and filled with a similar lyrical depth to his previous endeavors.  The album will also be stacked with collaborators, with 18 musicians featured on the album.  Fans of She & Him will be happy to hear that Deschanel will appear on the new record, though it is unclear how involved her role was.  A Wasteland Companion was recorded in eight different studios across the glove and eight different engineers who contributed, two of which were PJ Harvey and Rufus Wainwright.  No doubt, it should be a very eclectic sounding album.

Here’s what M. Ward said about the record:

Between now and when I made Hold Time there has been a lot of traveling which requires a lock of reckoning with what to leave behind and what to carry – material and otherwise – and thinking about what I want versus what I need, creatively and otherwise.  I wanted to get a reflection of that on the album.  It was a process of stripping away my security blanket, which is the same four walls I always record in.

Included below is the album art work, tracklisting, and M. Ward’s spring tour dates.

Tracklisting:

1.  Clean Slate (for Alex & El Goodo)

2.  Primitive Girl

3.  Me And My Shadow

4.  Sweetheart

5.  I Get Ideas

6.  The First Time I Ran Away

7.  A Wasteland Companion

8.  Watch The Show

9.  There’s A Key

10. Crawl After You

11. Wild Goose

12. Pure Joy

Tour Dates:

February 2      Los Angeles, CA @ Masonic Lodge at Hollywood Forever Cemetery

April 11            San Francisco, CA @ The Fillmore

April 12            Santa Cruz, CA @ The Cocoanut Grove Ballroom

April 13            Indio, CA @ Coachella **SOLD OUT**

April 14           Santa Barbara, CA @ SoHO

April 16           San Diego, CA @ Belly Up

April 17            Phoenix, AZ @ Crescent Ballroom

April 18           Flagstaff, AZ @ The Orpheum

April 20           Indio, CA @ Coachella **SOLD OUT**

May 5              Portland, ME @ State Theatre

May 6              Burlington, VT @ Higher Ground

May 7              New Haven, CT @ Toads Place

May 8              Boston, MA @ House of Blues

May 11             New York, NY @ Webster Hall

May 12             Philadelphia, PA @Union Transfer

May 13             Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club

May 15             Durham, NC @ Duke Performances at Page Auditorium

May 16             Athens, GA @ Georgia Theatre

May 17             Atlanta, GA @ Buckhead Theatre

May 22             Chicago, IL @ Vic Theatre

May 24             Minneapolis, MN @ First Avenue

*** Jonathan Richman supports 4/11, fIREHOSE supports 4/12, 4/16-4/18, Lee Ranaldo Band supports 5/5-5/22

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