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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