Colin Meloy of The Decemberists is currently readying for release Colin Meloy Sings Live, a selection of songs culled from his brief 2006 solo tour. Consisting of stripped down versions of Decemberists tunes as well as interjected verses of R.E.M., Fleetwood Mac, The Smiths and others Meloy said of the album, “All I’m really doing is playing the song how it was initially written, with me in a room with just a guitar. Then we later build around it. There is a quality to them that is nice to get back to, in how they were initially written. I’m just following some of my idols — Robyn Hitch***** and Grant Lee Phillips, who have never let their songs exist in just one arrangement, whether it’s with a band or solo.” Colin Meloy Sings Live hits shelves April 8.

In April, Meloy will fly solo on tour once again and also bring with him a tour EP of Sam Cooke covers. Before that, he divulged plans to begin work for the next Decemberists album. “We’re going into the studio for about 10 days, to knock out some stuff that we don’t know what we’re going to do with,” he says. “But we also have a couple months blocked out in the summer to work on the next proper record. There’s a whole slew of new material for the next Decemberists project that I’ll be toying around with here and there.”

Where will Colin be going on tour? The following:

April 7: Austin, Texas (La Zona Rosa)
April 8: Dallas (Granada Theatre)
April 10: Atlanta (Variety Playhouse)
April 11: Asheville, N.C. (Orange Peel)
April 12: Charlottesville, Va. (Satellite Ballroom)
April 13: Washington D.C. (930 Club)
April 15: Somerville, Mass. (Somerville Theatre)
April 16-17: Brooklyn, N.Y. (Music Hall of Williamsburg)
April 18: Buffalo, N.Y. (The Tralf)
April 19: Toronto (Phoenix Concert Theatre)
April 21: Chicago (Park West)
April 22: Milwaukee, Wis. (Pabst Theater)
April 23: Madison, Wis. (Barrymore Theater)
April 25: Lawrence, Kan. (Liberty Hall)
April 26: Boulder, Colo. (Fox Theatre)
April 28: Los Angeles (Henry Fonda Theatre)
April: 29: Santa Cruz, Calif. (Rio Theatre)
April 30: San Francisco (Fillmore)
May 2: Seattle (Showbox)
May 3: Portland, Ore. (Wonder Ballroom)http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003718083