Conor Oberst will release a new album, Salutations, on Nonesuch Records, on March 17, 2017. The album is a companion piece to 2016’s lauded Ruminations. When Oberst wrote and recorded the songs on Ruminations, entirely solo – with just voice, piano, guitar and harmonica – he intended to ultimately record them with a full band. In the midst of putting together that band – upstate New York’s The Felice Brothers plus the legendary drummer Jim Keltner (Neil Young, Jackson Browne, George Harrison, Bob Dylan, John Lennon, and many more) – the passionate responses Oberst was getting to those first solo recordings, from friends and colleagues, encouraged him to release the songs as-is, in their original sparse form, as his seventh solo album.
Meanwhile, Oberst simultaneously moved ahead with his plans to record with the band, heading to the famed Shangri-la Studios in Malibu to record Salutations – co-produced with Keltner and engineered by long-time musical compadre Andy LeMaster. Guest contributions come courtesy of Jim James,Blake Mills, Maria Taylor, M Ward, Gillian Welch, Gus Seyffert, Pearl Charles, Nathaniel Walcott, and Jonathan Wilson.
Salutations includes full band versions of the ten songs from Ruminations, plus seven additional songs, some from an additional session at Five Star Studiosin Echo Park in fall 2016 (complete track list below). Oberst, with The Felice Brothers as his backing band, will tour in celebration of Salutations beginningMarch 9 in his hometown of Omaha, with stops at LA’s Greek Theater in May and Celebrate Brooklyn Festival in July (full schedule below). Oberst has partnered with Plus 1 so that $1 from every ticket sold will go to supportPlanned Parenthood and their work delivering vital reproductive health care, sex education, and information to millions of women, men, and young people in the US and worldwide.
Check out the video for “A Little Uncanny,” directed by Josh Rawson (The Felice Brothers), below,..
Oberst says of the Salutations sessions: “Jim was really the captain of the ship and the spiritual leader of the project. We leaned heavy on his fifty-plus years of musical insight to get us to where we needed to be. He brought such depth and dignity to the proceedings that made everyone else involved rise to the occasion. It was a true stroke of luck that he got involved when he did.”
Conor Oberst Tour Dates:
February
27 Sydney, AUS @ Sydney Opera House
March
9 Omaha, NE @ The Waiting Room Lounge
10 Kansas City, MO @ Madrid Theater
11 Memphis, TN @ Minglewood Hall
12 Tulsa, OK @ Cain’s Ballroom
14 San Antonio, TX @ Paper Tiger
16 Spicewood, TX @ Luck Reunion
17 Houston, TX @ Warehouse Live
18 New Orleans, LA @ The Civic Theatre
19 Macon, GA @ Cox Capitol Theatre
21 Asheville, NC @ The Orange Peel
22 Chattanooga, TN @ Track 29
23 Atlanta, GA @ Variety Playhouse
24 McMinnville, TN @ Bluegrass Underground
25 St Louis, MO @ The Pageant
26 Iowa City, IA @ The Englert Theater
May
12 Oakland, CA @ The Fox
13 Los Angeles, CA @ The Greek Theater
19 Austin, TX @ ACL Live at The Moody Theater
July
14-16 Louisville, KY @ Forecastle Festival
20 Brooklyn, NY @ Celebrate Brooklyn
21 Boston, MA @ The House of Blues
March dates go on sale starting January 21 at noon EST
May and July dates go on sale starting January 27 at noon EST
