Pitchfork: Bright Eyes, My Morning Jacket Frontmen Team with M. Ward For Acoustic Tour

Bright Eyes, My Morning Jacket Frontmen Team with M. Ward For Acoustic Tour
"Who's On First?" routine kills, but Three Stooges impressions still way iffy

[Updated Wednesday, January 7th, 2004 01:00:00 Pitchfork Central Time]

Chris Rediske and Micah Harding report:
It's like the lone ranger with two of his friends. Or the three musketeers without that D'Artagnan asshole. Or Crosby, Stills, and Nash before Neil Young had to stick his mutton chops into the mix and ruin everything. Anyway, here's the thing: three luminaries of the indie world are pounding the asphalt and playing nice together on the road this spring. Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes, Jim James of My Morning Jacket, and M. Ward of, well, M. Ward, are playing a collaborative series of shows throughout February, culminating in a once-in-a-lifetime leap-year performance-- dare you miss it?

Each show will feature a (roughly) half-hour solo performance from each of the artists, followed by an (also roughly) hour collaboration featuring all three. No word on whose songs will be featured-- or hell, maybe it'll be all Crosby, Stills, and Nash covers (I think Jim James can hit all the high notes). Whatever the situation, it sounds interesting, so check it out if they're coming to a town near you:

02-19 Omaha, NE - Witherspoon Concert Hall
02-20 Minneapolis, MN - Pantages Theatre
02-21 Chicago, IL - Vic Theatre
02-22 Pittsburgh, PA - Club Laga
02-23 Philadelphia, PA - Trocadero
02-24 Jersey City, NJ - Loews Theatre
02-26 Northampton, MA - Pearl St
02-27 Winooski, VT - Higher Ground
02-28 Providence, RI - Lupos at the Strand
02-29 Sommerville, MA - Sommerville Theatre

As for the future plans of each of our heroes, M. Ward is currently working on the new Beth Orton album, producing some of the tracks as well as contributing his considerable guitar talents to the proceedings. He will also be playing some shows with Orton in Australia prior to the three-fer tour. Those dates:

02-04 Melbourne, Australia - Athenaeum Theatre
02-05 Melbourne, Australia - Athenaeum Theatre
02-07 Brisbane, Australia - Tivoli
02-10 Sydney, Australia - York Theatre
02-11 Sydney, Australia - York Theatre
02-12 Adelaide, Australia - Norwood Concert Hall
02-14 Perth, Australia - Moonlight Music
02-15 Perth, Australia - Fremantle Arts Center

Oberst will be doing some Bright Eyes recording in January-- currently the plan is to release an EP in fall, and a full-length follow-up to 2002's Lifted in January 2005. Saddle Creek's website recently announced that a planned album and tour from Oberst's Desaparecidos side project will likely not be happening this spring as reported, but we're sure the prolific Oberst will find plenty to keep him busy until that comes together. As previously reported by Pitchfork, Bright Eyes and Neva Dinova have a split EP, One Jug Of Wine, Two Vessels, coming out this month on Crank! Records with three new songs from each artist. Oberst is also contributing vocals to the forthcoming record from Dntel.

Jim James is spending January touring America with his bandmates in My Morning Jacket. Following the busy 16-day tour, the Jacket will appear at the NME Awards, held at London's fine Astoria theatre (notice the British spelling) along with Junior Senior, Thrice (ugh), Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Ryan Adams (oh boy), and Ima Robot (wacky). So let's wrap things up with those dates, shall we? Here you go:

01-16 Birmingham, AL - WorkPlay
01-17 Atlanta, GA - Cotton Club
01-18 Knoxville, TN - Blue Cat's
01-20 Asheville, NC - Orange Peel
01-21 Carrboro, NC - Cat's Cradle
01-23 Charlottesville, VA - Starr Hill
01-24 Richmond, VA - The Canal Club
01-26 Northampton, MA - Iron Horse Music Hall
01-27 Burlington, VT - Higher Ground
01-28 Portland, ME - Space Gallery
01-30 Lancaster, PA - The Chameleon
01-31 Washington, D.C. - 9:30 Club