Pitchfork: My Morning Jacket, M. Ward Tour North America

My Morning Jacket, M. Ward Tour North America
But Dave Matthews still giving preferential treatment to Gov't Mule

My Morning Jacket are gearing up for an extensive, 30-date North American tour, scheduled to kick off early next month. The celebrated beard-rock revivalists will once again be supporting their major label debut, 2003's remarkable It Still Moves. The jaunt will open May 7th at San Diego's 4th and B, taking them across the west coast, then onto midwest dates in Chicago and Detroit, before landing them over on the east side of the continent, from where they'll migrate south. It will be the band's first tour since the departure of lead guitarist Johnny Quaid and keyboard player Danny Cash in January. Silvercrush member Carl Broemel and Bo Koster will be filling in.

In tow will be admirable Merge Records singer/songwriter M. Ward, a fine, upstanding kind of guy who takes care of the plants on his porch and waits for the sunset on every summer night. Ward doesn't ask for much, and he sings about what he knows. His subject matter can be a bit depressing, when you get right down to it, but there's also a certain underlying joy to the music... which, I guess, should make for a performance somewhere between harrowing and jubilant. His Merge Records debut, last year's Top 50 finalist Transfiguration of Vincent, is the rare album that carries a definitive tone, a variety of stylistic origins, and the paradoxical ability to compliment a variety of moods and situations.

In a beautiful, sort of inverse-Beck twist, My Morning Jacket will pull a double-shift each night featuring Ward, acting as his backup ensemble. Tour dates go a little something like this:

05-07 San Diego, CA - 4th and B +
05-08 Los Angeles, CA - Avalon +
05-09 San Francisco, CA - Fillmore +
05-11 Seattle, WA - Showbox +
05-12 Portland, OR - Crystal Ballroom +
05-13 Vancouver, BC - Commodore +
05-15 Salt Lake City, UT - Club Sound *
05-16 Boulder, CO - Fox Theater *
05-17 Omaha, NE - Sokol Underground *
05-18 St. Louis, MO - Mississippi Nights *
05-20 Minneapolis, MN - The Quest +
05-21 Chicago, IL - Metro +
05-22 Milwaukee, WI - The Rave +
05-24 Detroit, MI - St. Andrew's Hall +
05-25 Cleveland, OH - Odeon Concert Club +
05-26 Clifton Park, NY - Northern Lights +
05-28 Toronto, Ontario - Opera House +
05-30 Boston, MA - WBCN River Rave +
06-01 New York, NY - Irving Plaza +
06-02 New York, NY - Irving Plaza +
06-04 Hartford, CT - Webster Theater *
06-05 Philadelphia, PA - Theatre of Living Arts +
06-06 Asbury Park, NJ - Great Bamboozle +
06-08 Pittsburgh, PA - TBA
06-09 Columbus, OH - Newport Music Hall
06-10 Cincinnati, OH - Bogart's
06-12 Manchester, TN - Bonnaroo +
06-16 Atlanta, GA - The Roxy
06-19 Birmingham, AL - City Stages
06-20 Nashville, TN - Exit/In

+ with My Morning Jacket