Jayhawk Gary Louris heads out on 'Vagabonds' solo trek

Singer/songwriter Gary Louris will mount a headlining tour behind the forthcoming "Vagabonds," his debut studio album as a solo performer.

Louris, a co-founding member of now-defunct alt-country band The Jayhawks, has lined up 13 dates for the spring run, which kicks off March 16 in Seattle.

San Francisco indie folkies Vetiver will serve as Louris' backup band for the dates, while also performing their own set as the tour's opening act.

"Vagabonds," due in stores Feb. 19, is Louris' first solo effort since he and the other members of The Jayhawks placed the band on indefinite hiatus in 2005. The album was recorded last year in Los Angeles with an ensemble cast of musicians that included multi-instrumentalist Jonathan Wilson, drummer and Vetiver member Otto Hauser, pedal steel player Josh Grange and keyboardist Adam MacDougal.

"This record's a little different for me," Louris said in his bio for Rykodisc, his current record label. "I've made records in a lot of different ways and I've learned that what I love the most is the synergy of a group of people playing together and the nuances and mistakes that happen live. That was really exciting for me; you'd finish the take and what happened at that particular moment is what you hear on the record."

Louris, who toured in 2005 with fellow Jayhawk Mark Olson under the banner "From the Jayhawks," also frequently appears with loose-knit Midwest supergroup Golden Smog, which at various times has also featured members of Soul Asylum, The Replacements and Wilco.