Joan Baez to head out on US summer run

Joan Baez has plotted a summer course through Middle America as continues touring in support of her most recent release, 2008's "Day After Tomorrow."

The iconic folk singer/activist will begin the five-week outing with a July 6 performance in Reno, NV, after which the 17-city run will hit venues across the nation before finishing up Aug. 12 in Saratoga, CA. The full list is shown at right.

"Day After Tomorrow," is Baez's 24th studio album and first since 2003's "Dark Chords on a Big Guitar." The new set, which surfaced in the fall of 2008, was recorded in Nashville with an all-acoustic band featuring Tim O'Brien, Darrell Scott, Viktor Krauss, Kenny Malone and Steve Earle, who penned an original track, "God is God," for the record.

"It's been a long time since I've had an entire album of songs that speak to the essence of who I am in the same way as the songs that have been the enduring backbone of my repertoire for the past 50 years," Baez said in a press statement.

The album became her first full-length release to hit the charts in the US in 29 years, reaching No. 128 on The Billboard 200 in its debut week.

In 2005, Baez released "Bowery Songs," a collection of live recordings from her Nov. 2004 performance at New York City's Bowery Ballroom. That set includes four songs the singer had never recorded before: "Seven Curses" (by Bob Dylan), "Jerusalem" (by Earle), "Finlandia" and "Dink's Song."