Tour news isn’t our usual fare, but today brings word of a living legend hitting the road and I’d be remiss in not pointing out these rare dates. In addition to a late summer/early fall jaunt through Europe, Leonard Cohen will return to North America for 21 shows, launching in Austin, Texas on Halloween and extending through November/December before the tour wraps with a concert in Brooklyn just ahead of the New Year. Though a number of Cohen tours have made their way around the world in the past few years, it hasn’t been long since the great songwriter/poet ended a 15-year live hiatus back in 2008. That return to the stage saw a number of new songs debuted in early form, but now the long-awaited record, Old Ideas, is in the can and on shelves.
Tickets go up for sale on May 18th. In the meantime, find your closest hall, arena, or theater and watch an awesome clip of Cohen performing “The Stranger Song” the year his debut LP was release, 1967, below:
If ever there were an heir apparent to the poetic legacy and measured grace of Leonard Cohen, Bill Callahan would be my pick—with perhaps Jens Lekman, in terms of humor, being a worthy runner-up. Now the man formerly known as Smog has joined a host of artists paying their debt to Cohen in the wake of his