Pitchfork

Okkervil River frontman Will Sheff and singer/songwriter Josh Ritter have scheduled a handful of tour dates together in late February and early March. They will kick things off February 24 in Portland and wrap them back up again in Los Angeles on March 1.

While Sheff and Okkervil have remained relatively quiet recently, excepting last year's Overboard & Down EP, Ritter has a large tour of solo acoustic performances scheduled and an EP coming out on January 30 titled Live at the Record Exchange. According to his website, "The EP features six solo acoustic songs recorded during the summer of 2006 in Boise, Idaho's favorite record store." It will only be available from Ritter on tour and in select independent U.S. record stores.

Ritter's solo tour kicks off tomorrow in Norfolk, Virginia, but before it gets into full swing, on January 29, he will swing by NPR's "Talk of the Nation" to play a few songs and discuss the Iraq war with host Neal Conan and author Tom Ricks.

Considering Sheff wrote a song called "The President's Dead", we think he and Ritter will have plenty to talk about in the tour van.

Josh Ritter's Live at the Record Exchange tracklist:

01 Peter Killed the Dragon
02 Girl in the War
03 Good Man
04 Bandits (previously unreleased)
05 Daddy's Little Pumpkin (John Prine cover)
06 Wolves

Sheff/Ritter dates:

02-24 Portland, OR - The Aladdin Theater
02-25 Seattle, WA - The Showbox
02-26 Eugene, OR - WOW Hall
02-28 San Francisco, CA - Swedish American Hall (Noise Pop Festival)
03-01 Los Angeles, CA - El Rey Theatre

Josh Ritter dates:

01-27 Norfolk, VA - Attucks Theatre *
01-28 Alexandria, VA - The Birchmere *
01-29 Alexandria, VA - The Birchmere *
01-30 Philadelphia, PA - World Café Live *
01-31 New York, NY - The Allen Room at Lincoln Center *
02-02 Boston, MA - Somerville Theatre *
02-03 Westport, CT - Westport Arts Centre *
02-04 Brattleboro, VT - Latchis Theatre #
02-06 Albany, NY - The Egg #
02-08 Ann Arbor, MI - The Ark #
02-09 Columbus, OH - Little Brother's #
02-10 Indianapolis, IN - Music Mill #
02-11 Chicago, IL - Park West #
02-13 Ottawa, Ontario - Black Sheep Inn
02-14 Ottawa, Ontario - Black Sheep Inn
02-15 Toronto, Ontario - Horseshoe Tavern
02-17 Winnipeg, Manitoba - West End Cultural Centre
02-19 Edmonton, Alberta - University of Alberta
02-20 Calgary, Alberta - HSCA
02-22 Vancouver, British Columbia - Vancouver East Cultural Centre

* with Dawn Landes
# with Stephen Kellogg

[Photo by Ryan Schierling]