MUSIC NEWS - Michael Franti & Spearhead will return this summer with a much anticipated album, THE SOUND OF SUNSHINE, on August 24th (via Capitol Records/Boo Boo Wax). THE SOUND OF SUNSHINE marks Michael Franti & Spearhead's seventh studio album and the follow-up to 2008's hit All Rebel Rockers.
THE SOUND OF SUNSHINE was conceived after Franti was hospitalized for a ruptured appendix in August 2009. "Music is sunshine. It gives us new energy and a stronger sense of purpose. You can't hold it in your hands, smell it, taste it or even see it, yet somehow just coming together and feeling these little vibrations that tickle our eardrums can somehow lift us all up out of our most difficult moments in life to unimaginable heights," says Franti.
Franti and Spearhead have no doubt succeeded in creating perhaps what is their most cohesive, romantic and life-affirming album to date. THE SOUND OF SUNSHINE opens with the album's title track - a breezy
sing-a-long that seeks to "bottle that experience of waking up in the morning, pulling the blinds and seeing that there's a sunny day in front of us," explains Franti. It is this optimistic energy that flows throughout the record's eleven songs from the happy groove of "Shake It" to the joyously anthemic "I'll Be Waiting."
The band started off recording in Jamaica with legendary producers Sly and Robbie (Bob Dylan, Carlos Santana, No Doubt) and in Franti's home in Bali and his hometown of San Francisco, CA. With the record still not complete, Franti decided to bring along a mobile studio on the road with him while he toured with John Mayer this past winter. The album was finished in dressing rooms and hotel rooms on the road with Franti playing songs he had recorded earlier in the day to the audience that evening. THE SOUND OF SUNSHINE continues to showcase Franti's desire to communicate directly with his fans.
For more than two decades, the Bay Area born Franti has been bringing our world exceptionally powerful, deeply felt music. Franti first formed the punk band The Beatnigs while studying at the University of San Francisco, and later the far more hip hop-inflected The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy. But in the mid-Nineties, Franti created Spearhead, and over the years, he's found his own voice musically and his own organic brand of popular success. Franti's impressive series of albums have vividly reflected his status as a musical citizen of the world.
More @ www.michaelfranti.com.
MICHALEL FRANTI & SPEARHEAD Summer 2010 Tour Itinerary-
June
26 Taos, NM Taos Solar Music Festival
July
3 Sioux City, IA Bandshell Grandview Park
4 Louisville, KY Waterfront Park
15 Jacksonville, OR Britt Festival
16 Berkeley, CA Greek Theater
18 Alta, WY Targhee Fest
22 Edmonton, AB Windspear
23 Calgary, ALB Calgary Folk Festival
24 Vancouver, BC The Vogue Theater
25 Corning, CA Mystic Garden Party
27 Salt Lake City, UT Deer Valley
29 Aspen, CO Belly Up
30 Aspen, CO Belly Up
31 Morrison, CO Red Rocks Ampitheater
August
1 Durango, CO Animis Cliffs
4 Reno, NV Knitting Factory Concert Hs
5 Bend, OR Les Schwab Ampitheater
6 Eugene,OR Cuthbert Amphitheatre
7 Redmond, WA Marymoor Amphitheatre
10 Eagle, ID Eagle River Pavilion
11 Missoula, MT The Wilma Theater
12 Missoula, MT The Wilma Theater
13 Sandpoint, ID Festival At Sandpoint
14 Billings, MT Magic City Blues Festival
21 Las Vegas, NV Mandalay Bay/The Beach SOS Festival
26 Atlanta, GA The Tabernacle
27 Live Oak, FL Blackwater Sol Revue/Spirit of the Suwanee
28 Myrtle Beach, SC House Of Blues
29 Richmond, VA The National
31 Charlotte, NC The Neighborhood
September
2 - 6 Tampa, FL to Grand Cayman ZAC BROWN CRUISE -
19 Laytonville, CA Earthdance: United Beats of Peace Festival
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