New York, NY (Top40 Charts/ Legacy Recordings) Legacy Recordings today announced that iconic singer-songwriter and 2014 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee
Yusuf /
Cat Stevens has joined the label's storied musical family.
To kick off this exciting new chapter in Yusuf's career, Legacy Recordings will release his first new studio album in five years, entitled Tell 'Em I'm Gone, on October 27. Recorded across the globe, including Los Angeles, Dubai, Brussels, and London, the album features 10 brand-new studio recordings, including five original tracks and five carefully-chosen cover songs. Tell 'Em I'm Gone features musical contributions from Richard Thompson, blues harmonica legend Charlie Musselwhite, singer-songwriter Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, Tuareg group Tinariwen, and guitarist Matt Sweeney. The album was produced by
Yusuf and Rick Rubin and was mixed by
Yusuf and Paul Samwell-Smith.
This new relationship with Legacy Recordings will include brand new recording projects, existing catalog titles, previously unreleased live material, and a treasure trove of audio and video from Yusuf/Cat Steven's personal archives. The new album, Tell 'Em I'm Gone is the first piece of a larger relationship that will continue over the coming years.
Yusuf/Cat
Stevens also announced that he will embark on his first North American tour in over 35 years, giving fans in select cities the opportunity to hear his remarkable catalog and superb new songs live, many for the first time. The Peace
Train ... Late Again tour will kick off December 1 at Massey Hall in Toronto and conclude on December 14 at Nokia Theatre LA LIVE in Los Angeles, CA. The Peace Train...Late Again North American tour dates include:
December 1 - Toronto- Massey Hall
December 4 - Boston- Citi Performing Arts Center Wang Theatre
December 7 - New York City- Beacon Theatre
December 9 - Chicago- The
Chicago Theatre
December 12 - San Francisco- The Masonic
December 14 - Los Angeles - Nokia Theatre L.A. LIVE
Tickets for the general public begin going on sale on Saturday,
September 27th at 10:00am local time (please check your market for select timings). Fans who pre-order Tell 'Em I'm Gone on Amazon.com (starting now until Sunday,
September 21 at 11:59pm PDT) will receive early access to purchase tickets to the US tour dates. Please see specific details below.
The North American tour comes on the heels of the European leg of the Peace Train...Late Again tour.
November 4 - London, UK - Hammersmith Eventim Apollo
November 9 - Brussels, Belgium - Forest National
November 11 - Milan, Italy - Mediolanum Forum
November 13 - Vienna, Austria - Stadthalle
November 16 - Paris, France - Zenith
November 20 - Berlin, Germany - Tempodrom
November 23 - Hamburg, Germany - CCH 1
November 25 - Dusseldorf, Germany - Mitsubishi Electric Hall
For complete ticket on sale information visit www.YusufCatStevens.com.
On Tell 'Em I'm Gone,
Yusuf returns to the roots of his teenage musical inspiration: American blues and R&B, using these genres to explore humanity's climb to freedom with songs that recall the spirit of his earliest days as a nascent singer-songwriter in London. Each track on the album revives the age-old themes of freedom and peace that have marked more than four decades of Yusuf's musical career.
Stunning originals like "I Was Raised In Babylon" and "Cat And The Dog Trap" plus covers of blues-pop and American song standards ("Big Boss Man," "You Are My Sunshine") and a moving version of Edgar Winter's "Dying To Live," find
Yusuf as strong of voice and as engaging a performer as ever.
Tell 'Em I'm Gone is available now for pre-order at physical and digital music retailers.
"Although I was to venture through many lyrical terrains, melodious valleys and cadences during my fifty-year musical and spiritual exploration, and though many would agree that I have covered a lot of ground, there was always one path I meant to take. Hidden in the background behind my renowned troubadour persona lurked an R&B alter-self waiting to be let free,"
Yusuf says of the new album. "What's powerful and profound, to me, is the overall message which emerged, lyrically. It suddenly stared me in the face: the innate struggle for Freedom! Isn't that what most human beings dream of?
Music and the Blues particularly was a means of escape for many chained to the destiny of the rich and powerful."
"Yusuf continues to make music that resonates in its beauty and universally empowering themes," says Adam Block, President, Sony Music's Legacy Recordings. "It's both humbling and thrilling to be given the opportunity to have him become a member of the Legacy family. We look forward to working together to create new platforms for Yusuf's future recordings while celebrating his remarkable career with stories we'll tell from the artist's personal archive."
Having first found fame as a teenage heartthrob singer in 1960s England,
Cat Stevens gained worldwide acclaim for his intimate and affecting works in the 1970s. His compositions "Wild World," "Peace Train," "Father and Son" and "
Morning Has Broken" remain staples of the folk genre. Following a conversion to the Islamic faith in 1977,
Stevens retired from the music business to work with and support causes in education and humanitarian relief. In 2006
Yusuf returned to pop music with the album An Other Cup.
Yusuf was also inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in March 2014.
'TELL 'EM I'M GONE' TRACK LIST
I Was Raised In Babylon (Yusuf)
Big Boss Man (Luther Dixon-Al Smith)
Dying To Live (Edgar Winter)
You Are My
Sunshine (Jimmie Davis-Charles Mitchell, arr. Yusuf)
Editing Floor Blues (Yusuf)
Cat And The Dog Trap (Yusuf)
Gold Digger (Yusuf)
The Devil Came From Kansas (Gary Brooker-Keith Reid)
Tell 'Em I'm Gone (originally "Take This Hammer," arr. Yusuf)
Doors (Yusuf)
