OWBS York/Stroudsburg PA/Morristown NJ, October 22-24 Options

[SJN1279]

Found this on Leigh Nash's Myspace:

This upcoming Fall/Winter Leigh, Art Alexakis from Everclear, and Eddie Kowalczyk of LIVE will be hitting the road for an amazing acoustic tour.

More details to come shortly, but pre-sale for the shows start TOMORROW!

Dates so far:

Sep 25 2009 8:00P
4th and B San Diego, California
Sep 26 2009 8:00P
Riverwalk Center Breckinridge, Colorado
Oct 23 2009 8:00P
Sherman Theatre Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania
Oct 24 2009 8:00P
Community Theatre at Mayo Center for the Performing Arts Morristown, New Jersey

[crazy1]

Live's Ed Kowalczyk is now solo, and the tour's acoustic

October 18, 2009
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Shaven-headed singer Ed Kowalczyk is known for delivering impassioned rock music as lead singer of his band Live, which in the mid-1990s had hits such as ''Lightning Crashes.''

And Kowalczyk -- who's on the phone from an Austin, Texas, recording studio -- says the solo album he's putting together while the band takes a break will be ''definitely in the rock vein.''

So what is Kowalczyk doing playing songs -- including Live hits -- in a small-theater, solo acoustic tour with Sixpence None the Richer singer Leigh Nash and Everclear singer Art Alexakis? The Open Wings Broken Strings tour stops Friday at Sherman Theater in Stroudsburg.

The idea for a tour came out of a series of small shows Kowalczyk did in April with just an acoustic guitar.

''I was really just for the first time -- really ever -- connecting with people at this incredible, intimate, yet visceral level in these smaller shows with the acoustic guitar,'' he says.

''And I thought, 'This is really inspiring because this is where the songs come from,' and it's almost like inviting people into that space where the songs initially are born. And it's a really powerful experience for the fans and for me.''

Kowalczyk says of the new album: ''It's going to be a rock record, as opposed to something that's really stripped down. There are going to be, of course, moments in it that are very intimate. But the main tenor and the arc of the album is definitely rock.

''But then I was also writing the record in the midst of it,'' he says, laughing. ''And some people knew I was doing it, so they were a little bit like, 'Oh, well, what kind of record is it going to be?' But no, it's definitely rock. The acoustic thing has been throwing people off a little bit because it's something I'm really enjoying doing.''

Kowalczyk, 38, has the opportunity to do the solo album and tour because Live, after more than 20 years together, announced in June it would take a two-year hiatus.

Live, which Kowalczyk formed in his native York, has sold more than 12 million copies of its eight albums, including 1994's ''Throwing Copper.'' That release went eight times platinum, had five Top 15 Modern Rock singles and kept one song, ''Lightning Crashes,'' on Billboard's Rock Album Track chart for 10 weeks.

But this spring, Kowalczyk did a series of acoustic shows at small theaters, began to write solo material and created his own Web site, http://www.eddieklive.com .

''I just got to the point -- I think all of us did -- where we said it's time to branch out and do some different things,'' he says. ''I wanted to explore this acoustic dimension, because it was invigorating me as an artist in such a way that I was surprised, actually, when I went in this direction. And that became the songwriting process for a solo record, then became me being in Austin. ... [It] just sort of became pretty obvious where, OK, this is the moment where, it's been a long time, let's spread our wings a little bit.''

Kowalczyk played one of those solo shows in Phoenix with Alexakis, whom he had met several times over the years. Alexakis has been the only constant member in the 17-year history of Everclear. But he had recorded several albums and toured solo, and was doing acoustic shows similar to Kowalczyk's.

''I watched his show and then he watched mine and we thought, 'Well, we're on the same page here,''' Kowalczyk says. ''And so it just made sense when I had this idea for Open Wings Broken Strings to reach out to Art and ask him if he would like to come, and he said he would love to.''

Kowalczyk added Nash to the bill because, even though they had never met, he admired her work with Sixpence -- whose biggest hits were 1999's ''Kiss Me'' and ''There She Goes.''

''She's just an amazing singer and songwriter,'' he says. ''I'm just a big fan of hers and we reached out to her and said, 'Hey, we're doing this thing.' And she jumped at the chance, too. So everybody's really excited to do it.''

Before the tour, which starts Thursday, Kowalczyk holed himself up in the Austin studio to work on his solo album, which he hopes to release in spring.

He worked through each song he had written, ''saying, 'OK, this is a rocker, this isn't, this I'll want to be more ethereal in.' ... I think it's a sound that people will be really happy with. I think the most important thing is they're going to get the emotional impact of the music in a way that's very refreshing.''

But that doesn't mean it will be drastically different from Live.

''As the songwriter and, of course, singer and melodist in Live, it's obviously got that thread running through it,'' he says. ''That'll be very familiar to people. The songwriting style, the lyrics are very searching and, I think, really passionate, and have spirituality in them that I'm known for. So that's going to be something people recognize right away.''

While Kowalczyk undertakes his solo projects, Live's other members -- guitarist Chad Taylor, bassist Patrick Dahlheimer and drummer Chad Gracey -- teamed with Kevin Martin and Sean Hennessy of Candlebox to form The Gracious Few. They reportedly are preparing to record an album with Jerry Harrison of Talking Heads as producer, also for spring release.

Even if his solo projects are successful, Kowalczyk says Live intends to resume at some point. But he says he can't promise it'll be in two years.

''At this point, being the kind of person and artist that I am, I like to put myself 150 percent into everything,'' he says. ''So as much we may have said a few months ago 'a two-year break,' or a break with a definitive time, I'm also going to put my heart and soul into this for awhile and it's going to be what it is.

''I'm following my heart on this, and wherever it leads, really.''

john.moser@mcall.com

610-820-6722
http://www.mcall.com/entertainment/music/a...0,1360303.story