Yesterday, the TAB Winter Tour was officially announced. Beginning on Feb. 18 in Portland, ME the tour will see the Classic Tab lineup visit familiar northeastern venues before heading to the mid-west and then down the west coast to close it out at Oakland’s coveted Fox Theatre. The lineup will be the same as last year featuring Natalie Cressman (trombone and vocals), Jennifer Hartswick (trumpet and vocals), Russ Lawton (drums), Tony Markellis (bass and vocals), Ray Paczkowski (keyboards) and Russell Remington (tenor saxophone and flute). The full list of dates are posted below.

What’s particularly interesting about this announcement is that Trey will also perform a solo acoustic set each night as he did on his first solo tour in ’99. Much like the JGB format, Trey begins the night with the acoustic performance followed by a full band electric set. The tour in ’99 that featured these acoustic sets is one of my favorites and so I am very happy to see him revisit this format.

A limited number of tickets for all shows will be available through a real-time ticket presale beginning Friday January 14th at 10:00 AM EST and ending Thursday January 20th at 5:00 PM EST through Trey’s online ticketing system at http://treytickets.rlc.net . For complete venue and general public onsale information please visit http://trey.com/tours/.

Leading into these acoustic performances, chances are Trey will be performing much of his newer material mixed in with some old classics, as he did recently in Princeton. However, my hope is that he will be creative and bring out some of his shelved acoustic originals and covers like “Kissed by Mist” or “Snowflakes In the Sand”. I think it is also likely that he will bring a piano along.

Looking back, here are a few special acoustic moments from that lone acoustic/electric tour back in the Spring of ’99.

“Aftermath” feat. Roger Holloway (1999.5.7)

“Snowflakes in the Sand” (1999.5.10)

“Kissed by Mist” (1999.5.10)

TAB Winter Tour Dates

2/18 State Theatre – Portland, ME
2/19 Palace Theatre – Albany, NY
2/20 House of Blues – Boston, MA
2/22 Terminal 5 – New York, NY
2/23 Electric Factory – Philadelphia, PA
2/25 StageAE – Pittsburgh, PA
2/26 Lifestyle Communities Pavilion – Columbus, OH
2/27 Riviera Theatre – Chicago, IL
3/1 Ogden Theatre – Denver, CO
3/2 Ogden Theatre – Denver, CO
3/4 The Music Box – Los Angeles, CA
3/5 Fox Theater – Oakland, CA

2.11.10 (Redredworm)