If an acoustic album from a big-name singer-songwriter-type is only as good as the backstory about the interesting circumstances behind its recording, then Conor Oberst’s new album Ruminations is already off to a good start. According to a press release, Oberst recorded it while spending the winter in his hometown of Omaha, Nebraska, after having lived in New York for a decade. He says he wasn’t planning to make an album, as “winter in Omaha can have a paralyzing effect on a person,” but he ended up staying awake at night and playing piano while “watching the snow pile up outside the window.” Before long, he realized he had written a bunch of songs, so he threw together “raw” and “unadorned” solo recordings of them—which is to say that the tracks on Ruminations are just “Oberst alone with his guitar, piano, and harmonica.”
Oberst will also be going on tour this fall to promote the album, with the press release naturally describing the shows as “intimate solo performances.” The tour dates and the cover art for Ruminations are below.
Conor Oberst 2016 Tour Dates:
8/18—309 N Pine Street—Grand Island, NE
8/20—Rocky Mountain Folks Festival—Lyons, CO
9/28—Fremont Theatre—San Luis Obispo, CA
10/1—The Fillmore—San Francisco, CA