Last month, Sufjan Stevens and his label, Asthmatic Kitty, put out a trailer for Carrie & Lowell, the gentle-voiced folk rocker’s first solo album in five years. Now, they’ve released a single, “No Shade In The Shadow Of The Cross” to stoke interest in the album’s March 31 release. As with the album’s title track, heard in the trailer, the song seems to be a step back from the harsher sounds of Stevens’ last major release, 2010’s The Age Of Adz. A breathy, Christianity-tinged acoustic meditation on love and loss—or, in technical terms, “a Sufjan Stevens song”—“Cross” is only a few Abraham Lincoln references shy of fitting in on Stevens’ breakout 2005 album Illinois. The only nod to the darker turn Adz seemed to signal is the song’s solitary use of the word “fuck,”a momentary sharp moment in the song’s sad, meandering daydream of sound.
Asthmatic Kitty also announced the addition of second shows for some of the stops in Stevens’ 2015 tour, with dates added for Chicago, Philadelphia, Brooklyn, and Los Angeles.
04/09 – Philadelphia, PA @ Academy of Music 04/10 – Philadelphia, PA @ Academy of Music 04/11 – New York, NY @ Beacon Theater 04/12 – Hartford, CT @ The Bushnell Center for Performing Arts 04/14 – Portland, ME @ Merrill Auditorium 04/15 – Albany, NY @ The Palace Theater 04/16 – Cleveland, OH @ Cleveland Masonic Auditorium 04/17 – Columbus, OH @ Palace Theater 04/18 – Indianapolis, IN @ The Murat Theatre 04/20 – St. Louis, MO @ Peabody Opera House 04/21 – Kansas City, MO @ Midland Theater 04/22 – Minneapolis, MN @ Northrop Auditorium 04/23 – Milwaukee, WI @ Riverside Theater 04/24 – Chicago, IL @ Chicago Theatre 04/25 – Chicago, IL @ Chicago Theatre 04/27 – Detroit, MI @ Masonic Temple 04/28 – Grand Rapids, MI @ Convenant Fine Arts Center 04/29 – Toronto, ON @ Massey Hall 04/30 – Montreal, QC @ Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier 05/01 – Brooklyn, NY @ Kings Theatre 05/02 – Brooklyn, NY @ Kings Theatre 05/04 – Boston, MA @ Wang Theatre 05/05 – Washington, DC @ DAR Constitution Hall 05/06 – Richmond, VA @ Altria Theater 05/07 – Durham, NC @ Durham Performing Arts Center 05/09 – New Orleans, LA @ Saenger Theatre 05/10 – Dallas, TX @ Majestic Theatre 05/11 – Houston, TX @ Jones Hall for the Performing Arts 05/12 – Austin, TX @ Bass Concert Hall 06/02 – San Diego, CA @ Copley Symphony Hall 06/03 – Los Angeles, CA @ Dorthy Chandler Pavilion 06/04 – Los Angeles, CA @ Dorthy Chandler Pavilion 06/05 – Oakland, CA @ Fox Theater 06/06 – Oakland, CA @ Fox Theater 06/08 – Portland, OR @ Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall 06/09 – Vancouver, BC @ Orpheum Theatre 06/10 – Seattle, WA @ The Paramount Theatre 06/11 – Seattle, WA @ The Paramount Theatre 07/17-18 – Eau Claire, WI @ Eaux Claires Festival 09/04-06 – Wiltshire, UK @ End of the Road Festival
