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Okkervil River announce monthly live album series, touring this summer

Lost Weekend 2 at Cheer Up Charlies - Thursday
Okkervil River at Lost Weekend 2 (more by Amanda M Hatfield)

Okkervil River are launching a live album series called “A Dream in the Dark: Two Decades of Okkervil River Live” where there’ll be a new digital live album every month for a year. Main man Will Sheff has all the details:

Ok, here goes. “A Dream in the Dark: Two Decades of Okkervil River Live,” tells the story of Okkervil River’s 21-year existence through 12 live albums released digitally once a month for a year. Each album comes with comprehensive liner notes featuring new essays, journal entries, interviews, archival photos and more. Subscribers to the series will also get really cool physical rewards, early access to pre-sale tickets for our 2019 “Rarities & Requests” tour (and a guaranteed request on that tour), and more! I’ve been working on this project for quite some time and I’m beyond thrilled to finally let the cat out of the bag.

There will be a new album out at the start of every month, “jumping back and forth thru time.” You can buy the digital albums individually, or subscribe to the whole series with some cool extras (t-shirts, art prints, more.) The first in the series is a show from 2007 with a string and brass section that Will says happened right after they finished The Stage Names. Check out the artwork, tracklist and more more details below.

Okkervil River are also going on tour this summer, beginning June 18 in San Francisco and wrapping up July 17 at City Winery in NYC, with shows also in Seattle, Vancouver, Portland, San Diego, Los Angeles, Toronto, Chicago, DC, Philly and more. Tickets for the City Winery show will be on sale soon.

The band’s most recent studio album was last year’s In The Rainbow Rain. Listen to that and check out Okkervil River’s tour schedule, below.

okkervil river live 2007

Recorded in a large concert hall just as the band was putting the finishing touches on The Stage Names – and featuring the live debuts of several of those songs – Orchestral in 2007 sees the band backed by a full orchestra including a string and brass section and backup singers in the most grandly sweeping show the band had played up to that point. Multi-tracked by Jeff Hoskins (Okkervil River’s sound engineer at the time and the engineer on Stars Too Small to Use) Orchestral in 2007 weaves together selections from the band’s previous three albums, reunites the band with some of the earliest founding members to resurrect some live rarities from very early in the catalogue, and the concert culminates in an electrifying slow orchestral version of “For Real” with Will at piano. Extensive liner notes include photographs and a lengthy excerpt from Will’s diaries documenting the show and the completion of The Stage Names.

Volume One: Orchestral in 2007 tracklist
Maine Island Lovers
The War Criminal Rises and Speaks
Our Life is Not a Movie or Maybe
A Hand to Take Hold of the Scene
Seas Too Far to Reach
Oh, Precious
I Want to Know (Fugs cover)
Listening to Otis Redding at Home During Christmas
For Real (slow version)
Title Track (first live performance)
Song of Our So-Called Friend
So Come Back, I Am Waiting

OKKERVIL RIVER – 2019 TOUR DATES
Jun 18 7:00 PM San Francisco The Chapel
Jun 20 8:00 PM Seattle The Crocodile
Jun 21 7:00 PM Vancouver, CA The Wise Hall CAD
Jun 22 8:00 PM Portland Mississippi Studios
Jun 23 6:30 PM Eugene Session Music Hall
Jun 24 7:00 PM Chico The Big Room at Sierra Nevada Brewery
Jun 25 7:00 PM Sacramento Harlow’s
Jun 27 8:30 PM San Diego The Casbah
Jun 28 8:00 PM West Hollywood Troubadour
Jul 9 7:00 PM Ithaca The Haunt
Jul 10 7:30 PM Toronto, CA The Great Hall
Jul 12 9:30 PM Chicago Old Town School of Folk Music
Jul 13 7:00 PM Ferndale Magic Bag
Jul 15 7:00 PM Washington DC The Hamilton Live
Jul 16 7:00 PM Philadelphia World Cafe Live
Jul 17 6:00 PM New York City City Winery

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