PATTI SMITH & BAND Album/Tour
Yes, the long-awaited moment is upon us. The newest album by Patti Smith and Her Band, Banga, arrives on June 5 at your local record emporium and on-the-download.
The twelve tracks are: Amerigo, April Fool, Fuji-San, This Is The Girl, Banga, Maria, Mosaic, Tartovsky (The Second Stop Is Jupiter), 9, Seneca, Constantine’s Dream, and a version of Neil Young’s After The Gold Rush. Recorded over a three-year period at New York’s Electric Lady and Weehawken’s Hobo Sound, it features guest appearances by Tom Verlaine, Jackson Smith, Jesse Smith, and the musicians of Italy’s Casa Del Vento.
A European tour begins on June 23 in Bergen, Norway, and continues throughout the summer. For further details and venues, visit pattismith.net.

KEVN KINNEY WRITES A POEM
About me! It’s not often that I get semi-iambic pentameter in a stream-of-consciousness scribed in my behalf, or is it beholden; but Kevn, one of the most imspirational musicians I know, has done me the honors in a recent Magnet piece. And do return the favor by checking out Kevn’s latest album, A Good Country Mile, backed by Anton Fier and various Golden Palaminos.

CELEBRATING BOOKS AND RECORDS
There is no better place to roam amidst the fields of creativity than a book or record store. On April 21, on Independent Record Store Day, I’ll be appearing solo at my “local,” the Main Street Jukebox in Stroudsburg, Pa. My set begins at 5:15 and will celebrate the pleasures of vinyl obsession, including a rendition of a song I haven’t played since the 1980s: “Record Collector,” and the social circles that go round and round and round….
On April 23, on World Book Night, I’ll be appearing at Barnes and Noble on the north end of Union Square in New York City at 7 p.m. I’m not sure what the programme will be, but I might cut-and-paste a medley of “Book of Love” and “Can’t Judge A Book By Looking At The Cover.” Just a-readin’ and a-rockin’….