CLUTCH Announces May Tour Dates, Including First-Ever EARTH ROCKER FESTIVAL

Maryland rockers CLUTCH have announced a string of headlining dates with support from LUCERO and THE SWORD. CLUTCH has also announced its first annual Earth Rocker Festival, which will be held on May 20 at Shiley Acres in Inwood, West Virgina.

"We did a whole bunch of touring in 2016," states CLUTCH frontman Neil Fallon. "Right now, we’re cooling our heels and starting to kick around some riffs for the next record. We hope to be recording the LP come the end of the year. Where and with whom is yet [to be determined]. At the moment, though, we're really just at the beginning phase of writing and we already have a surplus of ideas.

"In other news, this spring we will be hosting the first annual Earth Rocker Festival. It'll take place in Shiley Acres, West Virginia. We played at Shiley Acres last year and it was a real blast. Our intent is to have a really diverse bill. If all goes as planned, Earth Rocker Festival will continue as an annual event, hopefully growing in scope over the years."

CLUTCH, LUCERO and THE SWORD tour dates:

May 10 - Asheville, NC @ Highland Brewing Company
May 12 - Louisville, KY @ Palace Theatre
May 13 - Grand Rapids, MI @ 20 Monroe Live
May 15 - Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Steel
May 16 - Providence, RI @ Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel
May 17 - Port Chester, NY @ The Capitol Theatre
May 19 - Norfolk, VA @ The NorVa
May 20 - Inwood, WV @ Earth Rocker Festival @ Shiley Acres

CLUTCH's latest album, "Psychic Warfare", debuted at No. 11 on The Billboard 200 chart after shifting 26,000 equivalent album units in the week ending October 8, 2015.

"Psychic Warfare" was released via CLUTCH's own label Weathermaker Music.

CLUTCH drummer Jean-Paul Gaster told How Was It Detroit? about the band's plans for 2017: "We're gonna write some, and then we're gonna go back on tour. Touring really never ends. We take breaks from time to time. We'll take off the first three months of next year and we'll get down to writing, see what kind of direction that's gonna take us in, and then start making plans to record. Probably what will happen is we will do some shows in the spring, and then, for us, it's really important to play the new songs live, so I have a feeling that wherever we choose to record, we'll do shows on the way out there to work through the material, play the material. You know, for me, as a drummer, those experiences are crucial to recording a record that, at the end of the day, you feel proud of. In the live setting, you can immediately tell where the pulse of that tune is. You gauge by the audience reaction, how they're latching on to whatever groove that is, and you start to tweak things — you might pull stuff back or you might push stuff, change up an approach entirely, maybe. But that's really crucial — it really brings the song to life."