Yusuf / Cat Stevens Returns With 'Tell 'Em I'm Gone,' Releasing On October 27

Singer-songwriter and 2014 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Yusuf / Cat Stevens has joined the label's storied musical family.

Legacy Recordings will release his first new studio album in five years, entitled "Tell 'Em I'm Gone," on October 27. Recorded across the globe, including Los Angeles, Dubai, Brussels, and London, the album features 10 brand-new studio recordings, including five original tracks and five carefully-chosen cover songs.

Tell 'Em I'm Gone features musical contributions from Richard Thompson, blues harmonica legend Charlie Musselwhite, singer-songwriter Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, Tuareg group Tinariwen, and guitarist Matt Sweeney.

The album was produced by Yusuf and Rick Rubin and was mixed by Yusuf and Paul Samwell-Smith.

The worldwide premiere of "Dying To Live," the first single from Tell 'Em I'm Gone is available now at RollingStone.com here: http://smarturl.it/dyingtolive

This new relationship with Legacy Recordings will include brand new recording projects, existing catalog titles, previously unreleased live material, and a treasure trove of audio and video from Yusuf/Cat Steven's personal archives.

The new album, Tell 'Em I'm Gone is the first piece of a larger relationship that will continue over the coming years.

Yusuf/Cat Stevens also announced that he will embark on his first North American tour in over 35 years, giving fans in select cities the opportunity to hear his remarkable catalog and superb new songs live, many for the first time. The Peace Train ...

Late Again tour will kick off December 1 at Massey Hall in Toronto and conclude on December 14 at Nokia Theatre LA LIVE in Los Angeles, CA. The Peace Train...

Late Again North American tour dates include:

December 1
Toronto- Massey Hall
December 4
Boston- Citi Performing Arts Center Wang Theatre
December 7
New York City- Beacon Theatre
December 9
Chicago- The Chicago Theatre
December 12
San Francisco- The Masonic
December 14
Los Angeles - Nokia Theatre L.A. LIVE

The North American tour comes on the heels of the European leg of the Peace Train...Late Again tour.

November 4
London, UK - Hammersmith Eventim Apollo
November 9
Brussels, Belgium - Forest National
November 11
Milan, Italy - Mediolanum Forum
November 13
Vienna, Austria - Stadthalle
November 16
Paris, France - Zenith
November 20
Berlin, Germany - Tempodrom
November 23
Hamburg, Germany - CCH 1
November 25
Dusseldorf, Germany - Mitsubishi Electric Hall

For complete ticket on sale information visit www.YusufCatStevens.com.

On Tell 'Em I'm Gone, Yusuf returns to the roots of his teenage musical inspiration: American blues and R&B, using these genres to explore humanity's climb to freedom with songs that recall the spirit of his earliest days as a nascent singer-songwriter in London.

Each track on the album revives the age-old themes of freedom and peace that have marked more than four decades of Yusuf's musical career.

Stunning originals like "I Was Raised In Babylon" and "Cat And The Dog Trap" plus covers of blues-pop and American song standards ("Big Boss Man," "You Are My Sunshine") and a moving version of Edgar Winter's "Dying To Live," find Yusuf as strong of voice and as engaging a performer as ever.

Tell 'Em I'm Gone is available now for pre-order at physical and digital music retailers.

"Although I was to venture through many lyrical terrains, melodious valleys and cadences during my fifty-year musical and spiritual exploration, and though many would agree that I have covered a lot of ground, there was always one path I meant to take. Hidden in the background behind my renowned troubadour persona lurked an R&B alter-self waiting to be let free," Yusuf says of the new album.

"What's powerful and profound, to me, is the overall message which emerged, lyrically.

It suddenly stared me in the face: the innate struggle for Freedom! Isn't that what most human beings dream of? Music and the Blues particularly was a means of escape for many chained to the destiny of the rich and powerful."

'TELL 'EM I'M GONE' TRACK LIST

I Was Raised In Babylon (Yusuf)
Big Boss Man (Luther Dixon-Al Smith)
Dying To Live (Edgar Winter)
You Are My Sunshine (Jimmie Davis-Charles Mitchell, arr.

Yusuf)
Editing Floor Blues (Yusuf)
Cat And The Dog Trap (Yusuf)
Gold Digger (Yusuf)
The Devil Came From Kansas (Gary Brooker-Keith Reid)
Tell 'Em I'm Gone (originally "Take This Hammer," arr. Yusuf)
Doors (Yusuf)