2016 Preview: Jethro Tull

After launching Jethro Tull – The Rock Opera to tell the story of the 15th- and 16th-century agriculturist Jethro Tull, Ian Anderson will be keeping the production on the road this year in both Europe and North America.

The band’s frontman also plans to make a document of it this time around.

The show features five new songs and 20 shorter connecting pieces, and Anderson also wants to preserve the contributions by the show’s on-screen collaborators, including Ryan O’Donnell, David Goodier and Icelandic singer-fiddler Unnur Birna Björnsdóttir.

“I think they deserve to be enshrined in the brief history of Jethro Tull as being people I worked with and enjoyed working with, even though they’re not with me in person every night,” Anderson says.

Tull fans can also expect another three deluxe reissue packages from the group’s catalogue, all remastered by Steven Wilson.

Gary Graff is an award-winning veteran music journalist based in metro Detroit, writing regularly for Billboard, Ultimate Classic Rock, Media News Group, Music Connection, United Stations Radio Networks and others. Graff’s work has also appeared in Rolling Stone, Guitar World, Classic Rock, Revolver, the San Francisco Chronicle, AARP magazine, the Detroit Jewish News, The Forward and others. Graff has co-written and edited books about Bob Seger, Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen. A professional voter for the Grammy Awards and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Graff co-founded the Detroit Music Awards in 1989 and continues as the organisation’s chief producer.