Alt-rockers Blind Melon [ tickets ] have announced an initial batch of tour dates for 2008, continuing a comeback that began earlier this year with the band's first shows in a dozen years.

The band kicks off its next headlining run Feb. 28 in Riverdale, NJ, beginning a trek that will hit 22 cities through late April. The outing will also include a March 9 slot at the multi-day Langerado Festival in southern Florida. All dates are included below.

The California group disbanded abruptly in 1995 after lead singer Shannon Hoon died of a drug overdose, and surprised fans last fall when it announced that original members Glen Graham, Roger Stevens, Christopher Thorn and Brad Smith were regrouping with Texas-bred singer Travis Warren.

"Enough time has passed to honor and solidify the songs," bassist/vocalist Smith recently told the Toledo Free Press. "We couldn't have done it until now, but there's been enough healing in my heart and mind now. There's a percentage of people out there [upset] that we're carrying on without Shannon. Once they hear us play the old songs live, it will make sense to them."

The group is currently shopping for a record label and a release date for the still-untitled follow-up to 1995's "Soup."

"We've mixed seven songs and have maybe 12-13 to go," Stevens wrote of the album's progress on the band's MySpace blog this summer. Several of the group's new songs are streaming at Blind Melon's MySpace page.