Wilco [ tickets ] will tackle a slate of late-year dates in an uncommon support role, opening for Neil Young [ tickets ] on his upcoming East Coast and Canadian outing.

The group--which is set to perform during both days (10/25-26) of Young and his wife Peggy's annual Bridge School Benefit in Mountain View, CA--will kick off the outing Nov. 29 in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The trek continues through a pair of back-to-back shows in New York (12/15-16).

The band will also find time for a pair of headlining shows while on the road with Young: Dec. 6 in Rochester, NY, and Dec. 16 in Baltimore. Details are shown below.

Wilco continues to tour behind "Sky Blue Sky," its seventh studio album. The set, which follows 2004's "A Ghost is Born," was recorded and self-produced by the band in its own Chicago studio, with TJ Doherty (Sonic Youth, The Hold Steady) handling recording chores and Jim Scott (The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Dixie Chicks) doing the mixing.

The album arrived on The Billboard 200 album chart in the No. 4 spot, marking the band's highest debut ever, and selling 87,000 copies in the US during its first week.

Frontman Jeff Tweedy recently told listeners of Albany, NY, radio station WAMC that he hopes to have the band's next studio album in stores by spring 2009, adding that he expects he and his bandmates will "allow ourselves a little bit more leeway in terms of sculpting the sound in the studio and doing overdubs and using the studio as another instrument. Last time around, it was more of a document."

The group is currently offering to anyone who pledges to vote in the upcoming Presidential Election a free download of a cover of "I Shall Be Released," performed with Fleet Foxes and recorded live in Bend, OR, in August. Fans can find the download (and sign their pledge) at the band's website.

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