British rock-'n'-soul veteran Joe Cocker [ tickets ] has assembled dates for a spring tour of North America.

The singer, who toured with the Steve Miller Band for much of 2008, is scheduled to launch the 15-show outing April 17 with several gigs across Florida, and then make his way across the US and into Canada through late May. Along the way, he'll stop by the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and California's Sonoma Jazz Festival. Details are listed below.

Cocker's latest album, "Hymn For My Soul," surfaced in the US in May and reached the Top 10 on Billboard's Christian albums chart. The set spans the decades with material by Stevie Wonder ("You Haven't Done Nothin'"), Bob Dylan ("Ring Them Bells"), George Harrison ("Beware of Darkness"), John Fogerty ("Long As I Can See The Light"), Percy Mayfield ("Rivers Invitation") and others. It also includes Cocker's version of The Beatles' "Come Together," which was featured in the Oscar-nominated film "Across The Universe."

The gospel/blues collection was produced by Ethan Johns (Ryan Adams, Ray LaMontagne), the son of Glyn Johns, who was the engineer on many of Cocker's early albums. The singer said he is grateful to the younger Johns for leading him in a new direction with an eclectic list of songs and a live sound.

"While not actually unplugged, this is as near to a live album as damn it," Cocker said in his bio. "There are no synthesizers, no gadgetry. We didn't use Pro Tools, and nailed every song in just a few takes." He added, "This is the most musical record I've made in a very long time."

"Hymn For My Soul" follows the performer's 2007 best-of album, "Classic Cocker," which features 19 tracks from his Capitol and Epic/550 Records releases as well as hits from major film soundtracks. A deluxe CD/DVD edition adds three filmed concert performances and five music videos.