Alt-country mainstays Cowboy Junkies [ tickets ] and Son Volt [ tickets ] will head out together for a series of co-headlining dates later this summer.

The tour gets underway July 8 in Denver, CO, and the two bands will hit a total of eight cities together on the Western US trek, which continues through a July 23 date in Spokane, WA. Details are included below.

"We are very excited about our summer run with Son Volt," said the Junkies' Michael Timmins in a statement. "[Son Volt frontman] Jay Farrar has mined many of the same sources of inspiration that we have, so it should make for a great night of music."

Cowboy Junkies' most recent studio album is 2007's "At the End of Paths Taken." The same year also saw the release of "Trinity Revisited," which found the band returning to Toronto's Holy Trinity Church to record a 20th anniversary version of the group's 1988 breakthrough, "The Trinity Sessions," featuring a host of guest talent on hand, including Natalie Merchant, Ryan Adams, Vic Chesnutt and others.

In September, the Junkies announced at their website that they would spend the next few months working on material for a new studio album and "trying to think up new and improved ways of surviving."

Son Volt's most recent studio effort, "The Search," surfaced in 2007. The band's next album, "American Central Dust," is due in stores July 7, according to the band's webite. The record represents the first fruit of the group's deal with its new label, Rounder.

"Rounder has shown a long term commitment to music forms, like folk and blues, that I have a lot of respect for," Farrar said in a press release. "Going with Rounder has been a kind of a full circle continuum--the first Rounder person I met with was instrumental in booking Uncle Tupelo gigs years ago."