The String Cheese Incident [ tickets ]'s first studio album in more than three years is due in stores on May 15, and the jam band will pave the way for its release with a series of spring tour dates. The four-week tour will launch in mid-April with a multi-night stand in Austin, Texas.

This tour will focus on smaller venues, but the group will play larger summer festivals this summer.

According to the group�s publicist, the String Cheese Incident has sold out most of the dates on its 21-show 2001 Winter Carnival Tour, which runs through March 18 and focuses on the West Coast. The current jaunt began in February with the group�s annual Mid-Winter Music Festival in Colorado, which sold almost 17,000 tickets over the five-day run.

The String Cheese Incident ended 2000 in Oregon at the Portland Convention Center, where the group held a three-day festival called 2001: A String Cheese Odyssey on Dec. 29-31. The festival followed a fall tour that saw the group visit much of the eastern U.S.

�Outside Inside,� the band�s forthcoming release, was recorded in Austin with producer Steve Berlin of Los Lobos.