Steve Earle [ tickets ] will tour North America through mid-March as he continues to support his critically-acclaimed 2002 album, "Jerusalem."

Even before its release, the country maverick's sixth album in six years garnered much negative attention on conservative talk-shows for its track "John Walker's Blues," which was written from the perspective of so-called American Taliban John Walker Lindh, and explores how Lindh may have ended up in Afghanistan.

"Fundamentalism, as practiced by the Taliban, is the enemy of real thought, and religion too," Earle said in a statement. "But there are circumstances."

In the end, the controversy died down and "Jerusalem" appeared on many critics' 2002 Top 10 lists. The album entered the Billboard 200 album chart at No. 59--his highest debut ever--and debuted on the Country chart at No. 7.

Mississippi-born singer-songwriter Garrison Starr, who released an album titled "Songs from Take-Off to Landing" in 2002, supports on all of Earle's upcoming North American dates.