Hutchinson has been on the road all year with acts including OneRepublic, Missy Higgins, Marie Digby, Ingrid Michaelson and Blind Melon. He plans to kick off 2009 with a tour of Japan, according to a press release.

"Sounds Like This," released last year on Hutchinson's Let's Break Records label, cracked The Billboard 200 and shot to No. 1 on the Top Heatseekers chart. Thanks to an endorsement by celebrity blogger Perez Hilton, the set started tearing up the iTunes album chart and became the highest-ranking album by an unsigned act in the history of the digital-music store, according to Hutchinson's bio.

An exclusive iTunes version of the record, featuring two bonus tracks and the video for hit single "Rock & Roll," will be released next week. "Rock & Roll," which is currently No. 13 at Triple A radio after 11 weeks, is also featured on the film soundtrack "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2." That song and a few others from "Sounds Like This" are streaming at Hutchinson's MySpace page.

The singer took matters into his own hands after becoming a casualty of the Maverick Records closure. With the plug pulled on his major-label recording sessions, Hutchinson returned to the road to get more experience and boost exposure before recording for his own indie label, according to his bio.

Even though he's on a roll supporting his current album, Hutchinson is already writing material for his sophomore effort.

"I need to be able to road test songs before I feel comfortable putting them on an album," he explained his bio.