The 30-city North American trek kicked off September 25 at World Café Live in Philadelphia, and will make its way across the U.S., with a couple of Canadian stops along the way.

Arthur will also work in an October 10th performance on the “Late Show With David Letterman,” and will wrap up the tour November 8th on the “Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson.”

Each show on Arthur’s fall tour will feature two sets. The first set will consist of Nuclear Daydream in it’s entirety, and the second will be made up of songs culled from hisprevious albums along with some new material being debuted on the tour.

Discovered by Peter Gabriel in 1997 and subsequently signed to Gabriel’s Real World label, Arthur is ordinarily a virtual one man band during his live performances, utilizing a vast array of pedals and effects to recreate his studio recordings.

This time out however, he’ll be accompanied by a veteran four-piece band which will add keyboards, guitars, drums and bass to his live sound.

The addition of a band isn’t the only thing Arthur is doing differently these days. He recently took his career into his own hands, and formed his own label, Lonely Astronaut Records.

The decision to strike out on his own grew out of his frustration with the major label system. He wanted the freedom to be able to release new music whenever he felt like he had something new to say, not just when the label said it was time.

“Our plan is to put great records out often. There is a new sense of freedom blossoming out of this venture,” he said.

True to his word, Arthur is making the most of that new-found freedom. Earlier this year, he released a hardcover book of original artwork, “We Almost Made It,” which was accompanied by a 21-track instrumental CD, The Invisible Parade, and he already has plans to release another new album in late summer 2007.

One thing Arthur is planning to repeat from his previous tours is the availability of a unique souvenir. In the past, each performance was recorded from beginning to end, and was made available to fans on CD immediately following the show. Arthur hopes to begin making these CDs available again beginning with his September 27 show in New York.