First up is the Four Horsemen Tour, with Guy Clark, Ely, John Hiatt and Lyle Lovett. The 33-city tour of the U.S. and Canada, which kicked off January 13 in Cincinnati, Ohio, features the four musicians swapping songs and stories on stage, and runs through March 19.

Next, Ely will head overseas as part of an acoustic trio for a tour of Holland, Norway, Scotland and England that kicks off April 20 and runs through the end of the month.

After a stop May 6 in Indio, Calif., for the inaugural outing of Goldenvoice’s Stagecoach festival, Ely will spend the rest of May and June on the road with The Flatlanders. So far only a handful of dates for the tour have been announced, including May 9 in Dallas, May 25 in Milwaukee and May 26 in Chicago.

Ely will release his next album, Happy Songs from Rattlesnake Gulch, on February 9, which also happens to be his birthday.

He’ll also release a book of what he calls “rambling poemblogs” entitled “Bonfire of Roadmaps” in early February, and a pair of spoken word albums, Iron Rhinos and Xpedition Mpossible, taken from the book in April.