The group will make its next appearance May 31 at Mountain Jam Fest at Hunter Mountain in Hunter, N.Y., and has dates on the books in the U.S. and abroad through September.

Highlights include The Roots’ Picnic at Festival Pier in Philadelphia (June 7), Bonnaroo Music Festival in Manchester, Tenn. (June 14), Jazz Aspen Snowmass in Aspen, Colo. (June 21), the Oulala Festival in Saint Bonnet le Chateau, France (July 4), Roskilde Festival in Denmark (July 6), Cactus Festival at Minne Waterpark in Brugge, Belgium (July 11), Pori Jazz Festival in Finland (July 17), Lollapalooza at Grant Park in Chicago (August 2), Virgin Mobile Festival at Pimlico Race Track in Baltimore (August 9), Central Park Summerstage in New York City (August 17), the Outside Lands Music & Arts Festival at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco (August 24), Monolith Festival at Red Rocks Amphitheatre near Denver (September 14) and the Austin City Limits Music Festival in the city’s Zilker Park (September 27).

Jones and The Dap Kings will also play a few high-profile opening gigs including June 6 at Toyota Park in Bridgeview, Ill., with Dave Matthews Band and July 20 at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles with Feist.

Tickets for some of the U.S. shows on the schedule are available at Ticketmaster.com.

The seeds of Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings were planted in 1996, when Jones talked her way into a gig singing with ’70s soul legend Lee Fields.

“Bosco Mann was trying to start his record label, Desco, and he needed some background singers for Lee Fields,” Jones told Pollstar. “He needed three girls to back him up. My ex used to play saxophone with him, so he said, ‘My lady sings; maybe she knows two girls.’

“So he called me up, and I said, ‘Why use three girls? You can pay me this amount of money, and I can sing all three parts.’ And almost 12 years later, here I am.”

Over the next four years, Jones sang as part of the Desco Soul Revue, backed by house band the Soul Providers. The group released several albums and toured internationally, with Jones quickly earning the title “Queen of Funk.”

Internal business conflicts caused the demise of Desco Records and the end of the Desco Soul Revue in early 2000. Jones and Mann, along with Soul Providers guitarist Binky Griptite, organist Earl Maxton, percussionist Fernando Velez, trumpeter Anda Szilagyi and baritone saxophonist Jack Zapata drafted tenor saxophonist Leon Michels and drummer Homer Steinweiss to form Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings.

The new group toured extensively in the U.S. and abroad over the next six years, with a few lineup changes along the way.

Although the band quickly built a sizeable following in Europe, it wasn’t as easy for them to get taken seriously in the States.

That all changed over the past two years. While the band was taking a break, Jones and The Dap Kings worked on a variety of side projects, including recording and touring with British sensation Amy Winehouse, working with producer Mark Ronson, guesting on tracks by Robbie Williams and performing with Lou Reed.

The attention garnered by those high profile artists had the added side effect of propelling the group into the spotlight in the U.S.

As far as Jones is concerned, stepping into the background for a little while didn’t diminish the band at all.

“Everything is combined,” she said. “You do the album, and then you go do shows. When we slack down, we can do things separately, and then we get back together and keep trying to put out an album every year.”

And in the end, what matters most to Jones is stepping back out on the stage.

“I’ll tell people in a second, ‘Buy my album, but you need to come and see a show.'”