Gabel, accompanied by Chuck Ragan (Hot Water Music), Ben Nichols (Lucero) and Tim Barry (Avail), kicks off the Revival Tour October 30 at Slim’s in San Francisco and will hit clubs and theatres across the country through mid-November.

Highlights include stops at Knitting Factory Hollywood in Los Angeles (November 1), Beauty Bar in Las Vegas (November 4), Tequila Jungle in Lubbock, Texas (November 7), Walter’s On Washington in Houston (November 10), Juanita’s Cantina Ballroom in Little Rock, Ark. (November 13), and WorkPlay Theatre in Birmingham, Ala. (November 15).

For the tour, Gabel, Ragan, Nicols and Barry will trade off playing solo sets of their own songs as well a collaboration on each other’s material.

Burns, due October 28 on Sire Records, was written by Gabel as a response to the current political and cultural landscape. Because of the timely and topical nature of the EP’s seven cuts, the singer decided to release them around the time of the upcoming Presidential election, rather than wait until he had a full album’s worth of material.

The centerpiece of the disc is “Anna Is a Stool Pigeon,” which Gabel wrote after reading about environmental activist Eric McDavid who was convicted in 2007 of conspiring to use explosives to damage corporate and government property after being implicated by an undercover FBI informant who posed as an activist. McDavid’s defense has argued that he was the victim of entrapment. He currently faces a sentence of up to 20 years in prison.

“What struck me most about the story was a sense of familiarity,” Gabel said. “I know the scene he was part of, I used to be a part of it myself. I’ve thought the same thoughts, talked the same talk. I’ve hung out with the same people, gone to similar protests. If Eric could have become the target of an FBI sting operation, then so could I. This could have been me.”