Journey Preps For ‘Eclipse’

Journey’s upcoming album, Eclipse, is scheduled to drop May 24 in the U.S. and Canada. But don’t look for it on Amazon.com, at your local Best Buy or even at Barnes & Noble. Instead, head on over to Walmart because Sam Walton’s mega-retail chain is the exclusive store for Eclipse on this side of the pond. Eclipse lands in Europe June 3.

And there will be plenty of opportunities to hear songs from the new album performed live this summer when Journey hits the touring superhighway with Foreigner and Night Ranger for the “Eclipse” tour beginning July 21 in Sandy, Utah, near SLC at Rio Tinto Stadium. Playing mostly amphitheatres, stops also include Irvine, Calif., at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre July 23, Phoenix at Desert Sky Pavilion July 24 and Maryland Heights near St. Louis at Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre July 27.

The list of cities on the routing also includes Clarkston, Mich., near Detroit (July 31), Cincinnati (Aug. 3), Noblesville, Ind., near Indianapolis (Aug. 6), Wantagh, N.Y. (Aug. 17), Raleigh, N.C. (Aug. 20), New Orleans (Sept. 10), Dallas (Sept. 24) and Seattle (Oct. 21).

In case you haven’t been paying attention the last few years, Journey’s current lineup consists of original members Neal Schon on guitar and bassist Ross Valory along with Jonathan Cain on keyboards, drummer Deen Castronovo on drums and lead singer Arnel Pineda.

But it’s not like Cain, Castronovo and Pineda are exactly newcomers to Journey. Cain joined in 1980, Castronovo in 1998 and Pineda hooked up with the band in 2007.

“We’ve got a lot of hits to play and there’s plenty of time to do some new stuff too, so we’re gonna mix it up,” Schon said. “We haven’t toured with Foreigner for over 10 years, so we’re really looking forward to this run.”

Tickets go on sale beginning March 11. Check out JourneyMusic.com for more information.