Craig Finn Solo Tour

The album, Clear Heart Full Eyes, will be released Jan. 24 on Vagrant. The singer/guitarist recently talked to Slate.com about “Friday Night Lights,” which he calls one of his “two favorite shows of all time,” and how the TV sports drama influenced the album’s title.

“There aren’t any songs about anyone in ‘Friday Night Lights,’” Finn said. “But the title is obviously a nod and a wink and a lift to it. And I always loved that part, when they would say, “Clear eyes, full heart, can’t lose.” I thought that was really poetic, you know, for a high school football team. So I was just playing around with that.

“I was also influenced by the fact that I went down to Austin to make it, which is close enough to where the fictitious Dillon is that a couple of times [characters on the show] went into Austin to see bands or something. Also, playing with the words on paper, ‘clear’ and ‘full’ begin with a C and an F like Craig Finn. So that was just sort of playing around with words on a piece of paper.”

The 2012 tour begins Feb. 1 in Dallas at Dada Dallas. Dates are booked through a Feb. 24 gig in Seattle at The Crocodile.

Additional shows include Oklahoma City (Feb. 2); Omaha, Neb. (Feb. 3); Minneapolis (Feb. 4); Chicago (Feb. 7); Detroit (Feb. 8); Columbus, Ohio (Feb. 9); St. Louis (Feb. 10); Kansas City, Mo. (Feb. 11); Denver (Feb. 13); West Hollywood, Calif. (Feb. 20); and Portland, Ore. (Feb. 23).

More dates will be announced soon.

Tickets went on sale today. Mount Moriah will open for Finn, with the exception of the Denver show.

Click here for Craig Finn’s Tumblr and here for his Twitter.

Click here for the Hold Steady’s website.