Jefferson's Tree of Liberty - Promotion and Tour

Promotion and Tour

The album was promoted in several different ways. In addition to the band's own website, a Myspace page was started with several tracks from the album available for listening. The band also posted a live performance of "Chimes of Freedom" to YouTube, and later added a video montage of the studio sessions set to the studio version of the same song. In June, 2008, 3 days of concerts featuring Kantner, Freiberg, Richardson, and Smith were held in Larkspur near San Francisco with performances of Kantner's previous albums Blows Against the Empire, Baron von Tollbooth & the Chrome Nun and all the tracks from the new album. In addition, several "listening parties" were held where fans in attendance along with press could hear the album in its entirety before the band itself performed. After the June concerts in Larkspur, several concerts in California and New England including listening parties followed. In late July, a tour of the United Kingdom and Italy began. Slick Aguilar could not tour outside of the US, so Jeff Pevar and John Ferenzik took over guitar duties, and Tony Morley joined the band playing rhythm guitar, mandolin, and percussion. The European tour ended shortly before the album's release and the American tour resumed on the release date of the album, with Aguilar returning and with Marty Balin joining the band for some of the American concerts. The band decided to tour in two different configurations: for the most part they would perform as an acoustic ensemble with Kantner, Freiberg, Richardson, and Smith; and occasionally they would play a full electric set and include Aguilar, Baldwin, and sometimes Balin. The tour continued throughout 2008 with a tour of the East Coast, West Coast, and Midwest of the United States. In November, Kantner, Smith, Richardson, and Freiberg left the mainland and performed in Hawaii followed by a tour in Japan, with Tony Morley joining again in Japan. Balin was scheduled for the Hawaii concerts, but did not attend. A further tour was announced in February 2009 covering several US states, the UK, and Holland. In April, the electric version of the band joined David Grisman as "The Jefferson-Grisman" project for a series of performances in April. In June, Jeff Pevar joined the band as bassist, and the band changed its focus from the album to Jefferson Airplane's Woodstock Festival material touring in the electric configuration with Tom Constanten, Canned Heat, Ten Years After, Big Brother & the Holding Company, and Country Joe MacDonald for a tour known as "Heroes of Woodstock." The tour is scheduled to the end of October.