Ed Kowalczyk announced a string of west coast dates this week that will kick off immediately following Kowalczyk's headlining appearance on the 2011 "Open Wings Broken Strings" Tour.  The new tour dates are:

Sat-Mar-19 Grand Theatre Reno, NV
Sun-Mar-20 Stinger's San Bernardino, CA
Tue-Mar-22 Anthology San Diego, CA
Wed-Mar-23 The Coach House San Juan Capistrano, CA
Thu-Mar-24 Hotel Cafe Los Angeles, CA
Fri-Mar-25 Yoshi's San Francisco, CA

For the 2011 Open Wings Broken Strings Tour Kowalczyk will be joined by Tonic lead singer Emerson Hart and Sixpense None the Richer singer Leigh Nash.  A fan favorite tour among Kowalczyk's fans, the tour is now in it's third year.  Previous year's tours included Everclear lead singer Art Alexakis, who's replaced by Emerson Hart for the 2011 version of the tour.

Kowalczyk told Alternative Addiction during an interview last summer that playing songs completely by himself on the Open Wings Tour definitely took some getting used to.

“About halfway through the show you realize you’re the whole show,” Kowalczyk explained.  “You can’t throw to a big band jam or something like that.  You are just there with the people in a different sort of way.”

Even though his solo shows were completely different than playing with a band, Kowalczyk started to realize that playing solo was also an incredible opportunity to connect with his fans in a more intimate way than he had as a part of Live. 

“I think a lot of people were surprised with the voice and clarity that my songs had without the production and [a full band],” explained Kowalczyk.  “That kind of started a whole process of reconnecting with the fans, inspiring new material, and re-inspiring me as a person.”

Open Wings Broken Strings 2011 kicks off March 1st in State College, PA.  Full dates are below:

Tuesday, March 1 - The State Theatre - State College, PA
Wednesday, March 2 - Infinity Hall - Norfolk, CT
Thursday, March 3 - YMCA Boulton Center - Bay Shore, NY
Friday, March 4 - City Winery - New York, NY
Saturday, March 5 - The Westcott Theater - Syracuse, NY
Sunday, March 6 - Spruce Peak Performing Arts Center - Stowe, VT