The singer/songwriter announced the outing through a fake press conference, with highlights shown on his website, answering staged questions from a record player in a room later shown to be full of empty chairs.

Waits, who kicks off the run June 17 in Phoenix, offered a "guiding word" during the video in the form of "PEHDTSCKJMBA," the acronym of all the initial letters of the tour's stops, in chronological order. Waits said that the "word" stood for the phrase "People Envy Happiness, Dogs Though, Sense Courage Knowing Jubilation Means Better Assets."

The tour covers mainly dates in Southern cities. The last time Waits toured, in 2006, the singer performed mainly in the Midwest. All dates are listed below.

Waits' most recent release is 2006's sprawling "Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers and Bastards," a 3-CD collection of both old and new tunes. The three-hour-plus collection features 54 songs, among them 30 new recordings.

Waits produced the album with his wife and longtime collaborator, Kathleen Brennan.

Last summer, Waits released a download-only single, "Diamond In Your Mind," recorded with the Kronos Quartet--along with the Dalai Lama, Philip Glass and jazz bassist Greg Cohen--at a 2003 benefit concert in New York City.