Neil Diamond [ tickets ], who next month will return to the road in support of "Three Chord Opera," has added the first batch of March dates to the run.

An Internet pre-sale for tickets to the six new March dates, all of which are set in the eastern U.S., is currently underway and ends on Sunday (1/27). Users must register at Ticketmaster's pre-sale website in order to have a shot at pre-sale tickets, according to Diamond's official website. Tickets will then go on sale to the general public on Jan. 28. (Ticketmaster is liveDaily's parent company.)

Diamond is on tour to support his first album of new material in five years, "Three Chord Opera" (Columbia), which was produced by Peter Asher (Cher, Linda Ronstadt, Sarah Brightman) and Alan Lindgren (whom Diamond has often enlisted as a keyboardist and arranger). The album surfaced last July, entered the Billboard 200 album chart at No. 15 and remained on that weekly chart for three months.

Last month, Sony released "The Essential Neil Diamond," a two-disc collection encompassing 32 digitally remastered, previously released tracks that date back as far as 1966, as well as six previously unreleased live cuts recorded during Diamond's October 2001 tour.

Recently, Diamond re-recorded as a duet with Melissa Etheridge his hit "America," which appears on his 1980 release "The Jazz Singer." The new version will be used as the theme music for NBC's promotion of next month's Olympic Winter Games, according to Diamond's website.

Diamond has had 13 Top 10 hits and has sold more than 115 million records worldwide, according to a press release. He was the top solo-concert artist of the 1990s, the release said.

Though Diamond's popularity on the album and singles charts has waned over the years, he remains a top draw on the concert circuit. His 46-show, 2001 outing behind "Three Chord Opera" grossed $35.4 million over 46 shows, making it the tenth highest-grossing tour of last year, according to Pollstar.