Armed with material from his recently released album "About Time," veteran musician Steve Winwood [ tickets ] kicks off a U.S. tour in September.

Dates for Winwood's headlining run so far stretch into mid-October, and are preceded by a handful of August dates that include an appearance at the Aug. 6 Musikfest in Bethlehem, PA, and an Aug. 10 performance with The String Cheese Incident in Farmingville, NY.

In addition to performing cuts from "About Time"--which landed in stores on June 17--Winwood also plans to dig deep into his arsenal of tunes.

"I am looking forward to playing more of my repertoire live than ever before," he said in a statement, "including songs from my past that I've rarely played on stage."

Backing Winwood on the outing are guitarist Jose Neto and drummer Walfredo Reyes Jr.--both of whom are featured on "About Time"--as well as flautist/saxophonist Randall Bramblett and percussionist Edson "Café" Da Silva.

According to Winwood, he, Neto and Reyes took a stripped-down approach to recording "About Time."

"It was a different experience for me," he said. "Just putting people in a studio and setting microphones up. It sounds a bit stupid really because that's what recorded music should be about. But it isn't actually done that way very much these days.

"It was the first time in 27 years that I recorded tracks without loops or a click. I was keen to pare down the album's sound to its primary elements and I feel this strategy, coupled with the three musicians interacting in a live environment, has contributed a lot of life and vibrancy to the music on About Time."

Winwood's new album is the inaugural release on his newly formed label, Wincraft Music, which he formed out of a "desire to maintain the highest levels of artistic control and integrity, from the music's creation right through to its presence in retail outlets."

"Increasingly albums are now seen as a financial investment made by a record company, as opposed to an artist's creative vision," he said.. "... There exist artists who are brave enough to completely ignore that. I can't say that I have always been that brave and it is my own loss that I haven't been. That certainly isn't the case on this record."