Steve Winwood releasing first album in 5 years

NEW YORK (Billboard) - Veteran British rocker Steve Winwood, who is playing a series of highly anticipated gigs with ex-bandmate Eric Clapton in New York this week, is gearing up to release his first studio album in five years.

"Nine Lives," his first recording for Columbia Records, will arrive April 29. Winwood self-released his last studio album, 2003's "About Time."

Clapton, who played with Winwood in the short-lived "supergroup" Blind Faith in the late 1960s, contributes guitar on the first single "Dirty City."

Winwood and Clapton reunited last July at the Crossroads Guitar Festival in Chicago, leading to the three-show Madison Square Garden run Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. Winwood will return to the road in the summer to open for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.

Reuters/Billboard