Kansas are lengthening their anniversary tour celebrating Leftoverture, even as they sketch out plans for their next album. The new, as-yet-untitled project would quickly follow 2016's The Prelude Implicit. Before that, Kansas hadn't released an LP of new studio material since Somewhere to Elsewhere in 2000.

The second leg of the Leftoverture 40th Anniversary Tour begins March 24 in Salina, Kan. More than 30 dates, stretching from late summer into December, have now been added. Tickets for these new shows go on sale March 31 at kansasband.com.

Last fall saw Kansas performing their five-times platinum 1976 smash in its entirety for the first time. In fact, the Leftoverture deep cut "Questions of my Childhood" had never made it onto a set list before last year.

"Coming back 40 years later, we did learn what a very good album it was and is to this day," founding drummer Phil Ehart told Billboard. "The album did everything for us, and going back and revisiting the music we realized what a great job [former member] Kerry Livgren did in writing the album – and what a great job the band did in playing it and carrying it forward."

The Prelude Implicit was the band's first album with singer and keyboardist Ronnie Platt, one of three new members who joined Kansas in the wake of Steve Walsh's unexpected retirement in 2014. The band is led these days by Ehart and fellow co-founding member Rich Williams.

Sessions for the next album should begin in January, with a release date pegged for later in 2018. By then, Kansas hope to have started a tour focusing on 1977's Point of Know Return, the four-times platinum follow-up to Leftoverture.

Kansas' New 'Leftoverture' 40th Anniversary Tour Dates
8/25 – Shreveport, LA, Shreveport Municipal Auditorium
8/26 – Baton Rouge, LA, Baton Rouge River Center Theatre
9/8 – Santa Rosa, CA, Luther Burbank Center for the Arts
9/9 – Stockton, CA, Bob Hope Theatre
9/12 – San Francisco, CA, Warfield Theatre
9/13 – Thousand Oaks, CA, Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza
9/15 – Bakersfield, CA, Fox Theater
9/19 – San Diego, CA, Poway Center for the Arts
9/21 – Wichita Falls, TX, Memorial Auditorium Wichita Falls
9/22 – Amarillo, TX, Amarillo Civic Center
9/29 – Corpus Christi, TX, Selena Auditorium
9/30 – Houston, TX, Cullen Performance Hall
10/6 – Topeka, KS, Topeka Performing Arts Center
10/7 – Sioux City, IA, Orpheum Theatre
10/13 – Champaign, IL, The Virginia Theatre
10/14 – Evansville, IN, Victory Theatre
10/20 – Dodge City, KS, United Wireless Center
10/21 – Wichita, KS, Hartman Arena
10/27 – Knoxville, TN, Knoxville Civic Auditorium
10/28 – Huntsville, AL, Mark C. Smith Concert Hall
11/3 – Saginaw, MI, Dow Events Center Theater
11/4 – Toledo, OH, Stranahan Theater
11/10 – Waukegan, IL, Genesee Theatre
11/11 – Appleton, WI, Fox Cities Performing Arts Center
11/17 – Madison, WI, Capitol Theater
11/18 – Minneapolis, MN, State Theatre
11/24 – Buffalo, NY, University at Buffalo Center for the Arts
11/25 – Akron, OH, The Goodyear Theater
12/1 – North Charleston, SC, North Charleston Performing Arts Center
12/2 – Jacksonville, FL, Florida Theatre
12/8 – Pembroke Pines, FL, Pembroke Pines City Center
12/9 – The Villages, FL, Sharon L. Morse Performing Arts Center

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