"As 2009 is finally winding down and no DT plans have been made public yet for 2010, I'd like to just give a quick rundown of what we have planned to prevent any rumors or speculation that I'm starting to see brew....

As you know, after Thanksgiving we will be heading down to New Zealand for the very first time and then over to Australia (with special guests Pain Of Salvation)...and then we will return home to our families for the holidays and New Year...

In an unexpected move, we will then enter the studio right after New Year's to write and record a brand new instrumental track for inclusion on the upcoming Gods Of War 3 soundtrack. This will mark the first time in the band's career we have written and recorded an exclusive track for an outside project. Roadrunner invited us to participate and we decided we were up for the challenge!

Next on the agenda will likely be a South American tour in the late winter / early spring...but we are still awaiting details on this, so of course plans are still subject to change...

Speaking of changed plans, I'm afraid I have some disappointing news for our North American fans: after serious discussion within the band and evaluations with our manager and agent, we have deciding against doing another US run in spring as we had initially planned...for many reasons, it just is not going to work out as we had originally hoped. (and yes Texas, I still remember we owe ya next time!)

Essentially, this means the BC&SL World Tour will conclude with South America (if it indeed happens) and the only remaining DT shows in 2010 will be some possible festivals and one-off shows that may (or may not) happen towards the end of the summer.

So that's the 2010 forecast for DT....

The 2010 MP forecast is another story....

Although I do plan on having some down time to enjoy with my family....I do have several things on my agenda that will keep me plenty busy (of course!)...

As most of you know, it's looking VERY likely that Transatlantic will hit the road with some shows in support of the newly released reunion album "The Whirlwind"....it looks like we found a nice little window in mine, Pete's, Neal's and Roine's schedules to make this happen in the Spring.
So we are currently looking into doing some select shows in major cities on both sides of the Atlantic during this period (it will be our first truly "transatlantic" tour - as we only did the US for SMPTe in 2000 and only did Europe/UK for Bridge Across Forever in 2001)
Details of these shows should start to firm up soon, so stay tuned...

In addition to the Transatlantic tour, I also have several other exciting possibilities up my sleeve for 2010....so time will tell what pans out and become realities....

So there ya have it for now!

Inevitably, some people will be disappointed in our plans and complain (and blame me!)...others will be excited and overjoyed (and thank me)...but it is what it is..,it's our lives and our career and this is how it looks to be shaping up for the coming months/year...

OK, there ya go! You're now in the loop....

Thank you for a GREAT 2009 (so far) and looking forward to more in 2010,

MP"

Dream Theater was honored with the "Spirit Of Prog" achievement award at the 2009 Classic Rock Awards this evening in London.

The award was presented to Mike Portnoy by Prog legend Rick Wakeman who added that he couldn't have been happier for it to go to such a worthy recipient (and joked that he was jealous he wasn't getting it!)

The star studded event was attended by such legends as Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin, Pete Townshend of The Who, Ron Wood of The Rolling Stones, Brian May of Queen, Joe Perry of Aerosmith, Jeff Beck, Paul Rodgers of Bad Company, Iggy Pop, Slash of Guns N Roses, Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath, Ginger Baker of Cream, Chrissy Hynde of The Pretenders, Carl Palmer of ELP and members of Iron Maiden, Anthrax, Anvil, Marillion, ZZ Top, Uriah Heep and Mott The Hoople.

Here's an initial report of the winners and some paparazzi pix of the red carpet arrival

Dream Theater also was nominated in the "Album Of The Year" category for their latest release "Black Clouds & Silver Linings"

Dream Theater "Wither"

Track Listing:

1. Wither (Album Version) 5:25
2. Wither (Piano Version) 5:07
3. Wither (John Petrucci Vocal Demo) 5:24
4. The Best of Times (Mike Portnoy Vocal Demo) 13:04

Track 1 taken from the album Black Clouds and Silver Linings.
Track 2-4 previously unreleased.

- Get the "Wither" EP from iTunes!

- Get the "Wither" EP from Amazon.com!

The second edition of the Dream Theater biography, Lifting Shadows, is now available to pre-order!

Full details of this updated book can be found at www.liftingshadows.com

For the second edition of Lifting Shadows, I've tracked down and interviewed even more people involved in the Dream Theater story. The text has also been thoroughly revised and updated. So there's also a detailed look at the making of the Black Clouds & Silver Linings album, which includes all new interviews with the band. Plus I've also added an appendix which covers the numerous side projects, such as Liquid Tension Experiment, Transatlantic, OSI, G3 and other solo albums, with interviews with the likes of Neal Morse, Jim Matheos, Tony Levin and the DT guys. This is edition is also around 40% longer than the original.

As you might know, the original, two book, one CD special edition set has now completed sold out. As that was sold strictly on the basis that it was a limited print run, the publishers have rightly decided not to reissue that. They are however producing a new limited edition version as there are people who want something more special than just a hardback. So there are two versions of the book on sale.

The Classic Edition of the book is a standard hardback version. If you imagine the "Words" book of the first edition, expanded by 40%, with 8 pages of colour photos.

The second of these is the Limited Edition book, which is bound in real leather. This contains the same text as the Classic Edition and also has 8 pages of colour photos. The print run is limited to 2000 copies and each copy is hand signed by myself.

The books are being published by Essential Works who printed the first edition of the book. All sales of the book will also be made via their website.

The book is priced as follows:

Classic Edition:

This retails at $28.95 in the US, £17.99 in the UK and EU plus shipping. Those of you who bought the first edition will shortly be receiving an email from Essential Works offering you a 25% discount off the retail price as a "thank you" for your support in getting the first edition off the ground. But even if you did not buy the first edition, for a limited time, those of you pre-ordering will be entitled to a discount of 15% off the retail price.

Limited Edition:

This version retails at £30 in the UK and EU, and $50 in the US plus shipping. Due to the high production costs, low production run and the price already being kept as low as possible, there will be no discount available for this version of the book.

Full details of all the ordering process, details of shipping charges, a list of FAQ and other details on the book can be found at www.liftingshadows.com

4 brand new Dream Theater Official Bootleg titles available from Ytsejam Records!

- The Making of Falling Into Infinity (1 CD)

- Train Of Thought Instrumental Demos 2003 (1 CD)

- Uncovered 2003-2005 (1 CD)

- Santiago, Chile 12/6/05 (1 DVD)

There's only one thing cooler than being nominated for Classic Rock Magazine's Album of the Year......

Having the nomination be announced by the almighty, legendary Spinal Tap! (see 2:30 and 3:24)

It is with the utmost disappointment that I am forced to share the unfortunate news of both Pain Of Salvation and Beardfish having to pull out of this summer's Progressive Nation tour....

Their label Inside Out just recently lost the financial funding for the tour as a result of their distributor SPV recently claiming bankruptcy...which effectively meant that both Pain Of Salvation and Beardfish lost the tour support that was essential to their ability to come to North America for Progressive Nation.

All parties involved (myself, both bands, Inside Out, etc) are beyond devastated at this turn of events and are truly sorry to all of the fans that were looking forward to this lineup. We tried everything we could do to salvage the situation, but in the end it was not possible...

Well as the album title says, every Black Cloud does indeed have a Silver Lining....so with this unfortunate news, I bring to you the good news of 2 incredible bands that will be jumping on board Progressive Nation to join Dream Theater and Zappa Plays Zappa this summer: Bigelf and Scale The Summit.

Los Angeles' Bigelf are my personal favorite new band to come along in many years...their latest CD "Cheat The Gallows" is my favorite album of the year and I already had positioned them onto the European run of Progressive Nation in the Fall....with them now joining us on PN09 in North America as well, it looks like world domination is now not that far out of reach for them!
Pretty soon, everyone will hopefully be falling for their retro, psychedelic, progressive, hard rock, doom metal as hard as I have!

Houston instrumental band Scale The Summit are a recent discovery for me and their top notch musicianship will be a perfect fit to this Progressive Nation lineup stylistically falling very nicely between the musicality of Dream Theater and Zappa Plays Zappa. They bring the instrumental elements of prog rock and fusion into today's contemporary hard rock/metal sounds and are one of the most talented group of young musicians I've seen assembled in many years.

Once again, apologies to anybody disappointed in this unexpected and unavoidable lineup change...but the circumstances were beyond our control...
In any event, PN09 will carry on and still deliver the most musical bang for its buck this summer throughout North America and we look forward to sharing the evening with you!

Sincerely,
Your Progressive Rock Ambassador,
Mike Portnoy

Dream Theater has just released a fifth cover track, "Larks Tongues In Aspic, Pt. 2" by King Crimson. The original can be found on King Crimson's album "Larks' Tongues in Aspic" (1973).
- Click here to get it from iTunes now!
- Click here to get it from Amazon.com!

Dream Theater has just released a fourth cover track, "Take Your Fingers From My Hair" by Zebra. The original can be found on Zebra's self-titled 1983 debut album. Available from iTunes and Amazon

Below is a video of Mike Portnoy talking about the Zebra cover.

Stay tuned for Cover #5 to be released on Tuesday, June 16nd.

Dream Theater has just released a third cover track, "Odyssey" by Dixie Dregs. The original can be found on the album "What If" (1978). Available iTunes and Amazon.

Below is a video of Mike Portnoy talking about the Dixie Dregs cover.

Stay tuned for Cover #4 to be released on Tuesday, June 9nd.

Dream Theater has just released a second cover track of a medley of three songs from the legendary Queen: "Tenement Funster", "Flick Of The Wrist" and "Lily Of The Valley". The originals can be found on Queen's 1974 album "Sheer Heart Attack". Available on iTunes and Amazon.

Below is a video of Mike Portnoy talking about the process of laying down the vocal tracks for this amazing medley.

The first Dream Theater cover, Rainbow's epic "Stargazer", is now available at iTunes. The original can be found on Rainbow's 1976 album "Rainbow Rising".

Below is a video of Mike Portnoy revealing the details of recording "Stargazer".