Ian Anderson not living in the past

Ian Anderson is still amused by people who identify him as “Jethro” of Jethro Tull. The singer-songwriter, musician and frontman of the band is stepping out for a short fall solo tour and coming to Joliet's Rialto Square Theatre, his only Illinois stop.

With more than four decades of music-making under his belt and having penned enduring rock album classics such as “Aqualung,” “Thick as A Brick,” and “Songs From The Wood,” his penchant for storytelling with a wicked sense of humor remains intact. That makes asking even the simplest questions an adventure.

“What kind of tree would I be? An oak! They're strong, and sturdy, and survive with their feet in the ground, plus we've just planted 30,000 oak and ash trees on the estate,” he said, during a phone conversation. “Where I live, there was a dense forest during feudal times, which was cut down to build navy vessels against the Spanish Armada ... besides Anderson family crest depicts an oak on it. We're Scottish, you know.”

When Anderson makes the journey to the Rialto, he will bring a special set list and a band consisting of Florian Opahle (guitars), John O'Hara (accordion and piano), David Goodier (bass guitar) and Scott Hammond (drums).

“We'll prepare specific songs for the show with new material and fairly well-known deeper, plucky Tull pieces, things from solo albums. It's mostly acoustic for the first set, and electric in the second portion, there's a lot of ground to cover in two hours.”

The ground stems from the wealth of past releases, and archived material presently under consideration for remastering, although the much-maligned “Passion Play” is not one of them. As a follow-up to “Thick As A Brick,” it was savaged by critics, and a point of confusion for fans.

“That was fun, an upbeat spoof of the Tull genre where we spent two weeks in France to record, but there were technical problems with the studio, and the band contracted food poisoning,” he said. “It was hard work, not going well, and we went back to England to regroup and get well. We started fresh by rerecording everything. These days fans that revere it do so simply because others don't like it, and putting it out again is not a priority.”

One item from collector circles was the 1978 satellite broadcast from Madison Square Garden, released last year as a DVD and two-CD audio set. “The audio multi-tracks were in storage, and it was an EMI records initiative. The BBC had the original film and were OK about letting us have it, and it was reworked into the DVD/CD set.

“We are remastering the ‘Stand Up' album for its anniversary with extra tracks, and will be a good value for the money,” he said. “There's also the live 1970 Carnegie Hall benefit program coming out ... you see, (these) live shows that are downloaded and ripped off the Internet are cassette recordings, most are awful ... but it's become the culture in the last few years, which we have to accept.

“My interest is writing new music, and performing, not to the extent that I did in my 20s, but hardly two weeks goes by where I don't write new songs, get new ideas.”

Anderson enjoyed the Rialto during Tull's last tour, largely for its acoustics and ornate detail in the theater's restoration work. “Those colors there. My favorite color is gray, because black and white is too severe. Gray suits, gray car, my flute is even metallic gray, a nice battleship gray, something neutral ... don't read into that.”

An Evening with Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson

<p>Showtime: 8 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 30/p>

<p>Location: The Rialto Square Theatre, 15 E.Van Buren St., Joliet/p>

<p>Tickets: $35-$75; (815) 726-6600, or rialtosquare.com</p>