Lenny Kaye is making his solo debut at 79 with a new album called Goin’ Local. The longtime Patti Smith Group member and all-round punk paragon—whose resume includes curating the very first Nuggets compilation—enlisted Smith herself to co-write a song called “Solstice,” and worked with jazz pianist Matthew Shipp, Railroad Earth’s Tim Carbone, the Jayhawks’ John Jackson, and David Mansfield elsewhere on the LP. Listen to the title track below, ahead of Goin’ Local’s July 17 release via Yep Roc.

Kaye said in a press release, “I feel like I’m a new artist. I think this album will surprise those who think they know me from what I’ve done previously.” Of the title, he added, “I’ve always loved the local, its intimacy and camaraderie.… I feel that the truest ‘Goin’ Local’ is the privilege to go inside my own head and hear how I sound to me.”

Goin’ Local follows Kaye’s 2022 memoir-cum-rock-chronicle Lightning Striking: Ten Transformative Moments in Rock and Roll. He will perform alongside Smith at the 2026 CBGB Festival later this year, after wrapping up his own U.S. dates with Dave Alvin and Jimmie Dale Gilmore, which you can find below.

Revisit Tyler Wilcox’s feature Invisible Hits: Patti Smith Before Horses.

Lenny Kaye:
04-25 Easton, MD - Avalon *
04-26 Annapolis, MD - Rams Head *
04-27 Alexandria, VA - The Birchmere *
04-29 New York, NY - City Winery *
04-30 Ardmore, PA - The Ardmore *
05-02 Woodstock, NY - Levon Helm Studios *
05-05 Northampton, MA - Iron Horse *
05-06 Shirley, MA - Bull Run *
05-08 Portsmouth, NH - 3S Artspace *
05-09 Bellows Falls, VT - Opera House *
06-26 Carrboro, NC - Dex Fest
06-27 Carrboro, NC - Dex Fest

* with Dave Alvin and Jimmie Dale Gilmore