With the release of his first studio album in six years looming, Tom Waits is preparing to turn up in some unlikely places to promote it.

A month before "Mule Variations" hits stores on April 27 (courtesy of Epitaph Records), Waits will play his first non-benefit concert in four years with a performance at this month's South By South West music conference in Austin, Texas. The journeyman troubadour will close the conference with a performance on March 20 at Austin's Paramount Theater, and will presumably stick out like a sore thumb amid SXSW's fresh-faced upstarts. For the show (which will preview some of the material from "Mule Variations"), Waits will be joined by guitarist Smokey Hormel, bassist Larry Taylor, and drummer Stephen Hodges.

Before that, Waits will step before the cameras next week in Los Angeles to shoot an installment of VH1's "Storytellers" series that will air this summer. The performance series features captures artists performing in an intimate setting and telling the stories behind their best known songs.

Spokespeople for Waits also say that the singer/songwriter may be hitting the road in May, but that nothing has been decided yet.