Mumford & Sons continue to celebrate the success of their 2012 Babel LP with a special edition release titled The Road To Red Rocks. The limited edition live set includes the The Road To Red Rocks DVD, Babel deluxe CD, vinyl of the live show audio, and links to MP3 versions of the tracks. In addition, a 96-page book of the Red Rocks/Gentlemen On The Road tour includes a mix of photos, comments from band members, and written components by two different journalists who spent time with the band on the road.

The Road To Red Rocks features live footage shot by Fred&Nick production during two Mumford & Sons sold out concerts last year at the Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Morrison, Colo., outside Denver. In addition to heralding the imminent release of Babel, the shows provided the background for the ‘I Will Wait’ music video. The single is currently No. 15 on both the Billboard and Mediabase Adult Contemporary radio airplay chart, while it climbed to No. 12 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Mumford & Sons’ follow up to their 2009 multi-platinum debut album, Sigh No More, again features work with producer Markus Dravs. The journey started in December 2010 after the band had been on the road behind Sigh No More since the previous summer. The next step was for each member to spend a few weeks apart, write, recuperate, and then reconvene in Nashville in 2011 ready to try out new material for their second album.

The Nashville sessions spawned ‘Lovers’ Eyes’ and ‘Hopeless Wanderer’ leading up to a return to the U.K. to do more work at Bermondsey, South London, where the band recorded the title track along with ‘I Will Wait,’ ‘Not With Haste,’ ‘Broken Crown,’ and ‘Lover of the Light.’ “There were various points in the album where we felt maybe we needed to inject more directness, and maybe that’s what ‘Reminder’ did,” says frontman Marcus Mumford. “There’s a bit more obscurity in this album and ‘Reminder’ is a really emotionally identifiable song.”

The Road To Red Rocks DVD tracklisting is an even bag of alternating songs from both albums starting with ‘Lovers’ Eyes’ from Babel and closing with ‘The Cave’ from Sigh No More. As Mumford & Sons rolls out the 2013 edition of the Gentlemen On The Road tour, the band was forced to postpone some dates in June—including the Bonnaroo and Telluride festivals—when it was discovered bassist Ted Dwane had to be hospitalized and undergo surgery to remove a blood clot on his brain.

“It is with great joy that we can announce that Ted has been discharged from hospital and is on the road to a full recovery,” the band recently announced. Unless unforeseen circumstances prevail, the band is still booked to complete the rest of their Gentlemen of the Road Stopovers including the June 30 Glastonbury Festival. The North American leg gets underway August 2-4 in Canada at the Osheaga Festival in Montreal followed by an August 3 detour into Chicago for Lollapalooza. Two more Canadian shows are scheduled August 23-24 in Simcoe, Ontario, before traveling to Troy, Ohio, Guthrie, Okla., and St. Augustine, Fla., in August and September.

Watch Mumford & Sons in a live performance of ‘I Will Wait’ from The Road To Red Rocks CD and DVD release.

As A Matter of Fact…

* West London’s Mumford & Sons formed in December 2007 and is made up of Marcus Mumford (vocals, guitar, drums); Winston Marshall (vocals, banjo, Dobro), Ben Lovett (vocals, keyboards); and Ted Dwane (vocals, bass).

* During the summer of 2007, the four friends were playing various instruments in various bands in London before uniting to perform impromptu renditions of Marcus’ earliest attempts at songwriting in underground folk nights. They soon bonded over a shared love of country, bluegrass, and folk.

* The band toured the U.K. extensively throughout 2008—including a barge-tour of the Thames and island-hopping the Scottish highlands—all leading up to a “triumphant set” at Glastonbury. They then sold out London's Luminaire and booked their first American tour.

* After releasing a series of EPs, producer Markus Dravs (Arcade Fire, Björk, The Maccabees) took the band to the legendary Eastcote Studios to record Sigh No More. The album entered the UK Albums Chart at No. 11 and reached No.2 on the Billboard 200. It also earned Album of the Year at the 2011 BRIT Awards.

* Upon its release in 2012, Babel debuted at No. 1 on both the UK Albums Chart and the Billboard 200. It became the fastest-selling album of 2012 in the UK and U.S.—selling more than 600,000 copies in its first week and earning a Grammy Award for Album of the Year.