It's nothing like his stadium-playing days with Toad the Wet Sprocket, but Glen Phillips says there are certain advantages to traveling around the country with just his trusty guitar and some decent songs. He likes "not being a rock guy anymore."

"With Toad, I always wanted to talk more onstage," the 35-year-old Phillips says. "I didn't like the fact it was so easy to make these basic rock gestures and get a huge reaction." Playing intimate solo shows puts him on the same plane as his audience. "I talk about what's going on in the world, play my songs, make a connection, hopefully," he says. For this tour, the focus is squarely on his just-released fourth solo album, Mr. Lemons (High Wire Music), but he'll play some of those catchy, jangle-pop Toad numbers, too.

Interestingly, he'll join his former bandmates later this month for a brief reunion tour. With a long history—the band formed when Phillips was a freshman in high school—and a messy breakup in 1998, expectations are decidedly in check, he says. "We all want to be doing it," he says of the Toad tour, which will make a stop at the Appel Farm Music Festival next month. "No one should ever see us unless we really want to be playing together. And right now we do."