Legendary poet and musician Gil Scott-Heron has announced plans for his first new studio album in 15 years. As a posting on his official website indicates, the Chicago native will release I’m New Here in early 2010 via XL Recordings. Also included on said website are snippets from four of the album’s songs, “A.M”, “I’m New Here”, “Me and the Devil”, and “I’ll Take Care of You”.

Now, all this is pretty big news because the album will not only mark Scott-Heron’s followup to 1994′s Spirits, but his first new release since being released from prison in 2007 following a 10 months sentence for violating a plea deal on a drug-possession charge. He has been in and out of prison for much of the decade.

In recent interviews, Scott-Heron noted that his new album will consist mostly of new versions of some of his classic songs as well as cover versions of other artists’ work.