Mandolinist, singer, and songwriter Chris Thile’s Laysongs will be released on Nonesuch Records on June 4, 2021. Laysongs is his first truly solo album: just Thile, his voice, and his mandolin, on new recordings of six original songs and three covers, all of which contextualize and banter with his ideas about spirituality. Recorded in a converted upstate New York church during the pandemic, Laysongs features the three-part “Salt (in the Wounds) of the Earth,” which was inspired by C.S. Lewis’s The Screwtape Letters; a song Thile wrote about Dionysus; a selection from Béla Bartók’s Sonata for Solo Violin; “God Is Alive, Magic Is Afoot” based on Buffy Sainte-Marie’s adaptation of a Leonard Cohen poem; and a Hazel Dickens cover. Nonesuch Store pre-orders include a print of the album cover image autographed by Thile.

Chris Thile, Cécile McLorin Salvant, Rhiannon Giddens, Jeremy Denk, Mandy Patinkin, Gaby Moreno, and Nico Muhly will take part in NY PopsUp, a festival featuring hundreds of pop-up performances—many of which are free of charge and all open to the public—throughout New York City and State. Additionally, Thile and Salvant are on a council of artistic advisors partnering with curator Zack Winokur to program the series. NYPopsUp, which will run from Saturday, February 20, through Labor Day, will make stages out of existing landscapes, including iconic transit stations, parks, subway platforms, museums, skate parks, street corners, fire escapes, parking lots, storefronts, and upstate venues. The festival is being coordinated with state public health officials and will strictly adhere to Department of Health COVID-19 protocols.

A 2020 update to Chris Thile's song "Thank You, New York," featuring Gaby Moreno, from his 2017 album Thanks for Listening, is the setting for choreographer Justin Peck's new piece, which the New York City Ballet premiered. The performance, choreographed and directed by Peck, with cinematography by Jody Lee Lipes, is the culmination of NYCB's five-week digital fall season. You can watch the piece, featuring dancers Christopher Grant, Sara Mearns, Georgina Pazcoguin, and Taylor Stanley filmed at several locations around NYC, along with an interview with Peck and Lipes, here.

While many of us can't go out to take in great live music, here are some events taking place online to enjoy while staying home this weekend: Sam Amidon plays in Dublin's National Concert Hall marathon livestream; Devendra Banhart performs in Planned Parenthood benefit; Tyondai Braxton contributes to Semibreve festival online; Jeremy Denk gives a recital from Caramoor; k.d. lang takes part in The 519 Community Centre virtual gala; Gaby Moreno leads an Acoustic Festival on Facebook; and Chris Thile launches his masterclass series. Off line and in person, Brad Mehldau tours Europe, and Laurie Anderson leads a NYC voter activation parade with RuckUS.

Chris Thile presents Music is Life is Music: a masterclass series for people who make (or just love) music this fall. The series includes three Sunday classes: Listening on October 25, Writing on November 1, and Performing on November 8. "Music is Life is Music is a three-part look under the hood of my music-making process," Thile says. "I've been informed by the processes of so many great musicians, and I can’t wait to share all that with fellow music lovers and makers.”

Thriving Roots, the Americana Music Association Foundation's new virtual conference, takes place starting Wednesday, September 16. The three-day event features 100 online sessions, including panels with Rhiannon Giddens, Emmylou Harris, Chris Thile, Yola, and Ry Cooder. On Thursday, there's Yola with Brandi Carlile and Chris Thile with Sarah Jarosz and John Leventhal; on Friday, it's Ry Cooder with Rosanne Cash, Emmylou Harris with Ken Burns, and Rhiannon Giddens with Taj Mahal and Ann Powers.

While we can't go out to take in great live music, here are some events taking place online to enjoy while staying home this weekend: Lianne La Havas joins NPR Music's live listening party of her new album; Rhiannon Giddens, Francesco Turrisi perform in National Concert Hall Covid-19 memorial concert; Chris Thile's Caramoor concert is streamed; Sam Amidon performs on DeBarra's Folk Club Facebook live; Jeremy Denk's 2015 BBC Proms debut airs on BBC Radio 3; the virtual Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival features past sets by Nickel Creek, Michael Daves.

In honor of Live From Here, the public radio show hosted by Chris Thile in its current and previous iterations from 2016 till last week, we offer our thanks to everyone there who made the show such a joy for its listeners and viewers, and for providing a unique showcase for so many artists. In celebration, we have assembled some of our favorite performances from the show by artists who have recorded for Nonesuch Records, including Thile, Punch Brothers, Rachael Price, Rachael & Vilray, Gaby Moreno, Vagabon, Gabriel Kahane, Lake Street Dive, The Staves, Dan Auerbach, Robert Finley, Randy Newman, Brad Mehldau, and Nickel Creek. You can watch them here.

Chris Thile and Rachael & Vilray are set to take part in the newly announced flexible summer programming presented at Caramoor, the cultural arts venue on an 80-plus-acre estate in Katonah, New York. They will perform the season's first public, open-air concerts on Caramoor's Friends Fields, set up for small, well-spaced audiences, on Saturdays July 18 and July 25, respectively. Tickets will go on sale five days before each performance.

Punch Brothers' Chris Thile and Chris “Critter” Eldridge performed on the final episode of The Bluegrass Situation’s Whiskey Sour Happy Hour last night, with band mate Gabe Witcher in the show's house band and Noam Pikelny in the finale. The series, hosted by Ed Helms and presented in partnership with Americana Music Association, raises funds for MusiCares' COVID-19 Relief Fund and Direct Relief.

Chris Thile performed "This Is the Song (Good Luck)"—from Punch Brothers' 2010 album, Antifogmatic—with the band of his public radio show Live From Here, each in their respective homes, for a special #LiveFromHome broadcast on April 11. You can watch it here, as well as Thile's solo performance, and Punch Brothers' own 2010 performance of the song.

Chris Thile performed on CBS This Morning: Saturday in a special socially distanced Saturday Sessions set. Thile performed two songs for not far from home, in The Bridge Studio in Brooklyn: a cover of Radiohead's "True Love Waits," his own "Laysong," and a piece by Bach. You can watch all three here.