“A lot on this record is about how grief is not a punishment, it’s an act of love and it’s just another expression of love,” Hurray for the Riff Raff (aka Alynda Segarra) says of their new album, The Past Is Still Alive, on the inaugural episode of KEXP's new podcast A Deeper Listen. Host Emily Fox says: "The album's melodies are catchy, and the lyrics are so beautifully crafted. They drew me in and made time stop for a moment." You can hear their conversation here.

"The beauty of song is you can spread information, you can make people feel not alone. And you can also create a time capsule for people in the future to know what we’re dealing with now," Hurray for the Riff Raff (aka Alynda Segarra) tells KCRW's Press Play. You can hear it here. "The Troubadour: How Alynda Segarra, a former train-hopping punk from the Bronx, became one of America’s best songwriters," titles an extensive profile in New York magazine's Vulture on Segarra and their new album, The Past Is Still Alive, written by Jenn Pelly.

The 2024 Big Ears Festival is next week, taking place in venues throughout downtown Knoxville, TN, March 21–24, with more than a dozen Nonesuch artists past, present, and future performing as part of the label's 60th anniversary celebrations. In addition to all of the music and film offerings, Big Ears also hosts a number of artist conversations with music journalists Ann Powers and Nate Chinen, including talks with Sam Amidon, Laurie Anderson, Darcy James Argue, Rhiannon Giddens, Mary Halvorson, Robin Holcomb, Hurray for the Riff Raff, Brad Mehldau, Davóne Tines, and Yasmin Williams.

Hurray for the Riff Raff (aka Alynda Segarra)'s new album, The Past Is Still Alive, is out now. Segarra made the album during a period of personal grief, when they found inspiration in radical poetry, railroad culture, outsider art, the work of writer Eileen Myles, and activist groups like ACT UP and Gran Fury. Segarra uses their lyrics as a way to immortalize and say goodbye to those they have loved and lost, and to honor both the heartbroken and the hopeful parts of themselves. "Segarra has created an epic tale of life on the road, a nearly mythic version of their own life story that stands alongside other great American musical travelogues," exclaims NPR Music. "Career-defining." Rolling Stone says: "Segarra has honed their craft into a cohesive, astonishingly realized singer-songwriter record ... the best batch of songs Segarra's ever written." Paste calls it "a celebratory measure of love, sanctuary, and defiance ... In their hands, the trauma of the present day is a prelude to the possibilities of a better tomorrow."

Hurray for the Riff Raff, aka Alynda Segarra, who celebrates Friday's release of their new album, The Past Is Still Alive, with the launch of a months-long headline tour in New Orleans on Sunday, will join Norah Jones on her North American tour this summer. The nine-city run starts in Colorado with shows at the Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater in Vail and Red Rocks in Morrison on July 22 and 23, respectively, followed by stops in Utah, Idaho, Washington, British Columbia, and Oregon, culminating in San Francisco August 3. 

Congratulations to Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway, who won the International Folk Music Awards' Album of the Year for City of Gold, which had also won the Grammy Award for Best Bluegrass Album, and to Hurray for the Riff Raff (aka Alynda Segarra), who received the International Folk Music Awards 2024 People’s Voice Award, presented to "an individual who unabashedly embraces social and political commentary in their creative work and public careers," in a ceremony at the Folk Alliance International Conference in Kansas City, Missouri, last night.

Hurray for the Riff Raff (aka Alynda Segarra) has shared "Hawkmoon," a song from their new album, The Past Is Still Alive, out on Friday. It's a rebellious road song and stirring remembrance of the first trans woman they ever met: a poet, punk, and fellow traveler named Miss Jonathan. The track arrives with a heist film of a music video, shot along the desolate highways and dusty deserts of the small New Mexican town Tucumcari, starring Segarra and writer, actor, and musician Denny. You can watch the video, directed by Jeff Perlman, here.

Hurray for the Riff Raff, aka Alynda Segarra, has released "Colossus of Roads” and Snake Plant (The Past Is Still Alive),” two new tracks from their upcoming album, The Past Is Still Alive, due February 23. "I've only had this experience a couple of times, where a song falls on me—it’s all there, and I don't do anything," Segarra says. "Writing ‘Colossus of Roads’ felt like creating a space where all us outsiders can be safe together. That doesn’t exist, but it exists in our minds, and it exists in this song—this one is sacred to me. I’ve also always wanted to make my version of Bob Dylan’s ‘I Was Young When I Left Home,’ and ‘Snake Plant (The Past Is Still Alive)’ is it.” 

As part of Nonesuch Records's 60th anniversary celebrations, the 2024 Big Ears Festival lineup includes fifteen Nonesuch artists past, present, and future. Ahead of the festival, taking place in Knoxville, TN, March 21–24, we've got a playlist of music from all of those artists: Sam Amidon, Laurie Anderson, Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society, Tyondai Braxton, Rhiannon Giddens, Mary Halvorson, Robin Holcomb, Wayne Horvitz, Hurray for the Riff Raff, Kronos Quartet, Brad Mehldau, Ringdown (Caroline Shaw and Danni Lee), Davóne Tines, Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway, and Yasmin Williams. You can hear it here via Spotify and Apple Music.

Congratulations to Hurray for the Riff Raff, recipient of the International Folk Music Awards 2024 People’s Voice Award, presented to "an individual who unabashedly embraces social and political commentary in their creative work and public careers," and to Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway, nominees for Album of the Year for City of Gold. The Awards ceremony will take place at the Folk Alliance International Conference in Kansas City, MO, on February 21.

Hurray for the Riff Raff (aka Alynda Segarra)'s new album, The Past Is Still Alive, is due February 23 on Nonesuch. Segarra created the album during a period of personal grief, when they found inspiration in radical poetry, railroad culture, outsider art, the work of writer Eileen Myles, and activist groups like ACT UP and Gran Fury. They use their lyrics as a way to immortalize and say goodbye to those they have loved and lost, and to honor both the heartbroken and the hopeful parts of themselves. Though made in North Carolina by the Bronx-born, New Orleans-based Segarra and produced by Brad Cook, the record brings listeners to places far beyond, evoking vivid experiences of small shops and buffalo stampedes in Santa Fe, childhood road trips and Florida storms, struggles of addiction in the Lower East Side, and days-long journeys to outrun the cops in Nebraska. Hurray for the Riff Raff will lead a headline tour of the US and Europe from February through May.

The line-up for the 2024 Big Ears Festival—taking place in downtown Knoxville, TN, March 21–24—has been announced, including more than a dozen Nonesuch artists past, present, and future, in celebration of the label’s 60th anniversary in 2024: Sam Amidon, Laurie Anderson, Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society, Tyondai Braxton, Rhiannon Giddens, Mary Halvorson, Robin Holcomb, Wayne Horvitz, Hurray for the Riff Raff, Brad Mehldau, Ringdown (Caroline Shaw and Danni Lee), Davóne Tines, Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway, and Yasmin Williams.