The line-up for the 2017 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, aka Jazz Fest, has been announced, and among this year's artists are Rhiannon Giddens and Lake Street Dive, both performing on Friday, May 5. Jazz Fest runs over seven days across two weekends, April 28–30 and May 4–7. Also among the performers at this year's Jazz Fest are Wilco, Dr. John, and several contributors to the 2005 benefit album Our New Orleans.

Rhiannon Giddens, whose new album, Freedom Highway, is due February 24, has unveiled a new song from the album called "At the Purchaser's Option," which you can hear in a lyric video here. The song is one of nine original songs Giddens wrote or co-wrote on the album, which also includes a traditional tune and two civil rights–era songs, "Birmingham Sunday" and Staple Singers' "Freedom Highway." That last track and "At the Purchaser's Option" come as instant downloads with pre-orders of the album.

Rhiannon Giddens, whose new album, Freedom Highway, is due February 24, joins the cast of the television show Nashville as it returns for its fifth season tonight at 9 PM ET tonight, making its debut on CMT. Giddens plays the role of Hanna Lee "Hallie" Jordan, a young social worker with "the voice of an angel." Nashville airs Thursday nights on CMT; episodes will be available to stream on Hulu on Fridays.

Freedom Highway, Rhiannon Giddens' follow-up to her highly praised solo debut album, Tomorrow Is My Turn, will be released by Nonesuch Records on February 24, 2017. The record includes nine original songs she wrote or co-wrote, along with a traditional tune and two civil rights–era songs, "Birmingham Sunday" and Staple Singers' "Freedom Highway." Giddens co-produced the album with multi-instrumentalist Dirk Powell in his Louisiana studio, with the bulk of recording done in wooden rooms built prior to the Civil War, over an intense eight-day period. The result is an album that is rawer and more personal than its predecessor. Nonesuch Store pre-orders include an instant download of the title track and a limited-edition print signed by Giddens.

Congratulations to all of the Nonesuch Records artists who were nominated for the 59th Annual Grammy Awards, announced earlier today by The Recording Academy: Brad Mehldau, Joshua Redman, Rhiannon Giddens, Caetano Veloso & Gilberto Gil, and John Adams. Together, these artists' Nonesuch releases have garnered a total of six nominations this year. The Grammy Awards will be held on Sunday, February 12, 2017, in Los Angeles and will be broadcast live on CBS.

Rhiannon Giddens will tour Europe next spring. The concerts begin at Ducs des Lombards Jazz Club in Paris on March 23, followed by stops in Amsterdam, Brussels, Hamburg, and Cologne. She then heads to the UK for shows in London, Cambridge, and Edinburgh, and to Ireland for a culminating concert at Whelans in Dublin on April 3. Tickets go on sale this Friday, December 9.

Rhiannon Giddens has unveiled a recording of "Freedom Highway," the song written by Pops Staples and recorded by the Staple Singers in 1965, from her forthcoming album, due in early 2017. She is joined on the song by Bhi Bhiman. You can hear it here. "I am a daughter of the South; of the white working class, of the black working class; of the Democrat, and the Republican; of the gay, and the straight; and I can tell you one thing—we are far more alike than we are different," says Giddens. "We cannot let hate divide us; we cannot let ignorance diminish us; we cannot let those whose greed fills their every waking hour take our country from us. They can't take U.S. from US—unless we let them ... Let's walk down Freedom Highway together."

Rhiannon Giddens took part in the TED conference in February of this year. She joined the Silk Road Ensemble to perform "St. James Infirmary," a traditional tune made famous by Louis Armstrong and which Allen Toussaint recorded for his Nonesuch debut album, The Bright Mississippi. You can watch Giddens and the Silk Road Ensemble's take on the tune below. 

Rhiannon Giddens, who could be seen on PBS on Friday performing in Bill Murray's Mark Train Prize ceremony, will perform at Alice Tully Hall in NYC on May 13, 2017, for Lincoln Center's American Songbook series. The series returns with 16 concerts in The Appel Room in February and March, then moves to Alice Tully Hall, where Giddens gives the season-closing concert. She performed in The Appel Room for the series with Carolina Chocolate Drops in 2011 and with the Swimming in Dark Waters concert in 2016.

Rhiannon Giddens joined a stellar line-up to perform at the ceremony awarding Bill Murray the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor at The Kennedy Center last weekend. The ceremony—which also features Aziz Ansari, Roy Blount Jr., Jane Curtin, Bill Hader, Jimmy Kimmel, David Letterman, Brian Doyle Murray, Paul Shaffer, Emma Stone, and Sigourney Weaver—will be broadcast on PBS stations across the US this Friday night at 9/8c. You can watch Giddens sing of a certain celebrated jumping frog from the evening here.

Rhiannon Giddens was a guest on NPR's Mountain Stage, returning to the show to perform from the Augusta Heritage Festival in Elkins, WV, earlier this year. "T Bone Burnett mentions her with some very serious company—Nina Simone, Odetta, and others—and I think that she deserves that mention," says Mountain Stage host Larry Groce. "She's at home with many different kinds of music: traditional, non-traditional, blues, jazz, whatever she wants to sing." You can hear why here.

Rhiannon Giddens will make her Austin City Limits debut this weekend. The set, premiering on PBS stations across this US this Saturday, October 8, includes songs from her solo debut album, Tomorrow Is My Turn. She also performs "Spanish Mary," from The New Basement Tapes, which you can watch here. "The breadth of musical vision on Tomorrow is My Turn incorporates gospel, jazz, blues and country, plus a hint of proto-rock and roll," says Austin City Limits, "and Giddens displays an emotional range to match her dazzling vocal prowess throughout."