Rhiannon Giddens's take on "Black Is the Color," from her forthcoming solo debut album, Tomorrow Is My Turn, is featured on NPR Music's Songs We Love. On the new album, "Giddens takes songs strongly linked to iconic female performers ... and somehow comes out owning them," says World Cafe host David Dye. On "Black Is the Color," often linked to Nina Simone, "Giddens celebrates and soars. She's confident in her instincts and her abundant talent, and she should be."

London-based singer-songwriter Olivia Chaney, who is currently touring Australia, will soon take the tour to North America. Chaney will visit select cities in the US and Canada in advance of the release of her Nonesuch Records debut album, starting at the World Café Live in Philadelphia on February 4, followed by stops in New York City, Brooklyn, Cambridge, Toronto, Chicago, Minneapolis, Seattle, and Los Angeles. Stay tuned for details of Olivia Chaney’s forthcoming Nonesuch Records debut album and pre-order information coming soon.

Pianist Tigran Hamasyan, whose new album, Mockroot, is due soon, is among the "Musicians You'll Tell Your Friends About in 2015," according to NPR Music's Ann Powers. Hamasyan's "startling combinations of jazz, minimalist, electronic, folk and songwriterly elements ... beckon listeners with a magical kind of openness," she says. "On Mockroot, his Nonesuch debut, Hamasyan and his collaborators travel musical expanses marked with heavy grooves, ethereal voices, pristine piano playing and ancient melodies." Powers concludes: "You'll hear nothing else like this album in 2015."

Rhiannon Giddens is among the artists "poised to breakout this year" according to the Wall Street Journal Speakeasy's list of "2015's Next Big Things: 8 Music Acts to Watch." After she "stole the show" at the 2013 concert celebrating the music of Inside Llewyn Davis (the album due next week) and "was out front of some of the best tracks" on last year's New Basement Tapes album, says the Wall Street Journal, comes her solo album, Tomorrow Is My Turn, next month, "in which she covers American icons like Patsy Cline, Libba Cotten, Odetta, and Dolly Parton. The thought of her classic takes on classic musicians has us salivating."

The 2015 line-up for the Governors Ball Music Festival has been announced, including a headline set from The Black Keys and performances from Conor Oberst and Björk. The Governors Ball will take place on Randall's Island in New York City from June 5 to 7. Tickets go on sale this Friday, January 9. 

Filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson is on the latest episode of WTF with Marc Maron. He talks with Maron about his life and all of his films, including his latest, Inherent Vice, which expands to additional US theaters this weekend. Nonesuch Records released Jonny Greenwood’s soundtrack to Inherent Vice in December and has released their previous collaborations, There Will Be Blood and The Master, as well as Jon Brion's soundtrack for Anderson’s Punch-Drunk Love. Tune in to WTF on Thursday for Maron's interview with Boyhood director Richard Linklater.

Nickel Creek helped kick off the second half of the milestone 40th season of Austin City Limits when the band's set aired on PBS this past weekend, on a double bill with The Avett Brothers. You can watch the episode at pbs.org. Nickel Creek—Chris Thile, Sara Watkins, and Sean Watkins—taped its Austin City Limits set in August during the band's 25th anniversary tour, celebrating the release of its Nonesuch Records debut album, A Dotted Line. This was the trio's third appearance on the series. 

As 2014 draws to a close, and the Nonesuch Journal takes a bit of a hiatus till the start of 2015, it's time to take a look back and remember all of the great and diverse music made by Nonesuch artists over the past year—a year in which we marked our 50th anniversary. Many Nonesuch artists and their recent Nonesuch releases have made music critics' and fans' year-end best lists in 2014. Here, in words and music and in chronological order, is a look back at the year in Nonesuch music.

Punch Brothers, Rhiannon Giddens, and the duo of Chris Thile and Edgar Meyer will be among the performers at the 42nd annual Telluride Bluegrass Festival, taking place June 18–21, 2015, the weekend of the summer solstice. The preliminary lineup for the much-loved Colorado event was announced earlier today, just before the winter solstice. Among the other performers are Thile's fellow Punch Brother Noam Pikelny, who will perform with fiddler Stuart Duncan.​

Randy Newman, Mandy Patinkin, and Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy joined a panoply of performers, politicians, diplomats, musicians, actors, journalists, writers, athletes, Sesame Street notables and more for the final episode of The Colbert Report last night. Newman, at the piano, accompanied host Stephen Colbert and this cavalcade of stars, friends, and well-wishers, both in the studio and afar (even far, far away in outer space), to bid the show a fond farewell, singing a rousing rendition of the classic tune “We’ll Meet Again.” You can watch the stellar sing-a-long here.

Rhiannon Giddens, who appears and sings in Apple's new holiday commercial, is featured in a new video that goes behind-the-scenes of the commercial, in which a young girl discovers an old Voice-O-Graph recording of her grandmother at a younger age (Giddens) singing the Gershwins' "Love Is Here to Stay," and uses GarageBand to reimagine the song in a modern context. In the new video, Giddens takes viewers inside a vintage Voice-O-Graph booth and reflects on the power of music to bring people together across distances, generational and otherwise. Watch it here.

Audra McDonald will bring her acclaimed portrayal of Billie Holiday from Lanie Robertson’s musical play Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill to HBO. Filming before a live audience at Café Brasil in New Orleans this month, the special will feature McDonald in her history-making performance as the jazz icon. Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill tells Billie Holiday’s life story through the songs that made her famous. Audra McDonald became Broadway’s most decorated performer when she won her sixth Tony Award for Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill earlier this year.