Composer and bandleader Darcy James Argue and his Secret Society ensemble make their Nonesuch Records debut with Dynamic Maximum Tension, out now. The album pays homage to some of Argue’s key influences with original songs dedicated to R. Buckminster Fuller, Alan Turing, and Mae West. Cécile McLorin Salvant joins for “Mae West: Advice.” "Superb … Dynamic Maximum Tension is a delight," exclaims All About Jazz in a four-star review. The New York City Jazz Record adds: "Remarkable in its ambition, scope, and sheer length, this is Argue’s crowning achievement to date."

Hurray for the Riff Raff, aka Alynda Segarra, who was on Norah Jones’ podcast Norah Jones Is Playing Along last week, can now be seen in a video from the session in which the duo performs Lucinda Williams’ song “Drunken Angel,” from Williams' 1998 album, Car Wheels on a Gravel Road. You can watch it here.

Wilco’s 2007 album Sky Blue Sky is now available in a limited-edition two-LP, sky-blue vinyl release; you can take a quick look inside here. The Gold-selling album made year’s best lists from Rolling Stone, Uncut, Mojo, BBC Radio 6 Music, and more. “Near perfect,” said Spin. Featuring the band that was assembled after the release of 2004’s A ghost is born, Sky Blue Sky was the first studio album from a lineup that has remained the same to today: guitarist, singer, and principal songwriter Jeff Tweedy, bassist John Stirratt, percussionist Glenn Kotche, keyboardist Mikael Jorgensen, multi-instrumentalist Pat Sansone, and avant-jazz guitarist Nels Cline.

“This feeling that your life seemed complete before, but now it’s full of color, it’s more vivid than you could ever imagine, because someone new came into it,” Stephen Rodgers, host of Resounding Verse, says on the subject of the title track to Rhiannon Giddens’ new album, You’re the One, a song that was inspired by a moment Giddens had with her son not long after he was born. “I find this song so moving because I can relate to the experience it describes, and I think many people listening to the song will have a similar connection to it. But it’s not just what the song is about that moves me so much. It’s also how the words are constructed, and how the music and words meld together.” You can hear the episode here.

“I’m so in love with the music,” Norah Jones says of Hurray for the Riff Raff, aka Alynda Segarra, the guest on the latest episode of her podcast, Norah Jones Is Playing Along. “I’ve been listening to Hurray for the Riff Raff for a long time. And their voice is just breathtaking to me.” Jones and Segarra talk about Segarra’s life and music and duet on several songs together, including three from Hurray for the Riff Raff’s 2022 album, LIFE ON EARTH, and more, closing with their take on Lucinda Williams’ “Drunken Angel.” You can hear it all here.

“The music on Dynamic Maximum Tension consists mostly of portraits of people—Buckminster Fuller and Alan Turing and Mae West and Duke Ellington,” composer and bandleader Darcy James Argue says of his upcoming album with his Secret Society ensemble in a new behind-the-scenes video. "I tried to think about, well, what are the places in my life where I turn to look for optimism and inspiration and the idea that the future is something to be anticipated rather than dreaded. So that’s the impetus for so much of the music on this record—to look to a period in the past where the future seemed brighter than it does today, and to try to find a way to represent that optimism about the future in music some way.” You can watch the video, directed by Reuben Hernandez at PowerStation at BerkleeNYC, here.

Rhiannon Giddens has shared a new video about the making of her new album, You're the One, filmed by Torrance Hill in Miami's Criteria Recording Studios at the recording of the album. "This album has been created in love and camaraderie, crossing boundaries musically," she says in the video. "We've got a lot of different types of music going on, a lot of different musicians from different worlds coming together. Part of my mission this whole time is to talk about how these barriers are not barriers ... When people are all in it for the same reason—i.e. we're gonna make an amazing piece of art, we're gonna make this great piece of music, and we're gonna do it in a way that enriches us and the listener, so we have gained by making it, and the listener has gained by listening to it—the barriers don't matter." You can watch it here.

"'The Light' celebrates the birth of my daughter Bahia," Yussef Dayes says of the new song from his upcoming album, Black Classical Music. "'The Light' is a Dayes lullaby song. The sweet harpsichord is a sound that Bahia was captivated by, although it was also a song she fell asleep too. An ode to Stevie Wonder's 'Isn’t She Lovely,' I wanted to add Bahia's voice from footage and voice notes I've recorded over the last few years since her birth. Bahia introduces the song and shares her positive affirmations with her mum, something she can't go to sleep without doing now."

"She’s kind of phenomenal, really," CBS Mornings' Anthony Mason says ahead of his conversation with Rhiannon Giddens. "She’s doing some incredibly important work." They visit RetroFret Vintage Guitars in Brooklyn to talk about her new album, You're the One, her Pulitzer Prize–winning opera with Michael Abels, Omar, and more. You can watch their conversation here.

Rhiannon Giddens and her band were on CBS Saturday Morning to perform a Saturday Sessions set of three songs from her new album, You’re the One: “Too Little, Too Late, Too Bad,” the title track, and “If You Don’t Know How Sweet It Is,” a web exclusive. You can watch all three performances here.

Rhiannon Giddens' new album, You're the One, her first of all original songs, is out now. "Giddens melds the past and present, writing a bold new future for herself in the process," says Rolling Stone. "One of Americana music's most vital voices expands her sound without abandoning her roots." "It’s easy to hear the joyous spirit in which she’s singing these songs," says Folk Alley, "and Giddens delivers a little masterpiece of an album that showcases her commanding presence as a singer and songwriter." Uncut calls the album an “accomplished tour d’horizon by [a] prolific polymath.” "There are good years, and then there are great years. Rhiannon Giddens is having one of those," says Michel Martin on NPR's Morning Edition; you can hear their conversation here.

k.d. lang's recording of the song that was Tony Bennett’s first no. 1 hit, “Because of You,” for CBS News Sunday Morning, in memory of her longtime friend, teacher, and musical collaborator, is now available to stream and download. lang is donating her proceeds from the single to the Tony Bennett Legacy Fund of Exploring the Arts, the nonprofit he and his wife Susan Benedetto founded. “‘Because of You’ was the last song Tony sang, just two days before he passed,” Benedetto said. “Hearing k.d.’s beautiful rendition of the song she and Tony sang together brings back wonderful memories and pays tribute to their friendship. As I mentioned to k.d., ‘If Tony were here, he would say only one word after hearing you sing that song, ‘Perfect.’”