Natalie Merchant recently gave an intimate performance at The Sheen Center for Thought & Culture in NYC for WFUV’s FUV Live. She spoke with host Alisa Ali and was joined by her longtime guitarist Erik Della Penna to perform several songs from throughout her career. You can now watch her perform "Sister Tilly," from her new album, Keep Your Courage, as well as “Carnival” and “Break Your Heart” from the set here and listen to the complete session at wfuv.org. Merchant resumes her Keep Your Courage tour on the US West Coast, Europe, and the UK in the autumn.

Composer John Adams talks about his acclaimed opera Doctor Atomic and the aria “Batter My Heart” in a new video from Boosey & Hawkes. The opera, with a libretto by Peter Sellars drawn from original sources—including, for this aria, the John Donne sonnet—tells the story of Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer and the first atomic bomb explosion in New Mexico in July 1945. The video features scenes from the Dutch National Opera production starring Gerald Finley, who originated the role of Oppenheimer in 2005 and can be heard on the Nonesuch first recording of Doctor Atomic, with the composer leading the BBC Singers and the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and Julia Bullock as Kitty Oppenheimer. You can hear “Batter My Heart” from the recording here as well.

Portuguese fado singer Carminho performed before Pope Francis and attendees of the World Youth Day Prayer Vigil at Campo da Graça in Lisbon’s Parque Tejo on Saturday night. She sang “Estrela,” from her 2019 album, Maria. You can watch the performance here.

Rhiannon Giddens has released “Yet to Be,” a new single from her forthcoming album, You’re the One, due August 18. “Yet to Be” features Jason Isbell and tells the story of a Black woman and an Irish man falling in love in America. You can watch the video here.

Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway perform "El Dorado" and "San Joaquin," from their new album, City of Gold, and the title track to their debut album, Crooked Tree, in a new No Depression session filmed live at DelFest.You can watch it here.

Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway's new album, City of Gold, is out now. They've also released a new lyric video for album track “Yosemite,” featuring Dave Matthews, which you can watch here. “Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway strike gold on their transportive new album,” exclaims Folk Alley. “Every song on City of Gold is a little gem, every facet sparkling with exquisite instrumentation, stunning songwriting, and heartfelt singing … City of Gold is clearly one of the best albums of the year.” The Bluegrass Situation, which named Tuttle its Artist of the Month, declares: "Turns out it’s been Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway at the end of the rainbow this whole time!”

Vagabon, aka Lætitia Tamko, has released “Do Your Worst,” a new song from her upcoming album, Sorry I Haven’t Called, due September 15 on Nonesuch Records, and a video for it directed by Angela Ricciardi. The song, produced by Tamko, Rostam, and Teo Halm (SZA, Rosalía, FKA Twigs), combines dance-floor euphoria, breakneck-paced jungle beats, and a DJ’s sense of pacing through Vagabon’s signature storytelling. You can watch it here.

Rhiannon Giddens is a host of the new PBS conversation series Arts Talk, which premieres today, with all episodes available to stream now on PBS.org and the PBS app. Giddens welcomes singer, songwriter, and producer Elvis Costello and actor and singer Brian Stokes Mitchell as her guests on the show to discuss their careers and share personal memories. You can watch them here. Guests on other episodes are Seal, Min Jin Lee, Nathaniel Mary Quinn, Jimmy Kimmel, and Twyla Tharp in interviews led by Misty Copeland, Henry Winkler, and Ann Curry.

David Byrne and Here Lies Love Broadway cast members Lea Salonga, Arielle Jacobs, and Jose Llana gave CBS Sunday Morning a behind-the-scenes look at the production, which has its official Opening Night at the Broadway Theatre in NYC this Thursday. They spoke with correspondent Elaine Quijano about the immersive disco pop musical based on the rise and fall of Imelda Marcos and the People Power Revolution of the Philippines, featuring music by Byrne and Fatboy Slim. You can watch the piece here.

Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway, while at the Railbird Festival in Lexington, KY, earlier this month, performed a live session for Holler. The set includes two songs from their upcoming album, City of Gold—“Down Home Dispensary” and “Next Rodeo”—and a new song, “Wild Things.” “What's most evident ... is the unspoken synergy Tuttle has found with her like-minded friends in the band,” writes Holler’s Ross Jones. “You'll find it hard to find another band that are having as much fun doing what they do as a group than these five, and it's a pleasure to witness." You can watch it here.

Composer and bandleader Darcy James Argue and his Secret Society ensemble make their Nonesuch Records debut with Dynamic Maximum Tension on September 8. 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.” You can watch the ensemble perform the album track “Dymaxion”—a portmanteau of “dynamic maximum tension”—from the song’s recording session, here.

Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway have released “San Joaquin,” a new song from their upcoming album, City of Gold, due July 21. "I’ve always loved singing songs about trains, and this one takes place in my home state of California," Tuttle says. "Ketch [Secor] and I had the idea for writing ‘San Joaquin’ while looking at a map of different train lines that run through the state. Ketch loves writing geographical songs, and I have many fond memories of road trips taken through the Central Valley when I was a kid, so we dreamed up this story of a wild ride down the San Joaquin railway.” You can watch the video and a live performance of the track here.