Cécile McLorin Salvant’s new album, Mélusine, is due March 24 on Nonesuch; vinyl is due May 19. Mélusine is a mix of five originals and interpretations of nine songs, dating as far back as the 12th century, mostly sung in French along with Occitan, English, and Haitian Kreyòl. They tell the folk tale of Mélusine, a woman who turns into a half-snake each Saturday after a childhood curse by her mother. The track “D’un feu secret,” Michel Lambert’s 1660 air de cour, is available today, along with an animated video by Amanda Bonaiuto that may be seen here.

Natalie Merchant, whose new album, Keep Your Courage, is due April 14, performs the title track to her 2001 album Motherland in a new Blackberry Sessions video. She was joined by guitarist Erik Della Penna in making the video while at Blackberry Farm in Tennessee in November as part of its annual Americana Music Association weekend. You can watch it here. Merchant will tour the US tour this spring, going into the fall. European dates will be announced shortly.

Composer John Adams, in a new video from his publisher, Boosey & Hawkes, discusses how great operas throughout history confront deep issues of our human existence, and how contemporary operas—including his own Doctor Atomic, The Death of Klinghoffer, and Nixon in China—explore themes of humanity, intolerance, and power through the lens of recent history. You can watch it here. All of the above and more are included in the forty-disc box set John Adams Collected Works released last year on Nonesuch.  Adams will conduct his opera Girls of the Golden West performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, featuring Julia Bullock among others, at Walt Disney Concert Hall, January 27–29.

Molly Tuttle performs “Castilleja,” from her Grammy-nominated album with Golden Highway, Crooked Tree, in a new video made at Blackberry Farm in Tennessee during its annual Americana Music Association weekend. You can watch it here.

I Love a Love Song!, the second album from Rachael & Vilray, is out now. The album features eleven new songs written by Vilray plus the 1930s classic "Goodnight My Love" written by Mack Gordon and Harry Revel. "This is a beautiful collaboration," says BBC Radio 2's Jamie Cullum. "I totally and utterly love that ... I will be listening to that throughout the year." "I Love a Love Song! is a truly lovely album, front to back," says No Depression. "More than anything, it’s two accomplished solo performers coming together with a mutual respect and love of musical standards with the goal of responding in kind." You can watch a new live performance video of the album track "Hate is the Basis (of Love)" here.

“I Am the Walrus,” from Your Mother Should Know: Brad Mehldau Plays The Beatles, is out today, along with videos of Mehldau performing the song and discussing it at New York’s Village Vanguard, which you can watch here. The live solo album, due February 10, features interpretations of nine songs by John Lennon and Paul McCartney and one by George Harrison, plus a David Bowie classic that draws a connection between The Beatles and pop songwriters who followed. 

Rachael & Vilray were on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert to perform "Is a Good Man Real?" from their new album, I Love a Love Song!, out this coming Friday. You can watch it here. The duo has just announced that it will perform music from the new album live at the Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn on February 24.

Molly Tuttle and Golden Highway performed the title track to their Grammy-nominated debut album, Crooked Tree, on Jimmy Kimmel Live! last night. You can watch it here.

Rachael & Vilray have unveiled a video for “Just Two,” a new song from their new album, I Love a Love Song!, due January 13. You can watch the video, filmed in the studio in Los Angeles and directed by Jacob Blumberg, here. The duo is slated to perform on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert this Monday, January 9.

Cécile McLorin Salvant performs Harold Arlen & Yip Harburg’s "Over the Rainbow" in a new video recorded at New York’s Jazz at Lincoln Center last spring. The video features Salvant with pianist Sullivan Fortner, percussionist Keita Ogawa, guitarist Marvin Sewell, flutist Alexa Tarantino, and bassist Yasushi Nakamura. You can watch it here. She performs Arlen/Harburg's "Optimistic Voices" along with Gregory Porter's "No Love Dying" in a Grammy-nominated arrangement on her Grammy-nominated Nonesuch debut album, Ghost Song.

Rachael & Vilray rang in 2023 with New Year’s Eve television appearances on both sides of the Atlantic: on CBS Saturday Morning and BBC Two’s Jools Holland special Jools’ Annual Hootenanny. You can watch them perform three songs from their upcoming album, I Love a Love Song!, on CBS—the previously released “Is a Good Man Real?” and “Just Me This Year” and the newly released “Just Two”—and their Hootenanny performance of “Is a Good Man Real?” here.

David Byrne rang in 2023 performing two songs with Miley Cyrus as part of NBC’s New Year’s Eve special Miley’s New Year’s Eve Party. Byrne, Cyrus, and a full band performed “Everybody’s Coming to My House,” from his 2018 album American Utopia and its subsequent Broadway production, and David Bowie’s “Let’s Dance.” You can watch them both here.