Makaya McCraven has released “The Fours,” the latest single and music visual from his forthcoming new album, In These Times, out September 23. You can watch the video, directed by Ryosuke Tanzawa, here. McCraven will perform music from the album at Public Records in Brooklyn next Monday, September 19, with a special, all-star line-up including Junius Paul, Brandee Younger, De’Sean Jones and the string quartet from the album: Marta Sofia Honer, Macie Stewart, Zara Zaharieva, and Lia Kohl.

Nashville Ballet's production of Black Lucy and the Bard, set to an original score by Rhiannon Giddens and Francesco Turrisi, premieres on PBS's Great Performances this Friday, September 16, at 9pm ET. Playing onstage alongside the dancers, Giddens and Turrisi play several instruments including violin, banjo, mandolin, and piano. Author and performer Caroline Randall Williams narrates the ballet with her own spoken word poetry from the 2015 book on which the show was based, Lucy Negro, Redux. Choreographed and directed by Nashville Ballet’s artistic director Paul Vasterling, the ballet was recorded in March 2022.

Caroline Shaw and Attacca Quartet have released “And So,” from their upcoming album together, Evergreen, due September 23. “And So” is part of Shaw’s Is a Rose trilogy. You can watch a video for the song here. Evergreen comprises five original works by Shaw: three pieces written for string quartet and two songs written for string quartet and voice. It also includes an interpretation of a twelfth century French poem, which the Quartet performs with Shaw on vocals. Shaw and Attacca Quartet perform music from Evergreen at Public Records in Brooklyn September 27. 

Rhiannon Giddens was on CBS Sunday Morning to discuss Omar, the opera she wrote with Michael Abels, based on the life and autobiography of enslaved Muslim scholar Omar Ibn Said, who was forcefully brought to Charleston, SC from Africa in 1807. “We need to know their stories,” says Giddens, “and then we know more about who we are now.” You can watch their conversation here.

Rhiannon Giddens was on PBS NewsHour to talk with Jeffrey Brown about her new role as artistic director of Silkroad, with whom she just concluded her first tour. "I love getting thrown something that I have never done before, but that I think I have the goods to do, but I have to figure out how to do it,” Giddens tells Brown. “And so I always say yes first and figure it out later.” You can watch Giddens’s conversation with Brown, who calls her "a boundless bridger of musical worlds and styles," here.

The original video for k.d. lang’s Top 40 hit song “Constant Craving,” from the double-Platinum-selling 1992 album Ingénue, has been re-mastered from the original film materials in 4K HD by Craigman Digital featuring audio from the 2017 Ingénue: 25th Anniversary Edition remaster. The song earned lang the Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Performance in 1993. The video was directed by Mark Romanek. "I'm so happy the video has been updated and hope fans can enjoy it more now that it's high res!" You can watch it here.

Punch Brothers, Watchhouse, and Sarah Jarosz join forces for the second American Acoustic US tour starting tonight, with dates in Seattle, Portland, Los Angeles, Salt Lake City, New Haven, and more. Chris Thile says: “It took five years, but I’m elated to announce the second traveling edition of American Acoustic for this summer. Joining my fellow Punch Brothers and me in front of a pair of large condenser microphones will be our dear friends, Watchhouse and Sarah Jarosz, for a collaborative evening of music that traverses our respective catalogues and celebrates being together.” They've released a preview of what's to come with a cover of Sufjan Stevens' "Mystery of Love" performed live from Telluride; you can watch it here.

Molly Tuttle and her band Golden Highway have released a new live performance video for her song "San Francisco Blues," from their new album, Crooked Tree. The video was filmed during their sold-out record release show at Nashville’s legendary Station Inn this past spring. You can watch it here.

Jeff Parker stopped by Amoeba Music in San Francisco to share some of what he’s been listening to for their What’s in My Bag series, including music by Madlib; Eddie Harris; Doug Hammond & David Durrah; Elements; Ray Charles; Sly & Robbie Meet King Tubby; Sphere; The John Carter Octet; Jakob Bro, Arve Henriksen, and Jorge Rossy; Zawinul; and William S. Fischer. You can take a look inside here.

Makaya McCraven has released “Dream Another,” the second track from his forthcoming album, In These Times, out September 23. The track, which McCraven wrote and recorded in his home studio in Chicago, features Brandee Younger on harp, Junius Paul on bass, Matt Gold on guitar/sitar, and De’Sean Jones on flute. An accompanying music visualizer, directed by Nik Arthur, features hand-drawn, digital, and photographic animations composed and laser-etched into stone in the style of a “zoopraxiscope,” a nineteenth-century animation device, predating the motion picture, that allowed images to move for the first time. You can watch it here.
 

Evergreen, performed by Caroline Shaw and Attacca Quartet, is due September 23 on Nonesuch Records. The album is five original works by Shaw: three pieces for string quartet—Three Essays, Blueprint, and The Evergreen, which Shaw describes as an offering to a tree she encountered in an evergreen forest on an island off Vancouver—and two songs for string quartet and voice, including Other Song, which she also performed on her 2021 album Let the Soil Play Its Simple Part. Also included is an interpretation of a 12th-century French poem for quartet and voice. Nonesuch Store pre-orders include a limited-edition, 8”x8” autographed print of the score for The Evergreen.

Grammy Award–winning and multi-Platinum selling singer-songwriter Michelle Branch’s new album, The Trouble with Fever, is due September 16. You can watch a video for the album's first single, "I'm A Man," here. Created during the pandemic lockdown, The Trouble with Fever is Branch's fourth solo album and follows her critically acclaimed 2017 album, Hopeless Romantic. The time at home gave Branch the opportunity to stretch herself creatively. She kicks off her tour in Nashville September 12, with dates in New York and Los Angeles, among others.