The Blue Hour, a song cycle collaboration among composers Rachel Grimes, Angélica Negrón, Shara Nova, Caroline Shaw, and Sarah Kirkland Snider, is out now on New Amsterdam / Nonesuch Records. The piece was commissioned and performed by the chamber orchestra A Far Cry, who are joined by singer Shara Nova. Set to excerpts from Carolyn Forché’s epic poem On Earth, the music follows one woman’s journey through the liminal space between life and death via thousands of hallucinatory and non-linear images. You can take a quick look inside the album here.

Singer, songwriter, and guitar player Molly Tuttle has unveiled a new live performance video for "Dooley's Farm," a song she co-wrote with Ketch Secor for Crooked Tree, the debut album with her band, Golden Highway. The video was filmed during their sold-out release show at Nashville’s legendary Station Inn this past spring, celebrating the acclaimed new album. Tuttle and the band were joined by Jerry Douglas, who co-produced the album with her. You can watch it here.

Rhiannon Giddens’s book debut, Build a House, is out today on Candlewick Press. The picture book was inspired by, and features the lyrics of, a song she wrote and recorded with Yo-Yo Ma to commemorate Juneteenth in 2020. A newly recorded version of “Build a House” with Ma and Francesco Turrisi is also out today on Nonesuch; you can watch the video here. Giddens will read the book and perform at the Brooklyn Children’s Museum October 13 and The Grammy Museum in LA October 22. Her Carnegie Hall Perspectives concerts begin October 15; her opera Omar with Michael Abels debuts at LA Opera October 22.

Cécile McLorin Salvant’s concert at Salle Poirel in Nancy, France, for the Nancy Jazz Pulsations festival was broadcast live via ARTE. She was joined by guitarist Marvin Sewell, bassist Paul Sikivie, and percussionist Keita Ogawa—all of whom perform on her Nonesuch debut album, Ghost Song—and pianist Glenn Zaleski. You can watch the set here. Salvant was on BBC Radio 4's Kate Bush: The Power of Stranger Things hosted by Ann Powers. She talks about "Wuthering Heights" and why she chose to record it on Ghost Song. 

Congratulations to Molly Tuttle, who has won the International Bluegrass Music Association Award for Female Vocalist of the Year! Tuttle has just shared a new live performance video for the title track to Crooked Tree, the debut album with her band, Golden Highway. The video was filmed during their sold-out release show at Nashville’s legendary Station Inn this past spring, celebrating the acclaimed new album. Tuttle and the band were joined by Jerry Douglas, who co-produced the album with her. You can watch it here.

Michelle Branch has released a karaoke version of "Not My Lover," a song from her new album, The Trouble with Fever, so fans can sing along and recreate the official video, in which Branch and friends visit a local karaoke bar in Nashville. You can find the karaoke version and the song's lyrics here to join in, as well as the original video for inspiration.

Molly Tuttle and Golden Highway were on PBS’s The Caverns Sessions, performing songs from their debut album, Crooked Tree, released earlier this year on Nonesuch. The set was taped deep within the subterranean amphitheater of The Caverns in Tennessee's Cumberland Mountains. You can watch the episode, featuring the album tracks "She'll Change," "Castilleja," "Side Saddle," the title track, and more, here.

Michelle Branch's fourth solo album, The Trouble With Fever, is out now. Also out today is the video for the album's second single, "Not My Lover," directed by Alexa Stone and Stephen Kinigopoulos at a local karaoke bar in Nashville. You can watch it here. "This song is about the mistakes we make and trying to learn from them instead of letting them burn you down,” Branch says. "You have the power to change your own narrative." Branch's tour began in Boston last night and continues in Philadelphia, NYC, DC, Chicago, San Francisco, and LA. Her sold-out show at the Troubadour in LA September 27 will stream live.

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.