Rhiannon Giddens and Francesco Turrisi have released a new video for their rendition of the traditional American folk song “O Death,” from their new album, They're Calling Me Home. The video features illustrated vignettes of a story about death painted by Maeve Clancy, an Irish crankie roll artist. Giddens explains, “Crankies are a pre-electricity technology that pair a visual narrative, usually painted on a long piece of paper or cloth, 'cranked' by hand to the timing of the song.” You can watch it here.

The Black Keys have released "Going Down South," the second single from their forthcoming tenth album, Delta Kream. The album celebrates the band’s roots and features eleven Mississippi hill country blues songs by R. L. Burnside and Junior Kimbrough, among others. Auerbach says of the song: “That was one of R. L. Burnside’s hits! We strayed a little from the original on our version with the falsetto and percussion, but we liked how it sounded in that moment. It’s become one of my favorites on the album.” You can watch the video, directed by Ryan Nadzam and filmed at Jimmy Duck Holmes’ Blue Front Café, the oldest active juke joint in America, here. The band will perform on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and BBC Two's Later... with Jools Holland on the album's release day, May 14. 

In honor of National Teacher Appreciation Day this Tuesday, May 4, the children at Irving Park Elementary School in Greensboro, NC, chose to thank their teachers with a special performance of Natalie Merchant's "Kind and Generous" you can watch here.

The Staves performed three tracks from their new album, Good Woman live from the BBC's Radio Theatre for BBC Radio 6 Music's Shaun Keaveny show. “Like warm buttermilk and honey siphoned into my ear canal," says Keaveny. You can hear the performances here. The band's album-release livestream show from February will be rebroadcast with a special new encore recorded from the sisters' family home in Watford on May 20. "We loved playing this show and wanted to give you all another chance to see it," says the trio, "or watch it for the first time before the real thing comes back later this year (fingers crossed)." 

Lake Street Dive's NPR Tiny Desk (Home) Concert is out now via NPR Music. Recorded at Pete’s Candy Store in Brooklyn, the intimate performance includes four songs from the band's new album, Obviously: "Hypotheticals," "Same Old News," "Anymore," and "Making Do." You can watch it here.

Lake Street Dive, whose new album, Obviously, recently topped the Non-Commercial / Public Radio chart, could be heard in sessions for three such stations this past week. For The Current, 89.3FM out of Minneapolis/St. Paul, the band performed three songs from the new album, and Rachael Price and Akie Bermiss spoke with host Bill DeVille about the album and some tour bus memories. For WYCE in Grand Rapids the band performed two songs, and Mike Calabrese and Mike "McDuck" Olson spoke with WYCE music director Shane German. And for WNRN in Virginia, the band played two songs, and McDuck spoke with host Patrick Coman. You can watch the sessions here.

Sam Amidon was the subject of a profile on PBS NewsHour Weekend. "Amidon has developed a shining reputation for taking something very old and making it sound brand new," says host Hari Sreenivasan. Amidon talks with special correspondent Tom Casciato about his career in music, from his earliest days immersed in the music of his performer parents to his 2020 self-titled album. You can watch their conversation and a new performance of the album track "Maggie" here.

The Black Keys have released a video for "Crawling Kingsnake," the opening track and first single from their just-announced upcoming album, Delta Kream. The video was directed by Tim Hardiman and filmed at Jimmy Duck Holmes’ Blue Front Café, the oldest active juke joint in America. You can watch it here. "We were honored to play alongside Kenny Brown and Eric Deaton, who are a direct link to R.L. Burnside and Junior Kimbrough," says Dan Auerbach. "This is the Mississippi hill country sound that Pat and I first bonded over.”

Lake Street Dive is on the latest episode of eTown. All five band members talk with host Nick Forster, who calls Lake Street Dive "one of our favorite bands," about their new album, Obviously, and share some songs off the record. Also on the show is Shakey Graves, who joins the band for a virtual collaboration on the Beatles tune "Two of Us." You can listen to the episode and watch the duet here.

Congratulations to Lake Street Dive, whose new album, Obviously, debuted at No. 5 on the Billboard Album Chart, No. 1 on the Americana/Folk Chart, and No. 2 on both the Current Rock Albums and Current Alternative Albums charts. The band performed the album opener, "Hypotheticals," on The Ellen Show, which you can watch here.

Let the Soil Play Its Simple Part, an album of songs written and performed by Caroline Shaw and Sō Percussion, is due June 25 on Nonesuch Records. With Shaw on vocals and Sō filling out this new band, they developed songs in the studio, with lyrics inspired by their own wide-ranging interests: James Joyce, the Sacred Harp hymnal, a poem by Anne Carson, the Bible’s Book of Ruth, the American roots tune “I’ll Fly Away,” the pop music of ABBA, and more. Pre-order to download “To the Sky” now and get a custom climbing pole bean seed packet hand-printed and signed by Shaw.

k.d. lang’s makeover, a new collection of classic dance remixes of some of her best-loved songs, is due May 28 on Nonesuch Records, including on translucent turquoise vinyl. The album brings these remixes, made between 1992 and 2000, together for the first time, and includes “Sexuality,” “Miss Chatelaine,” “Theme from The Valley of the Dolls,” “Summerfling,” and the #1 dance chart hits “Lifted By Love” and “If I Were You.” makeover’s cover art features a previously unseen 1995 portrait of lang by David LaChapelle. Nonesuch Store pre-orders include an instant download of “Miss Chatelaine (St. Tropez Mix),” the video for which can be seen here; an exclusive, limited-edition print of the album cover signed by lang; and a paper doll PDF set, designed by a fan, Katja Virtanen, to print out at home, featuring iconic looks from throughout her career.