Gabriel Kahane was on PBS NewsHour last night to discuss his Nonesuch debut album, Book of Travelers. The album is a musical travelogue about the looping railway journey across the US he embarked upon the day after the 2016 US election and the people he met along the way. For the show's "Brief But Spectacular" segment, he offers his own take on "why trains in America are the road to radical empathy." You can see what he has to say in the piece here.

Gaby Moreno and Davíd Garza came together to record a timely-as-ever bilingual take on Paul Simon's "American Tune" for the Hootenanny One Mic Series in Los Angeles. The performance, featuring Moreno's Spanish translation of the lyrics, was filmed for the series' inaugural video, which you can watch here. Moreno and Van Dyke Parks released a recording of David Rudder's song "The Immigrants" in July to support CARECEN and its efforts to empower immigrants.

Olivia Chaney made her debut as a guest on Later... with Jools Holland last night, performing "Roman Holiday" from her new album, Shelter, live on BBC Two last night. Watch it again here. And tune in to BBC Two again this Saturday night for the full, one-hour episode of Later for another performance from the album.

David Byrne, who has begun his American Utopia arena tour of the UK and Ireland, was a guest on BBC Newsnight on Friday. He spoke with Kirsty Wark about the American Utopia album and tour, the forthcoming release of the complete True Stories soundtrack, and his collaborations with St. Vincent and Fatboy Slim. He also strongly encourages US voters to turn out for the November 6 midterm elections!

Gabriel Kahane was a guest on Live From Here with Chris Thile on Saturday. You can watch him perform songs from his new album, Book of Travelers—"November," "Baltimore," and "Little Love," for which he was joined by Thile—here. "I love him," says Thile; "now so do you." Kahane joins Andrew Bird and the NSO at the Kennedy Center in DC this weekend and resumes his Book of Travelers tour in Austin next week.

In honor of Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch puppeteer Caroll Spinney's retirement from Sesame Street after nearly 50 years, we revisit Kronos Quartet's trip to that beloved street in 1987 to talk with Big Bird about the string quartet and making music. "His open and kind-hearted view of the world and how we should treat each other is something we should forever aspire to," Kronos says of Spinney, and we concur.

In conjunction with The Criterion Collection’s special-edition DVD and Blu-ray release of David Byrne’s 1986 film True Stories, Nonesuch and Todomundo Records release a comprehensive soundtrack, collected for the first time in one package and in film sequence: True Stories, A Film by David Byrne: The Complete Soundtrack is due on vinyl LP, CD, and digital formats on November 23, 2018. Nonesuch Store pre-orders include an exclusive, limited-edition 12” print of a production photo taken by Byrne. "I always imagined that the music written for True Stories should be heard as it is in the film," says Byrne. "It makes the most sense this way. Me singing the song that was written for John Goodman’s character, Louis Fine, always felt weird to me. It was written for that character, not for me.”

Olivia Chaney stopped by The Current in St. Paul, MN, during her US tour this summer, to perform songs from her new album, Shelter, on Radio Heartland. She spoke with host Mike Pengra about the album and performed three songs: "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn," "Arches," and "Roman Holiday." Watch "Arches" here.

Gabriel Kahane was on KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic. He spoke with host Jason Bentley about his new album, Book of Travelers, and was joined by the Lyris Quartet to perform several songs from it—"Baedeker," "Baltimore," "8980," "Little Love"—and more. Listen to the session here. Kahane performs in La Jolla tonight and will be a guest on Live From Here with Chris Thile from St. Paul on October 20.

Mountain Man stopped by WNYC Studios as the guest on New Sounds' Soundcheck. The trio spoke with host John Schaefer about Magic Ship and performed three songs from the new album: "AGT," "Underwear," and "Boat." "Their music features a timeless sound," says Schaefer. "Now they're back with a beautiful new album." Watch the first two performances and listen to the full session here.

Paul Thomas Anderson's Academy Award–winning film Phantom Thread, starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Lesley Manville, and Vicky Krieps, will receive its HBO premiere on Saturday, September 29, and will be available to watch via the HBO GO and HBO NOW apps. The Guardian says there is "such pure delicious pleasure in this film"; Financial Times says Anderson "gets everything right here." The soundtrack, featuring Jonny Greenwood's Oscar-nominated score, is out on Nonesuch.

Singer Mandy Patinkin and pianist/producer Thomas Bartlett's Diary: April/May 2018, the second in their Diary series of musical installments, is out now on Nonesuch. The fourteen tracks of this Diary entry, recorded in Bartlett's NYC studio, include two songs written by Patinkin himself plus songs by Randy Newman, Laurie Anderson, Bob Dylan, Patty Griffin, Harry Nilsson, Tom Waits, Lyle Lovett, Taylor Mac, Keren Ann, and Stephen Sondheim. Watch a video for their take on Anderson's "From the Air" by Tom Kalin here.