Jessica Lea Mayfield’s Nonesuch Records debut, Tell Me, is due out February 8 and is now available for pre-order in the Nonesuch Store with an exclusive signed 7” of the album’s first single, “Our Hearts Are Wrong.” Mayfield will tour throughout 2011, including shows with The Avett Brothers and Justin Townes Earle as well as newly added headlining dates to follow the release of the album.

Ben Folds brought 2010 to a close on a high note, with his Nick Hornby collaboration, Lonely Avenue, having made a number of year-end best lists and The Sing-Off, the NBC singing competition of which he was a judge, a smash hit. Folds is now set to bring music from both to venues across the US as he launches his 2011 tour with support from Sing-Off finalists Street Corner Symphony. Folds then tours Europe, Australia, and Japan in the coming months.

Carnegie Hall has just announced its 2011–2012 season, which will feature performances by a number of artists familiar to Nonesuch Journal readers, including Audra McDonald, Kronos Quartet, Richard Goode, Dawn Upshaw, Alarm Will Sound, and, making his Carnegie Hall premiere, Cheikh Lô. The Carnegie Hall season will also see the New York premiere of works by John Adams, Philip Glass, and Louis Andriessen.

Wanda Jackson performs a song from her forthcoming album The Party Ain't Over on the Late Show with David Letterman tonight, backed by producer Jack White on guitar and The Third Man House Band. Their upcoming shows in Brooklyn and Los Angeles are sold out, but Nonesuch is giving away tickets to each. The Nashville Scene called their Nashville set "nothing short of amazing ... It was incredible ... All hail the Queen of Rock ’n’ Roll!"

The lineup for the 2011 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival (a.k.a. Jazz Fest) has just been announced, and, as always, there's much to look forward to when the festivities get under way this spring. Jazz Fest will be held at the Fair Grounds Race Course in New Orleans the weekends of April 29–May 1 and May 5–8. Among this year's performers are The Low Anthem, Punch Brothers, hometown favorites Allen Toussaint and Nicholas Payton, and Wilco.

Ride, Rise, Roar, the concert film documenting David Byrne's 2008-09 tour, Songs of David Byrne and Brian Eno, receives its UK premiere today in a one-night-only event screening. Byrne will attend the premiere at the Ritzy Picturehouse in Brixton, London, and participate in a live post-screening Q&A that will be simulcast to dozens of cinemas across the UK. Wired calls it "a downright beautifully shot and edited concert film." Watch the trailer here.

As President Obama hosts Chinese President Hu at the White House, composer John Adams prepares for the Metropolitan Opera premiere of his groundbreaking 1987 opera Nixon in China, which explores President Nixon’s meeting with Mao Tse-tung nearly 40 years ago. New York classical music station WQXR is hosting a special preview tonight, featuring a conversation with Adams and director Peter Sellars, plus performances from the cast. Nonesuch will reissue the Grammy-winning original cast recording of Nixon in China on February 1.

Wanda Jackson has been named the Artist of the Day by Paste. She spoke with the magazine about her forthcoming album, The Party Ain't Over, and about some of the things she's picked up over the years working with the likes of producer Jack White and Elvis Presley. "Many consider her to be the first woman to write and perform rock ‘n’ roll," says Paste. On the new album, she proves that her "searing rock sensibility and trademark primal growl stand little changed."

Alan Pierson, the Artistic Director and conductor of Alarm Will Sound, has been named the new Artistic Director of the Brooklyn Philharmonic. Pierson's debut 2011-2012 season will be announced later this spring. "My goal is for the Brooklyn Philharmonic to connect with the Borough’s vast, unique population through events that celebrate and reflect its incredibly diverse communities," says Pierson, "and to do so in a way that involves original music-making which will be of interest beyond Brooklyn as well. We will become ‘Brooklyn’s Orchestra’ like never before.”

After sharing a bill at The Wiltern in Los Angeles next week, The Low Anthem will join Iron and Wine on the road for two weeks in April. Before that, The Low Anthem will embark on a headlining tour in support of its forthcoming Nonesuch release, Smart Flesh, due out February 22, including a performance at New York City's Bowery Ballroom on March 8. The album is available for pre-order in the Nonesuch Store with a limited-edition poster signed by the band.

Wanda Jackson's video of the Bob Dylan great “Thunder on the Mountain,” off her forthcoming album, The Party Ain't Over, premiered on AOL Spinner this morning. "The Queen of Rockabilly covering possibly the greatest singer-songwriter ever alongside one of today's most prolific artists, is a pretty easy sell," says Spinner. "That said, Wanda Jackson and Jack White's new version of Bob Dylan's 'Thunder on the Mountain' is even better than it sounds on paper." Watch it here.

Jessica Lea Mayfield's Nonesuch debut album, Tell Me, is due out in just a few weeks. Mayfield recently stopped by the offices of Relix magazine to perform the album track "Sometimes at Night," which Relix describes as "haunting." The Boston Globe features Mayfield in its list of "new artists to hear right now." Last week, Mayfield was busy autographing copies of the 7” vinyl of the album’s first single, “Our Hearts Are Wrong,” which will be included with the first 250 Nonesuch Store pre-orders.