"We’ve spent the last couple years writing songs and recording demos in various places round the world, assembling the bones of what will be our next album," say The Staves, who have released a new demo track, "Nothing's Gonna Happen." "This song was written in a bedroom in east London and, later, recorded in a studio in Wisconsin. It’s been a while since we put new music out and we thought that seeing as this is the season of giving, we’d let one of these demos surface for anybody who is interested to hear ... We appreciate our wonderful fans so much and thought it would be a cool thing to show you a small sliver of the process."

Natalie Merchant leads John Lennon Tribute in NYC with guest Sam Amidon and others … Devendra Banhart concludes North American tour … Daughter of Swords tours Midwest … Jeremy Denk is in St. Louis … Rhiannon Giddens continues European tour … Gabriel Kahane joins Oregon Symphony … The Magnetic Fields perform in Brooklyn … Gaby Moreno joins NSO, Ben Folds in DC … Mandy Patinkin performs in New York … Rachael & Vilray head West … Steve Reich curates Lincoln Center Nightcap … Chris Thile hosts Live From Here from NYC … Vagabon plays Oakland … The McGarrigle Christmas tradition continues in London ...

Pat Metheny has released “You Are,” a new track from his forthcoming album, From This Place, due February 21; it can be heard here. This follows the release of the album’s opening track, “America Undefined.” Both songs can be downloaded now with pre-orders of From This Place on vinyl and CD in the Pat Metheny Store and Nonesuch Store, and are available to stream.

Early James, an Alabama native and the latest signing to Dan Auerbach's Easy Eye Sound roster, releases his debut album, Singing for My Supper, via Easy Eye and Nonesuch Records on March 13, 2020. The album spans hard-charging blues, wistful folk, and ages-old pop crooning, anchored by the singer's voice that moves from gravel-gruff shout to a honey-smooth whisper. James' inspirations run from Fiona Apple and Tom Waits to the Southern Gothic poets, as heard in the album's darker themes and in the wry humor with which he writes about them. The video for the album track "Blue Pill Blues" premiered on American Songwriter earlier today and can be seen here.

Yola spoke with NPR member station 88Nine Radio Milwaukee for its Yours Truly series of up-close artist interviews. She talks about meeting Mavis Staples—with whom she performs at Holiday Cheer for FUV in NYC next week—and surrounding herself with "golden people." "The environment that I've built for myself—it is so important to connect," she says. "Certainly you'll hear this from women far and wide that there are environments that don't let them self-actualize, and that was definitely No. 1, people that accepted me as I was." Watch it here.

Rolling Stone has published its list of The 100 Best Albums of the 2010s, including two Nonesuch releases: The Black Keys' Brothers at No. 14, "one of their most emotive and cathartic records ... set to beautifully smudgy R&B, soul, and low-fi funk," and Randy Newman's Dark Matter at No. 36, "a gem, perhaps Newman’s most mordant assessment yet of his fellow man."

Mountain Man has released Mountain Man Sings Wilco, the latest in its series of cover singles, featuring its version of “You and I” from 2009’s Wilco (the album). “We have been band members, collaborators, friends and business partners for over 10 years now,” says the band, “so a song like ‘You and I,’ a celebration of creating a relationship that is totally unique and filled with mystery, seemed very appropriate.” Mountain Man will present a three-night COSMIC PROM of songs from the trio's collective catalog in Durham, NC, January 17–19.

Composer and multi-instrumentalist Jeff Parker releases a vinyl 7” single featuring parts one and two of his song “Max Brown” today, via a newly formed partnership between International Anthem and Nonesuch Records. A video for the track can be seen here. The song is a sneak peek of Parker’s new album, the first to be released via this partnership. International Anthem and Nonesuch will join forces to release at least six albums over the next three years.

Mandy Patinkin was on NPR's All Things Considered last week to talk with host Ari Shapiro about his new album, Children and Art. "Art, never more than these moments we're living these days, is the avenue toward expression of existence," he says. "The whole system is falling apart, and you need to turn to the fire department to put out the flames. And in this case, I appeal to artists of every nature to guide us and lead us back to humanity and caring for our fellow human beings and doing what is morally and ethically appropriate." Patinkin is on tour now.

Devendra Banhart stopped by WFUV to talk with FUV Live host Alisa Ali and perform three songs from his new album, Ma—"Taking a Page," "Carolina," and "October 12"—which you can watch here. Banhart also spoke with Pitchfork for its The Song I Wish I Wrote series; his choice: Joan Armatrading's "Willow." "I think this is the perfect song," he says in the video you can watch here. His North American tour concludes with concerts in Montreal, Boston, Brooklyn, DC, and Philadelphia this week. He heads to Europe in January.

The latest episode of Robert Plant's new podcast series, Digging Deep, digs deep into the title track from his latest album, Carry Fire. "The way that we've been constructing music for the last couple of albums with the Space Shifters has been pretty modular," he says. "Each guy in our cooperative creates ideas and sends them to me or to each other and they go up to the misty mountains ... There's a lot of sketches, some of them are black-and-white, some of them are going into color and that's how all these songs are developed." You can listen to the episode and watch a live performance of "Carry Fire" here.

Caroline Shaw and Attacca Quartet cellist Andrew Yee are on a special bonus episode of WNYC's Dolly Parton's America podcast hosted by Jad Abumrad. This episode features performances recorded live at Brooklyn's National Sawdust. "I got to thinking about all the songs that we sing about home, and as we leave home, we carry those songs with us. We morph them, transform them," Abumrad says. The performers "played traditional music that they connect to, that reminds them of home, that is from their home, but they all took that music and gave it a new spin." Shaw, accompanied by Yee, offers her take on the 18th-century hymn "On Jordan's Stormy Banks I Stand" and Alfred Brumley's 1929 song "I'll Fly Away." Hear it here.