Yo-Yo Ma has partnered with Knoxville-based arts nonprofit Big Ears for the multi-faceted concert “Our Common Nature: An Appalachian Celebration,” with musical guests Rhiannon Giddens, Chris Thile, and Edgar Meyer, on Friday, May 26, at World’s Fair Park in Knoxville, TN. In addition, Thile and Giddens will each perform a concert, May 25 and May 27, respectively, at Knoxville's Bijou Theatre. Conceived and curated by Ma, the World’s Fair Park celebration will include musicians, storytellers, and poets from throughout the Appalachian region, and will be the culmination of a week-long series of cultural experiences and conversations that lift the myriad voices of Appalachia—Indigenous, European, Latinx, Black, and beyond.

Rachael & Vilray are on The Vinyl District’s Radar podcast to discuss their new album, I Love a Love Song!. “There is an intrinsic grandeur to the Great American Songbook that we can all appreciate,” says host Evan Toth. “However, the Great American Songbook must always be accepting new entries and if we had to suggest some additions from our time, from this year, Rachael and Vilray should be at the top of our list.” You can hear their conversation here.

Best New Artist Grammy Award nominee Molly Tuttle and her band Golden Highway—fiddler Bronwyn Keith-Hynes, mandolinist Dominick Leslie, bassist Shelby Means, and banjo player Kyle Tuttle—have released their take on last year’s Best New Artist winner Olivia Rodrigo’s hit “good 4 u” and a new recording of “Dooley’s Farm,” a song from their debut album, Crooked Tree, a Best Bluegrass Album Grammy nominee, for the Spotify Singles series. You can hear them here, exclusively on Spotify.

"There are times when we find ourselves isolated and alone, or in reflection and solitude," Julia Bullock writes in the liner notes to her solo debut album, Walking in the Dark. "There are other times when we choose to connect to further understand each other, which provides us with an opportunity to share our evolving identities—maybe even better discern how to communicate. And who knows ... if our intentions are translated well enough and are clearly in focus, it may lead to some moments of illumination." You can read her note here.

John Adams leads the LA Phil, Julia Bullock, and others in performances of his opera Girls of the Golden West at Walt Disney Concert Hall in LA. Kronos Quartet performs at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall and in Saratoga Springs. Brad Mehldau's quintet is at Village Vanguard in NYC through Sunday. Mandy Patinkin is at Strathmore in Bethesda. Cécile McLorin Salvant is in California, at the Mondavi Center in Davis and Bing Concert Hall in Stanford. The Black Keys DJ in NYC.

Cécile McLorin Salvant’s new album, Mélusine, is due March 24 on Nonesuch; vinyl is due May 19. Mélusine is a mix of five originals and interpretations of nine songs, dating as far back as the 12th century, mostly sung in French along with Occitan, English, and Haitian Kreyòl. They tell the folk tale of Mélusine, a woman who turns into a half-snake each Saturday after a childhood curse by her mother. The track “D’un feu secret,” Michel Lambert’s 1660 air de cour, is available today, along with an animated video by Amanda Bonaiuto that may be seen here.

“To try to define Mary Halvorson solely by the term ‘guitarist’ is to do both her and her art a disservice, as she’s unlike any other guitarist currently playing today,” says Matt Byars, co-host of NPR’s Essential Tremors. “Halvorson’s work is vibrant and alive, agile and electric, fluid and inventive, all of which are particularly in evidence on her latest release.” She talks with Byars and his co-host Lee Gardner about songs by Jimi Hendrix, Yusef Lateef, and Robert Wyatt that helped shape who she is. You can hear why on the episode, a collaboration with Big Ears Festival, where Halvorson will perform this spring, here.

Natalie Merchant, whose new album, Keep Your Courage, is due April 14, performs the title track to her 2001 album Motherland in a new Blackberry Sessions video. She was joined by guitarist Erik Della Penna in making the video while at Blackberry Farm in Tennessee in November as part of its annual Americana Music Association weekend. You can watch it here. Merchant will tour the US tour this spring, going into the fall. European dates will be announced shortly.

Congratulations to David Byrne, who has been nominated for an Academy Award, with Ryan Lott (of Son Lux) and Mitski, for Original Song, for "This Is a Life," from the Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert film Everything Everywhere All at Once. You can hear it here. The film has received eleven Academy Award nominations, including Son Lux for Music (Original Score), another track from which features Randy Newman. The 95th Academy Awards will be held in Hollywood, airing live on ABC, on Sunday, March 12.

NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross aired an encore broadcast of Rachael & Vilray's 2020 interview on the show today to mark the release of the duo's new album, I Love a Love Song!. They spoke with producer Sam Briger and performed music from their 2019 self-titled debut album. You can hear the episode here.

To celebrate today's forty-fifth anniversary of the release of Kate Bush's single "Wuthering Heights," Nonesuch releases a Kassa Overall remix of Cécile McLorin Salvant’s interpretation of the classic song, from her 2022 Grammy-nominated album, Ghost Song. The Guardian called the album track "a stunning, ethereal cover," the New York Times called it "blazing," and Vanity Fair called it "addictive." Overall is a Grammy-nominated musician, emcee, singer, producer, and drummer who melds avant-garde experimentation with hip-hop production techniques to tilt the nexus of jazz and rap in unmapped directions. 

On his new album, COOKUP, due February 24, Sam Gendel and his friends and collaborators Gabe Noel and Philippe Melanson interpret R&B and soul hits originally released between 1992 and 2004 by Ginuwine, 112, Aaliyah, All-4-One, Soul 4 Real, Beyoncé, Joe, Erykah Badu, Mario, SWV, and Boyz II Men. Preorders include their take on 112’s "Anywhere," with Meshell Ndegeocello on vocals. "COOKUP marks another chance to convene with my good friends Phil Melanson and Gabe Noel," says Gendel. "For this occasion we hovered over a particular flavor: jams that we grew up with. We sculpted in sound our collective memories of this music. Meshell Ndegeocello took the 112 to another dimension (shoutout wayne12)."