Nonesuch Records releases Brad Mehldau’s Jacob’s Ladder on March 18 on CD; a vinyl LP version is due later in the year (date TBD). The album features new music that reflects on scripture and the search for God through music inspired by the prog rock he loved as a young adolescent—his gateway to the fusion that eventually led to his discovery of jazz. Featured musicians on the album include label mates Chris Thile and Cécile McLorin Salvant, as well as Mark Guiliana, Becca Stevens, Joel Frahm, and others. Nonesuch Store pre-orders include an exclusive signed, limited-edition print while they last. You can watch a video for ‘maybe as his skies are wide’—a song that builds off an interpolation of one portion of Rush’s classic "Tom Sawyer"—here.

Nearly sixty years after they first played together, Ry Cooder and Taj Mahal, longtime friends and collaborators, reunite with an album of music from two Piedmont blues masters who have inspired them all their lives: GET ON BOARD: THE SONGS OF SONNY TERRY & BROWNIE MCGHEE, out April 22 on Nonesuch Records. With Taj Mahal on vocals, harmonica, guitar, and piano and Cooder on vocals, guitar, mandolin, and banjo—joined by Joachim Cooder on drums and bass—the duo recorded eleven songs drawn from recordings and live performances by Terry and McGhee. A video for the track “Hooray Hooray” may be seen here, as well as an interview with Ry Cooder and Taj Mahal about the record. 

Congratulations to guitarist/composer Jeff Parker, who has been named a recipient of the United States Artists' 2022 USA Fellowship. Parker is one of sixty-three artists across ten creative disciplines, including eight in the field of music, who will receive unrestricted $50,000 cash awards this year. The award honors their creative accomplishments and supports their ongoing artistic and professional development. The 2022 USA Fellows class is the largest in the organization’s sixteen-year history. USA Fellowships are awarded to artists at all stages of their careers and from all areas of the country through a rigorous nomination and panel selection process. Fellowships are given in the following disciplines: Architecture & Design, Craft, Dance, Film, Media, Music, Theater & Performance, Traditional Arts, Visual Art, and Writing.

Punch Brothers guitarist Chris "Critter" Eldridge is on the Fretboard Journal Guitar Podcast to talk with host Jason Verlinde about the band's new album, Hell on Church Street, a reimagining of, and homage to, the late bluegrass great Tony Rice’s landmark solo album Church Street Blues. You can hear their conversation here. Rice was a hero to all the Punch Brothers, but perhaps to no one more than Eldridge, who, as a college student, had worked out a deal where he could study one-on-one with the notoriously reclusive guitarist in exchange for school credit. 

Composer/singer/songwriter Gabriel Kahane releases Magnificent Bird on March 25. On the album, Kahane chronicles the final month of a year spent off the internet, reveling in the tension between quiet, domestic concerns, and the roiling chaos of a nation and planet in crisis. “Sit Shiva,” the album’s first single, out now, finds Kahane skirting the rules of his digital hiatus in order to mourn, online, the death of his maternal grandmother; in typical fashion, he mines not just pathos, but humor and grace amidst his family’s grief. You can watch the video here. Pre-orders of Magnificent Bird from Bandcamp and Nonesuch Store include an exclusive, limited-edition print autographed by Kahane, while they last.

Hurray for the Riff Raff (aka Alynda Segarra) has announced a tour of the UK and Europe this summer. The tour, which features songs from their upcoming album, LIFE ON EARTH, starts at Whelan's in Dublin on August 31 and includes shows in Glasgow, Manchester, London, Paris, Amsterdam, Berlin, and more. The concerts follow Hurray for the Riff Raff's spring tour of North America. 

Composer Sarah Kirkland Snider has released a video for 'Agnus Dei' from her acclaimed album Mass for the Endangered, performed by Gallicantus led by Gabriel Crouch. The video is the sixth and final in the series by visual artist CandyStations, aka Deborah Johnson.

Acclaimed singer, songwriter, and musician Molly Tuttle will release her Nonesuch Records debut album, Crooked Tree, April 1 with her new bluegrass collective Golden Highway; vinyl follows May 13. You can watch Tuttle and her band perform the title track live here. Recorded live at Nashville’s Oceanway Studios, Crooked Tree was produced by Tuttle and Jerry Douglas and features collaborations with Sierra Hull, Old Crow Medicine Show, Margo Price, Billy Strings, Dan Tyminski and Gillian Welch. The album explores Tuttle’s love of bluegrass, which she discovered though her father, a music teacher and multi-instrumentalist, and her grandfather, a banjo player. Across these thirteen tracks, all of which were written/co-written by Tuttle, she honors the bluegrass tradition while also pushing the genre in new directions. Tuttle and Golden Highway—Bronwyn Keith-Hynes (fiddle), Dominick Leslie (mandolin), Shelby Means (bass), and Kyle Tuttle (banjo)—launch a US tour tonight.

Laurie Anderson is on the Chatter podcast to talk with host Shane Harris about her work, particularly as it relates to the podcast's focus on the intersection of art and national security, including her piece Habeas Corpus, her surprise 1981 hit single "O Superman," and her 2015 film Heart of a Dog. You can hear their conversation here. Nonesuch Records reissued Laurie Anderson's debut album, Big Science, which features "O Superman," on red vinyl last year. Remixes of two tracks from the album were recently released: the title track, remixed by Arca, and "Sweaters," by Sam Gendel.

A remix of Laurie Anderson’s “Big Science” by Arca—the Venezuelan musician, singer, composer, and producer Alejandra Ghersi Rodriguez—is out now Nonesuch Records. Arca produced her reinterpretation of the title track to Laurie Anderson’s landmark 1982 debut album from her home studio in Barcelona; the original recording features Anderson on vocals, OBXa, percussion, and electronics; Roma Baran on glass harmonica; Perry Hoberman on bottles; and David Van Tieghem on RotoToms and timpani, as well as Anderson, Baran, Hoberman on “sticks.” 

David Byrne is the guest on the latest episode of the SmartLess podcast hosted by Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes, and Will Arnett. "I am truly starstruck," Arnett says in the introduction of his surprise guest. "This person's music has played a huge role certainly in my life and lots of people's lives ... This person is, quite honestly, it's rare that you get to say, living legend." You can hear their conversation here.

Ben LaMar Gay is on the latest episode of BBC World Service's Music Life, joining Angel Bat Dawid in conversation with Qur'an Shaheed and Dr. Adam Zanolini about the importance of not conforming and recognizing one's own gifts. You can hear it here.