Ahead of the premiere of Spike Lee's filmed version of David Byrne’s American Utopia on HBO this Saturday comes news that the show will return to the live stage on Broadway in the fall of 2021 at a theater to be announced. Performances will be begin on Friday, September 17, 2021. Tickets are on sale now. "We all need things to look forward to at this time," says Byrne. "I can't wait to get back on stage, live, in person with my fellow band members to perform for audiences in person. I realize now, more than ever, how much I miss performing this show with the band in front of a live Broadway audience."

David Byrne launches an online exhibition via Pace Gallery of fifty unique, hand-drawn illustrations he made this year while isolating in his Manhattan apartment. The Dingbats drawings explore themes and preoccupations associated with daily life during the COVID-19 pandemic—Byrne's way of expressing hope, a desire for connection, and the power of community. All proceeds from the exhibition will benefit the Arbutus Foundation, Byrne’s non-profit organization dedicated to re-imagining the world through projects that inspire and educate.

Mountain Man has released Mountain Man Sings Neil Young, the latest in its series of cover singles, featuring its version of "Through My Sails," from Young's 1975 album, Zuma. "Neil Young has been a pillar of the soundtrack along the Mountain Man road from Vermont to the windy ocean roads of California," says the trio. "'Through My Sails' is such a gentle secret at the end of Zuma and it felt immediately natural and right sinking into the harmonies of Neil Young with Crosby, Stills and Nash."

Rob Mazurek has released two new singles, “Galaxy 1000” and “The Careening Prism Within (Parable 43),” from his forthcoming Exploding Star Orchestra album, Dimensional Stardust, due November 20 on International Anthem / Nonesuch Records. Both songs come with accompanying videos directed by Mikel Patrick Avery, who presents the two new works as Part 2 and Part 3 of the First Kid in Space film series starring his daughter Olivia Avery-Velez; you can watch them both here. Part 1 accompanied the previously released track "A Wrinkle in Time Sets Concentric Circles Reeling."

Yola's debut performance on Austin City Limits premiered on PBS stations across the country this past weekend and can be seen here. Filmed before the pandemic, the session features Yola and her band performing songs from her 2019 Dan Auerbach–produced debut album, Walk Through Fire.

Singer and composer Cécile McLorin Salvant has been named a 2020 MacArthur Fellow. She was among the twenty-one new MacArthur Fellows for 2020 announced by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation this week. The annual fellowship, often referred to as the “Genius” grant, offers an unrestricted award of $625,000 over five years to individuals who, in the Foundation’s words, “have shown extraordinary originality and dedication in their creative pursuits and a marked capacity for self-direction.” Details of her Nonesuch debut album, which she began recording this week, will be announced in early 2021.

Tigran Hamasyan has released a new video for the song "37 Newlyweds," from his new album, The Call Within, which you can watch here. The video was directed by Hayk Matevosyan. Hamasyan says: "This song is dedicated to 37 Armenian newlywed couples from 37 villages who, in 1918, put on black tunics, marked their foreheads red, got on their white horses, and rode into the battle to fight the Ottoman army." He has established a fundraising effort to help those affected by events currently taking place in Artsakh.

The Magnetic Fields' new album, Quickies, will be available as a limited-edition 12” LP for Record Store Day's annual Black Friday event, on November 27. This Record Store Day exclusive edition will be available on translucent magenta vinyl and includes the previously unreleased bonus track "The Witches Fly."

Clint Mansell's haunting score to director Darren Aronofsky's 2000 film Requiem for a Dream, performed by Kronos Quartet, returns to vinyl for the film's twentieth anniversary year, on December 4, 2020. The soundtrack was originally released on Nonesuch in 2000; the first vinyl edition was released for Record Store Day in 2016 with new artwork and two previously unreleased bonus tracks. The new 2-LP vinyl edition, which also includes the bonus tracks, features the original 2000 soundtrack cover art for the anniversary. "Brilliant stuff," says Classic FM.

On his Nonesuch Records debut album, Over That Road I’m Bound, out today, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Joachim Cooder uses the plain-spoken songs of country-music progenitor and banjo player Uncle Dave Macon as a jumping off point, tinkering with the lyrics and reworking melodies for his chosen instrument: an electric mbira. Cooder culled songs from Macon’s vast catalog and recorded them with his band and special guests: Ry Cooder, Rayna Gellert, Juliette Commagere, Sam Gendel, Glenn Patscha, Amir Yaghmai, Dan Gellert, and Vieux Farka Touré. "Warm, uplifting, and quietly spectacular," says Uncut. "A buoyant and joyful long-player," says Mojo. A new video for the album track "Heartaching Blues" may be seen here.

While most of us can't go out to take in great live music, here are some events taking place online to enjoy while staying home this weekend: Sam Amidon performs in concert from Kings Place in London on Saturday; Rhiannon Giddens, Emmylou Harris, and Yola can be see in the free online Hardly Strictly Bluegrass on Saturday; Joachim Cooder concludes his virtual in-store tour via Electric Fetus Instagram Live tonight; and Rob Mazurek performs Friday–Sunday from Marfa for his art show in Florence, Italy.

Sam Gendel’s new album, DRM, is out today on Nonesuch Records. The follow-up to his Nonesuch debut, Satin Doll, released earlier this year, DRM features Gendel’s solo musical experiments with vintage instruments such as a forty-year-old Electro Harmonix DRM32 drum machine, antique synthesizers, and a sixty-year-old nylon-string guitar—accompanied by his voice. The album includes one cover song: Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road,” which Gendel interprets as an instrumental, playing the melody on an old German analogue synthesizer. Also out today are short films, one for each track on the album, directed by Marcella Cytrynowicz; you can watch them here.