David Byrne helped kick off the Aspen Ideas Festival's 2020 online edition in a conversation with Ford Foundation President Darren Walker on Sunday. The two discussed the role of the artist in difficult social times such as this. "Music can unite people," Byrne says. "It can make people feel that they belong, that they’re not alone." You can watch their conversation here. Also on the festival's opening day were conversations with Anthony Fauci and Stacey Abrams.

Two Natalie Merchant albums are now available digitally for the first time: Butterfly, a studio album featuring four new songs and six reinterpretations from her catalogue arranged for string quartet, and Rarities, a collection of fifteen rare and previously unreleased tracks recorded between 1998 and 2017. For Rarities, Merchant curated a selection of unique home studio demos, album outtakes, live tracks, and collaborations with diverse artists like Billy Bragg, David Byrne, The Chieftains, Cowboy Junkies, and Amy Helm. Both albums were created for and were previously only available as part of the deluxe ten-CD box set The Natalie Merchant Collection in 2017.

Lianne La Havas will play a one-off solo live show at London's Roundhouse on Wednesday, July 15, which will include new songs from her forthcoming, self-titled album and throughout her catalog. This very special, multi-camera, one-night-only performance will be broadcast via YouTube; tickets go on sale this Friday. La Havas will donate her proceeds to Black Lives Matter–related organizations. She has just released a cover of Radiohead's "Weird Fishes," the latest single from the new album, due July 17. The new track is "glorious," says Uncut; Mojo calls it "a show-stopper."

Happy Pride! We're honoring the 51st anniversary of the 1969 Stonewall uprising and the 50th anniversary of the first Pride celebrations with an eclectic playlist of recent and classic Nonesuch recordings by LGBTQ+ composers, performers, and allies, including The Magnetic Fields, k.d. lang, Rostam, Mountain Man, Nico Muhly, Jeremy Denk, Stephen Sondheim, Fred Hersch, and others.

The members of the original Joshua Redman Quartet—Redman, Brad Mehldau, Christian McBride, and Brian Blade—who reunite for the upcoming album RoundAgain, met up for a conversation about the project, their first recording together since 1994’s MoodSwing. They shared stories from their long history together while at the Falcon in upstate New York for a performance last fall. You can watch the conversation here, along with previously released performances of two RoundAgain tracks from the concert.

Rhiannon Giddens has released a video of her performing a new song she's written, "Build a House," featuring Yo-Yo Ma on cello, in honor of Juneteenth. "This song came knocking about a week ago and I had to open the door and let it in," Giddens says. "What can I say about what’s been happening, what has happened, and what is continuing to happen, in this country, in the world? There’s too many words and none, all at once. So I let the music speak, as usual. What a thing to mark this 155th anniversary of Juneteenth with that beautiful soul Yo-Yo Ma. Honored to have it out in the world." Watch it here.

Rhiannon Giddens led a Live With Carnegie Hall session with Francesco Turrisi in recognition of Juneteenth, examining the music and history of minstrelsy, the most popular form of entertainment in America during the 1800s, and its influence in the creation of the American cultural identity. They look at the global context of minstrelsy through the journeys of the banjo and the tambourine and examine what there is to reproach versus celebrate in the birth of American music. You can watch it here.

In honor of Live From Here, the public radio show hosted by Chris Thile in its current and previous iterations from 2016 till last week, we offer our thanks to everyone there who made the show such a joy for its listeners and viewers, and for providing a unique showcase for so many artists. In celebration, we have assembled some of our favorite performances from the show by artists who have recorded for Nonesuch Records, including Thile, Punch Brothers, Rachael Price, Rachael & Vilray, Gaby Moreno, Vagabon, Gabriel Kahane, Lake Street Dive, The Staves, Dan Auerbach, Robert Finley, Randy Newman, Brad Mehldau, and Nickel Creek. You can watch them here.

The filmed version of the Broadway show David Byrne’s American Utopia, directed by Spike Lee, will debut on HBO later this year. "Spike and I have crossed paths many times over the years, obviously I’m a huge fan and now finally here was an opportunity for us to work together," said David Byrne. "I am absolutely thrilled with the result ... Thrilled that this show and the subjects it addresses will now reach a wider audience." "It is my honor and privilege that my art brother, Mr. David Byrne, asked me to join him in concert, to invite me into his magnificent world of American Utopia,” Spike Lee said. “And dat's da ‘once in a lifetime’ truth, Ruth. Ya-dig? Sho-nuff. Peace and love. Be safe.”

Randy Newman was the musical guest on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon last night. He gave a performance from home of "Mr. President (Have Pity on the Working Man)," a song from his 1974 album, Good Old Boys. You can watch it here. "Maybe you’re cheatin' / Maybe you’re lyin' / Maybe you have lost your mind / Maybe you only think about yourself," the lyrics go. "Too late to run, too late to hide now / The time has come for us to say goodbye now / Mr. President, have pity on the working man."

Congratulations to Yola, who has been nominated as Artist of the Year in the 2020 Americana Honors & Awards. She is also featured on the self-titled debut album from The Highwomen, which is up for Album, Song, and Duo/Group of the Year; that last category also includes a nod for Our Native Daughters, of which Rhiannon Giddens is a member. Winners are due to be announced during the Americana Honors & Awards on Wednesday, September 16, at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, depending on COVID-19 safety restrictions.

While sheltering at home with his family during the COVID-19 pandemic this spring, pianist and composer Brad Mehldau wrote twelve new songs about what he was experiencing; he was able to record them safely in a studio, together with interpretations of three tunes that mean a great deal to him personally. The resulting album, Suite: April 2020, is available now as a limited-edition deluxe 180-gram vinyl LP. One thousand numbered and signed copies are available for $100 exclusively from the Nonesuch Store, Bandcamp, and Discogs; a minimum of $90 from each sale will be donated to the Jazz Foundation of America’s COVID-19 Musician’s Emergency Fund (after distribution fees). Suite: April 2020 is also available digitally today, with CD and standard vinyl editions due September 18; a portion of their sales also will benefit JFA’s Fund. A video for the album track “remembering before all this,” with an introduction by Mehldau, is available here.