Hurray for the Riff Raff (aka Alynda Segarra) releases their Nonesuch Records debut album, LIFE ON EARTH, today. “Alynda Segarra’s powerful … album exudes a glorious irreverence," says Pitchfork, naming it this week's Best New Music. "Their self-described 'nature punk' songs are both intimate and immense, and they’ve never sounded more honest or self-possessed … Segarra’s melodies, some so beautiful that they seem to have existed forever, make them stay.” Uncut exclaims: "A major step forward for one of today’s most vital artists. The first great album of 2022." NPR says: "[Segarra] has a voice rooted in history, making music to change the present … the voice of the future." Hurray for the Riff Raff shares the album in an NPR Listening Party today. They tour North America this spring and head to the UK and Europe this summer.

Hurray for the Riff Raff, aka Alynda Segarra, marked the release of their Nonesuch debut album, LIFE ON EARTH, on Friday as the guest on NPR's World Cafe. They performed four songs from the album—"PIERCED ARROWS," "POINTED AT THE SUN," "LIFE ON EARTH," and "SAGA"—and spoke with host Stephen Kallao about the making of the album and more. "At its heart," says Kallao, "when so many things are terribly frustrating, Life on Earth is an affirmation of humanity and how we can bring joy to ourself and others in difficult times." You can hear the session here.

The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, DC, will present a selection of free public programs in conjunction with Laurie Anderson: The Weather (on view through July 31), the largest-ever US exhibition of Anderson's artwork. From late February through July, the Hirshhorn will present performances by Anderson, artist talks, and film screenings. Programs will be held at the Hirshhorn, at partnering DC venues, and online. “I’m so happy to be working with the Hirshhorn and grateful to be able to expand the exhibition into music, performance, and events,” she said. “In many ways, my subject has always been America, and it’s been exciting to get a chance to present my stories in the most symbolic center of power: the nation’s capital­—especially in these watershed times."

Pianist and composer Tigran Hamasyan’s StandArt—his first album of American standards—will be released on April 29. StandArt includes songs from the 1920s through the 1950s, by Richard Rodgers, Charlie Parker, Jerome Kern, and others; it also includes a piece Hamasyan improvised with his bandmates—bassist Matt Brewer and drummer Justin Brown—and trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire. Other special guests include saxophonists Joshua Redman and Mark Turner. StandArt is available to pre-order with an instant download of Hamasyan’s take on Elmo Hope’s “De-Dah,” the video for which can be seen here. Hamasyan embarks on a US tour in June and has upcoming dates in France, Israel, Switzerland, and Spain.

WNYC's New Sounds dedicates its latest episode to "some of the exciting new music coming out of Chicago," including three albums released through partnership between the Chicago-born label International Anthem and Nonesuch Records: Jeff Parker's Suite for Max Brown and Forfolks and Ben LaMar Gay's Open Arms to Open Us. You can hear the episode here. Both artists will perform at the Big Ears Festival in Knoxville in March. Parker then tours the West Coast with Steve Gunn and will perform on the East Coast with Sonic Youth's Lee Ranaldo in May.

Kronos Quartet has announced the seventh-annual Kronos Festival, to take place at SFJAZZ Center on April 7–9, 2022. The three-day celebration features five world premieres; signature works from Kronos’ far-reaching repertoire; an anniversary celebration; and three compositions commissioned as part of Kronos' Fifty for the Future: The Kronos Learning Repertoire project. Composer, arranger, and trombonist Jacob Garchik is this year’s Artist-in-Residence.

The Staves have released a stripped down, alternate version of "Devotion," a song from their 2021 album, Good Woman; it is the fifth in their Be Kind series of special singles. "We went into the studio with the wonderfully talented Marcus Hamblett (our bandmate and long-time collaborator) with the intention of revisiting some of the songs from Good Woman, to explore some of the more soft and tender parts that are there," the band says.

David Byrne is on a special bonus episode of WNYC's United States of Anxiety to talk with host Kai Wright about his show American Utopia on Broadway. "It's a live Broadway show in which he performs his music almost as a catalyst to a wider conversation about living in a plural society," Wright says: "you, me, us, and what's possible if we can make that work." You can hear their conversation here.

Sam Amidon kicks off a six-week tour of Europe and the UK in Leipzig, Germany, Friday night. The tour, which features songs from Amidon's 2020 self-titled album and more, continues with additional shows in Germany, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Belgium, and Ireland. The UK leg of the tour begins at The Duncairn in Belfast on March 5, followed by shows in Portstewart, London, Brighton, Bristol, Frome, Birmingham, York, Edinburgh, Morecambe, Salford, Chester, and Guildford. 

Molly Tuttle, whose Nonesuch Records debut album, Crooked Tree, is due April 1, with her new bluegrass collective Golden Highway—Bronwyn Keith-Hynes (fiddle), Dominick Leslie (mandolin), Shelby Means (bass), and Kyle Tuttle (banjo)—has announced a tour of the US Northeast in April following the album's release. The new dates, in Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, and Maryland, follow previously announced shows in the weeks and months ahead throughout the West, Midwest, and South.

Congratulations to Cécile McLorin Salvant, who has been awarded a $200,000 grant from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation as part of its new Creative Inflections program. Salvant, a 2020 Doris Duke Artist, is one of seven artists to receive the new grant, which is given to the artist and a collaborating presenting organization. In Salvant's case, that is the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, for "Ogress: Envisioned," a multimedia, animated piece in which her illustrations bring to life her musical exploration of the true story of Sara Baartman, a 19th-century South African woman taken to Europe and put on display who now stands as a symbol of colonialist, racist, and sexist exploitation.

This April marks 20 years since the release of Wilco’s storied fourth studio album, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, on Nonesuch Records. Wilco will celebrate the milestone by performing Yankee Hotel Foxtrot—considered by many to be one of the greatest albums of the 2000s—in its entirety, plus a mix of concert favorites and rarities, in two limited runs at New York City’s United Palace and Chicago’s Auditorium Theatre in April. These unique performances precede Wilco’s annual North Adams–based Solid Sound Festival in May, and will offer fans a rare chance to celebrate the original masterpiece and prepare for the archival Yankee Hotel Foxtrot re-releases coming later this year.