David Byrne was on the CNN / PBS program Amanpour & Co. to talk with host Christiane Amanpour about his show American Utopia on Broadway. "As fate would have it, I was unable to watch the State of the Union address live," says Amanpour, "but for a very good reason as I was preparing for my next interview at a Broadway show which, as it happens, is a wonderful antidote to toxic and partisan politics. It is American Utopia by the legendary David Byrne. It's all about hope and connection between people, and it rocks." You can watch their conversation here.

Daughter of Swords (aka Mountain Man's Alexandra Sauser-Monnig) follows up her 2019 debut album, Dawnbreaker, with a new digital single, “Prairie Winter Wasteland,” out now. The Jeff Tweedy–produced track, recorded at his Chicago studio The Loft, “is a reflection on the way our emotional experiences of place are shaped in powerful and mystical ways by the people we’ve know there,” she says. Tweedy, who invited Daughter of Swords on tour with Wilco last year, joins her on a variety of instruments, with his son Spencer on drums and Nick Macri on bass. Daughter of Swords begins a full-band US tour this weekend.

The Los Angeles Philharmonic has announced its 2020–21 season, and among the artists performing at Walt Disney Concert Hall are John Adams, Joshua Redman, and Brad Mehldau. The season also brings performances of several works by Adams, including his operas Nixon in China and Girls of the Golden West, and by Louis Andriessen (De Staat), Steve Reich, Timo Andres, and Nico Muhly.

Congratulations to Jeff Parker, whose new album, Suite for Max Brown, debuted at No. 1 on Billboard's Current Contemporary Jazz Chart and at No. 2 on the Contemporary Jazz Chart in the US. The album was released on January 24 via a newly formed partnership between International Anthem and Nonesuch Records. "It lives at the vanguard of new jazz music," says Pitchfork. The Los Angeles Times calls it "a transcendent set of pieces that occupy a vague terrain lit by jazz, experimental electronic music, instrumental hip-hop and genre-jumping avant-rock." Jeff Parker will tour the US in March, with shows in Los Angeles, Portland, Chicago, Philadelphia, NYC, Miami, and Knoxville's Big Ears Festival.

Mandy Patinkin was on CBS Sunday Morning to talk with correspondent Holly Williams about portraying Saul Berenson on Homeland, entering its eighth and final season on Showtime next Sunday, and his role as an ambassador for the International Rescue Committee. You can watch the piece here, as well as a web-exclusive segment on singing, his "first love." Patinkin is on the final leg of his tour of songs from Children and Art, his first new album since 2002.

Academy Award–winning director Spike Lee will direct a filmed version of the acclaimed Broadway show David Byrne’s American Utopia, due later this year. Participant will be the lead financier and executive producer for the project, which River Road Entertainment and Warner Music Group will also co-finance. “Pinch me. This couldn't have worked out better for this project,” Byrne said. “Spike Lee directing and Participant producing—two socially engaged teams, well, three if you count us in the band, coming together in what I feel will be something moving, important, and unlike anything anyone has seen before.”

Early James plays the Fonda Theatre in Los Angeles ... Devendra Banhart performs from Ma in the Netherlands ... Lake Street Dive and Yola are at Brandi Carlile's Girls Just Wanna Weekend 2 in Mexico ... Brad Mehldau joins NDR Radiophilharmonie for his Piano Concerto and Bach in Germany ... Mandy Patinkin is in Schenectady ... Joshua Redman brings Still Dreaming to Illinois ...

Congratulations to Yola, who has won both UK Americana Awards for which she was nominated: UK Artist of the Year and UK Album of the Year for her Dan Auerbach–produced solo debut album, Walk Through Fire. Yola also performs on the self-titled album from the supergroup Highwomen, which won the award for International Album of the Year.

Sam Gendel’s Nonesuch Records debut album, Satin Doll, due March 13, is a sonic construction/deconstruction of jazz standards like Miles Davis’ “Freddie Freeloader,” Charles Mingus’ “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat,” and Duke Ellington’s “Satin Doll.” We've collected the songs to which he refers on this "a woozy, blissfully twisted album" (Los Angeles Times) in the Satin Doll References Spotify and Apple Music playlists heard here.

Vagabon (aka Laetitia Tamko) is the guest on the latest episode of the Song Exploder podcast. She breaks down the song "Water Me Down" and talks about working with co-producer Eric Littmann to create the track from her self-titled debut album. You can hear what they had to say here, where you can also watch the video for the track.

Yola will join Chris Stapleton as his special guest on tour this spring and fall. The spring leg of the tour starts in Corpus Christi, Texas, on March 11, and includes shows in Texas, Mississippi, Alabama, Ohio, and Kentucky. The fall leg starts in Knoxville and Nashville in early October with stops in New Jersey, Missouri, Oklahoma, Nebraska, and Texas, and Madison Square Garden in NYC. Yola's Austin City Limits debut, taping next Wednesday, February 4, will stream live here.

Carnegie Hall has announced its 2020–21 concert season, and featured among the performers taking the esteemed hall's stages are a number of artists familiar to readers of the Nonesuch Journal, including Rhiannon Giddens, who is a Perspectives artist for the season, John Adams, Chris Thile, Caroline Shaw, and Kronos Quartet.