Record Store Day, the annual celebration of independent record stores, is this Saturday, April 22, 2023, and among the special releases out that day are the previously unreleased full-length live recording of The Black Keys' very first show at Beachland Tavern in Cleveland in 2002, on tangerine-colored vinyl; the first-ever vinyl release of The Magnetic Fields’ 2004 Nonesuch debut album, i, on gold-colored vinyl; and an alternate version of Wilco's landmark album Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, featuring unique performances of all eleven songs, originally released as a bonus CD with the September 2022 issue of Uncut.

Natalie Merchant has released the video for "Big Girls," a song from her new album, Keep Your Courage. The song is one of two duets on the album sung with vocalist Abena Koomson-Davis of Resistance Revival Chorus, along with "Come on, Aphrodite." That video and the new video for "Big Girls," which you can watch here, were directed by Matthew Shattuck. Merchant's tour continues with shows in Pennsylvania and Virginia this week. 

Cal Performances at the University of California, Berkeley, has announced its 2023–24 concert season, including performances by Brad Mehldau (both solo and with his Trio), Cécile McLorin Salvant, Kronos Quartet, Rhiannon Giddens with Silkroad Ensemble, and Attacca Quartet.

Natalie Merchant's new album, Keep Your Courage, is out now on Nonesuch Records. Produced by Merchant, the new LP is her ninth solo studio album, and the first of all-new material since 2014’s self-titled record. Keep Your Courage "has some of Merchant’s best songwriting," says the AP. NPR says: "That lush, layered contralto voice can belong to only one person." Mojo calls it "her most beautiful in decades." "Welcome return of a unique voice,” says Uncut. “An album contemplating what it is that keeps us plodding forwards despite everything. Merchant’s conclusion is, as always, wittily expressed and beautifully sung.” Merchant kicks off an extensive tour in Poughkeepsie, NY, tonight.

Natalie Merchant kicks off her Keep Your Courage tour with two sold-out shows in Poughkeepsie. John Adams's Doctor Atomic Symphony gets its Taiwanese premiere; Nixon in China is in Germany and France; and I Was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky is in Baltimore. Jeremy Denk joins Phoenix Symphony for Brahms. Jeff Parker is at Public Records in Brooklyn. Cécile McLorin Salvant is in Ann Arbor and Miami.

Rhiannon Giddens will host a new series on PBS, My Music with Rhiannon Giddens, produced by the team behind the long-running PBS series David Holt’s State of Music. In seven half-hour weekly episodes, beginning the week of May 1, Giddens hosts musical performances and conversations with guest artists filmed on location around the South, including Allison Russell, Rissi Palmer, Charly Lowry, Adia Victoria, Joy Clark, Francesco Turrisi, Justin Robinson, Lalenja Harrington, and Laurelyn Dossett.

"That lush, layered contralto voice can belong to only one person—Natalie Merchant," NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday host Ayesha Rascoe says of her guest. "She does it all." They talk about Merchant's new album, Keep Your Courage, out this Friday on Nonesuch, and her months-long tour, also starting this Friday. You can hear their conversation featuring excerpts from the album here.

Molly Tuttle and her band Golden Highway's cover of “White Rabbit,” Jefferson Airplane’s 1967 hit written by Grace Slick, first released as an Amazon Original in September, is now available to stream and download everywhere. You can watch a live performance video, filmed, in costume, at Suwannee Hulaween in Live Oak, FL, here.

Composer and vocalist Shara Nova joins members of the Oregon Symphony to perform The Blue Hour—a song cycle composed by Nova, Rachel Grimes, Angélica Negrón, Caroline Shaw, and Sarah Kirkland Snider—at The Reser in Beaverton. Performances of John Adams's Nixon in China continue in Paris. Emmylou Harris chats with Joan Baez at OZ Arts in Nashville. Makaya McCraven joins harpist Brandee Younger at Public Records in Brooklyn. Cécile McLorin Salvant closes Savannah Music Festival. Wilco leads Reykjavik residency and Icelandic debut at Harpa Concert Hall.

Kronos Quartet has announced its eighth-annual Kronos Festival, to take place at SFJAZZ Center, June 22–24, 2023. This year's festival celebrates works created for Kronos Fifty for the Future, a commissioning, performance, education, and legacy project. Featuring pieces by Rhiannon Giddens, Philip Glass, Zakir Hussain, Angélique Kidjo, Terry Riley, Wu Man, and more, the festival is hosted by Kronos in multiple performances over three days; the group is joined by Aizuri Quartet, Attacca Quartet, and Friction Quartet plus special guests Rafiq Bhatia (guitar), Soo Yeon Lyuh (haegeum), sound artist and instrument-maker Victoria Shen, and student ensembles from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

Congratulations to composer Thomas Adès, who has been awarded the Premio Fronteras del Conocimiento (Frontiers of Knowledge Award) in Music and Opera by the Fundación BBVA in Spain for "the extraordinary international reach of his work, which makes him one of the most acclaimed musicians of our time." The award, which includes 400,000 euros in each of its eight categories, aims to celebrate and promote the value of knowledge as a public good without borders. The premiere recording of Adès's Dante, performed by LA Phil and Gustavo Dudamel, is due April 21.

The Big Ears Festival takes place at venues throughout downtown Knoxville, including concerts, conversations, and film screenings with Devendra Banhart, The Blue Hour, David Byrne, Sam Gendel, Mary Halvorson, Makaya McCraven, and Cécile McLorin Salvant. John Adams's Nixon in China is at Opéra national de Paris. Laurie Anderson is in Stockholm. Julia Bullock joins Bavarian Radio Symphony in Munich. Jeremy Denk plays solo in Connecticut. Kronos Quartet and Wu Man perform at Zellerbach Hall in Berkeley. The Magnetic Fields have two sold-out shows at City Winery in Pittsburgh. Brad Mehldau plays solo in France and Denmark. Molly Tuttle and Golden Highway return to her home state of California for WinterWonderGrass and two nights in Menlo Park. Vagabon concludes her tour with Weyes Blood in Austin, Dallas, and Tulsa.