Acclaimed singer, songwriter, and musician Molly Tuttle and Golden Highway’s new album, Crooked Tree, is out today on CD and digital via Nonesuch Records—Tuttle’s first release on the label; the vinyl is due May 13. The album, recorded live in Nashville, was produced by Tuttle and Jerry Douglas and features collaborations with Sierra Hull, Old Crow Medicine Show, Margo Price, Billy Strings, Dan Tyminski, and Gillian Welch. The tracks, all written or co-written by Tuttle, explore her lifelong love of bluegrass. "Molly Tuttle's fingers move so quickly, she could pick your pocket without breaking stride," says the New York Times. NPR calls it "dashingly virtuosic." It "feels like the album Molly Tuttle was destined to make," says Uncut. "Everything sounds alive, vital, and perfectly in focus," says Mojo. You can watch the new video for the album track "Castilleja" and get tickets for Tuttle and the band's ongoing tour here.

Hurray for the Riff Raff (aka Alynda Segarra) announces twenty-three new US tour dates, supporting Bright Eyes, beginning May 19 in Oklahoma City and continuing through July 3 in Omaha. Segarra is currently on a North American headlining tour in celebration of their Nonesuch debut album, LIFE ON EARTH. Summer dates in Europe begin July 16 in the UK and continue through September 20 in Berlin, with stops in Dublin, London, Paris, and Amsterdam, among others.

Composer/singer/songwriter Gabriel Kahane's new album, Magnificent Bird, is out now. On the album, Kahane chronicles the final month of a year spent off the internet, reveling in the tension between quiet, domestic concerns, and the roiling chaos of a nation and planet in crisis. "Deft, prose poem-like songs: an illuminating humanity is absolutely key," says Mojo. "A most eloquent exploration of our current lot." The San Francisco Chronicle calls it "a gorgeous, intimate collection ... glistening and magical." Guest musicians include Sam Amidon, Punch Brothers' Chris Thile and Paul Kowert, Caroline Shaw, and Mountain Man's Amelia Meath. Gabriel Kahane tours the US starting next Monday.

On his new album, Magnificent Bird, composer/singer/songwriter Gabriel Kahane chronicles the final month of a year spent off the internet. The album features more than a dozen collaborators, every one of whom, he says, "I love as a person as much as I do as a musician." Here, he shares the story of how those relationships began.

Composer Steve Reich is on the Song Exploder podcast to talk with host Hrishikesh Hirway about the first movement of his groundbreaking 1988 piece Different Trains and the childhood experiences that inspired it. The New York Times declared the piece, which Kronos Quartet performed on the Grammy Award–winning first recording, “a work of such originality that ‘breakthrough’ seems the only possible description.” You can hear what he had to say here.

Ry Cooder and Taj Mahal have released their take on Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee's "Pick a Bale of Cotton," from their upcoming album, GET ON BOARD: THE SONGS OF SONNY TERRY & BROWNIE MCGHEE, out April 22. You can watch a video of them performing the song here. Nearly sixty years after they first played together, the longtime friends and collaborators reunite with the album of music from two Piedmont blues masters who have inspired them all their lives. With Taj Mahal on vocals, harmonica, guitar, and piano and Cooder on vocals, guitar, mandolin, and banjo—joined by Joachim Cooder on drums and bass—the duo recorded eleven songs drawn from recordings and live performances by Terry and McGhee, whom they both first heard as teenagers in California.

Pianist Jeremy Denk is the guest on the latest episode of NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross to talk about his music-making and his new book, Every Good Boy Does Fine, which comes out Tuesday on Random House. They listen to and discuss several tracks from Denk’s 2019 Nonesuch album, c. 1300–c. 2000, which presents the centuries-long evolution of musical expression drawn in a single arc by the music of twenty-four different composers. You can hear their conversation here.

Punch Brothers are on the latest episode of NPR’s World Cafe. Chris Thile and “Critter” Eldridge talk with host Raina Douris about Punch Brothers’ new album, Hell on Church Street, a reimagining of, and homage to, the landmark solo album Church Street Blues by the late bluegrass great Tony Rice, whom Thile calls “a beacon of creative energy in the roots community.” The band also shares live performances of four album tracks: Norman Blake’s “Church Street Blues” and “Orphan Annie,” the traditional tune “Cattle in the Cane," and Gordon Lightfoot’s “Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.” You can hear it all here.

Jeremy Denk was on CBS Sunday Morning to discuss his new book, Every Good Boy Does Fine, out this Tuesday on Random House. The book is "a performer's love song to the craft of the thing piano students usually hate: practice," says correspondent John Dickerson. You can watch their conversation here. Denk tells the New York Times: "I enjoy art that antagonizes you, and then, slowly, in an emotional striptease, reveals a gooey, loving center." Also on CBS Sunday Morning was Mandy Patinkin, to discuss Stephen Sondheim's Sunday in the Park with George.

Punch Brothers were on CBS Saturday Morning to perform a Saturday Sessions set of three songs from their new album, Hell on Church Street: Jimmie Rodgers’ “Any Old Time,” the traditional tune “Cattle in the Cane,” and Norman Blake’s “Church Street Blues.” You can watch all three performances here.

Brad Mehldau’s new album, Jacob’s Ladder, is out now on CD and digital; the vinyl is due June 17. The album features new music that reflects on scripture and the search for God through music inspired by the prog rock he loved as a young adolescent—his gateway to the fusion that eventually led to his discovery of jazz. Featured musicians on the album include label mates Chris Thile and Cécile McLorin Salvant, as well as Mark Guiliana, Becca Stevens, Joel Frahm, and others. Mojo calls it "a kaleidoscopic affair, where baroque prog-rock edifices are juxtaposed with clouds of ethereal choirs, dreamy piano interludes, and squalls of free jazz-style clarinet. Skillfully weaving these elements into storytelling sound collages, Mehldau takes the listener on a memorable musical journey."

The Staves have released their take on Kate Bush's "Cloudbusting," from her landmark 1985 album, Hounds of Love, and a digital EP featuring that and the five tracks in their Be Kind series of stripped down, alternative versions of songs from their 2021 album, Good Woman. The Be Kind EP includes "Cloudbusting," "Devotion," "Careful, Kid," "Failure," "Best Friend," and "Good Woman."