Devendra Banhart begins a twenty-five city North American tour—his first since 2017—featuring music from his new album, Ma, at The Majestic Ventura Theater in Ventura, California, tonight, and includes shows in San Francisco, Seattle, Los Angeles, Chicago, Mexico City, Detroit, Toronto, Brooklyn, and more. He tours Europe in early 2020. Banhart has partnered with PLUS1 so that $1 from every US ticket sold (excluding a festival in Austin) will go to World Central Kitchen and every ticket bought in Canada, $1 will go to support Rainbow Railroad.

Congratulations to Laurie Anderson, the 2020 recipient of The Vanguard Award & Residency at Joe's Pub at The Public Theater in NYC. The program celebrates the work and influence of an icon of American popular culture. She will be honored at the third-annual Vanguard Gala on February 3, with an all-star slate of artists and friends, with musical direction by Shara Nova of My Brightest Diamond and Chris Bruce, and her residency will take shape in a Sunday night performance each month, from March to December. "I love Sunday evening shows," Anderson says. "The end of the weekend is such a no man’s land—an interesting time to play with new combinations."

The line-up for the 2020 Big Ears Festival has been announced, and as usual, featured among the performers are several artists familiar to readers of the Nonesuch Journal: Devendra Banhart, Kronos Quartet, Terry Riley, and Caroline Shaw. Big Ears will be held at venues throughout downtown Knoxville, Tennessee, March 26–29, 2020. Weekend passes go on sale this Thursday.

Yola was named among "the best things we saw" at Farm Aid 2019 by both Rolling Stone, noting "her powerhouse vocals," and Billboard, which reports of the festival's "breakthrough artist": "An imposing presence with a massive, gospel-fired voice, Yola held the midday crowd riveted with songs from her debut album Walk Through Fire." One such festival performance, of the song "It Ain't Easier," can be seen here. It has just been announced that she will perform at Holiday Cheer for FUV at the Beacon Theatre in NYC in December and at Chris Stapleton's benefit concert in Kentucky next April. Fittingly, Yola has been nominated as Live Act of the Year in the UK's Independent Festival Awards.

Rachael & Vilray—the debut album by Lake Street Dive singer-songwriter Rachael Price and composer, singer, and guitarist Vilray—is out now. The album features ten original songs by Vilray and two covers. "The voices of acoustic duo Rachael & Vilray are magical enough on their own," says Chronogram, "but when they blend in song the results are utterly sublime." Rachael & Vilray, who released a new lyric video of "Do Friends Fall in Love?" today, perform on Live From Here on October 26 and tour the US in November and December.