Lake Street Dive bassist Bridget Kearney spoke with NPR's Weekend Edition Saturday about "Being a Woman," the newly released song she wrote for the band's upcoming album, Obviously, out this Friday. "This song is personal," Kearney tells NPR. "I'm 35 years old, and I think that I came to identify as a feminist sort of later in life. It was something that I was somewhat resistant towards because I didn't want to think that my identity was something that was disempowered. So I was trying to pretend that these issues didn't exist and then eventually realized that that wasn't helpful. So, writing this song and putting it out is, I think, kind of adding my voice to that chorus of the women that came before me who were shouting, 'Things need to change.'"

Tristan Perich's Drift Multiply, for 50 violins and 50-channel 1-bit electronics, is featured on WNYC's New Sounds. "It is an album-length excursion, goes into lots of different territories," says host John Schaefer. "Some moments sound to me like Terry RIley's early keyboard improvisations. Other parts have the rhythmic patterning of Steve Reich's music. There are other moments where the notes seem to give way more to noise. And even one part where those noises kind of sound a little like the famous rhythmic kecak, or monkey chant, from the island of Bali." You can hear the episode here.

Mandy Patinkin was on NPR’s quiz show Wait Wait ... Don’t Tell Me, answering host Peter Sagal and the panel's hard-hitting questions with his wife Kathryn Grody, talking about his new TikTok fame, duetting with Mo Rocca on music from Evita, and reciting a certain line from The Princess Bride. You can play along here.

Lianne La Havas is the guest on the latest episode of NPR's World Cafe. She talks with host Raina Douris about her new, self-titled album and gives an intimate acoustic performance of four album tracks: "Can't Fight," "Weird Fishes," "Paper Thin," and "Bittersweet." Douris calls Lianne La Havas "an album more confident and more personal than anything she has ever done before." You can hear the conversation and performances here.

The Staves' Camilla and Jessica Staveley-Taylor in London spoke with The Current's Jill Riley in St. Paul, Minnesota, about the upcoming Staves album, Good Woman, due February 5. You can watch the conversation, which touches on life, loss, renewal, and, well, Dawson's Creek, plus a live performance of the new album's title track here.

"I can't overstate the tremendous beauty and mastery glimmering here," says Simon Rentner, host of WGBO's The Checkout, about Brad Mehldau's new album, Suite: April 2020. Mehldau discusses the album, which he wrote while sheltering at home with his family and recorded during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, with WBGO's Nate Chinen on the latest episode of the show, which you can hear here.

Joachim Cooder was on NPR's World Cafe to talk with contributor Jessie Scott about his new album, Over That Road I'm Bound. Cooder, on electric mbira and vocals, is joined by his father Ry Cooder on guitar for "beautiful, haunting" live duo performances of several songs from the new album. You can hear the session here.

Joachim Cooder is the guest on the latest episode of WNYC / New Sounds' Soundcheck, hosted by John Schaefer, to discuss his recently released Nonesuch debut album, Over That Road I'm Bound. Cooder, on electric mbira and vocals, is joined by his father Ry on guitar for special live, duo performances of songs from the new album. Over That Road I'm Bound "is full of inventive arrangements of songs by Uncle Dave Macon, an early 20th century songster," says Schaefer. "One of the most pleasant surprises of a year that has been full of unpleasant surprises." You can hear the conversation and performances here.

Rhiannon Giddens has composed a new song, "Best Day / New Day," for NPR's Morning Edition Song Project, in which musicians create an original song about the COVID-19 era. Giddens and Francesco Turrisi talk with Morning Edition host David Greene about the song, life during the pandemic, and its context in world history. You can hear the conversation and the song here.

Sam Amidon is the guest on the latest episode of WNYC / New Sounds' Soundcheck, hosted by John Schaefer, to discuss his new, self-titled album, out tomorrow. Amidon is joined by multi-instrumentalist Chris Vatalaro, who is also on the album, to perform three songs from his new, self-titled album: "Cuckoo," "Hallelujah," and "Pretty Polly." You can hear the session here.

Composer Clint Mansell spoke with NPR's Tim Greiving on Morning Edition about creating the score for director Darren Aronofsky's 2000 film, Requiem for a Dream. "Requiem for a Dream celebrates its 20th anniversary this fall" says Greiving, "and in that time there's at least one part of its legacy that's never faded: the music. The movie's haunted original score spawned a kind of breakout hit that would ripple through media for years to come." You can listen to the Morning Edition piece here. The 20th anniversary vinyl edition of the soundtrack, performed by Kronos Quartet, is due December 4 and is available to pre-order now.

Sarah Kirkland Snider "asserts her own musical personality as a composer who knows instinctively how to write for the human voice," says Tom Huizenga in his review of her Mass for the Endangered on NPR's All Things Considered, which you can hear here. "Both the choir [Gallicantus] and the 12-member orchestra, conducted by Gabriel Crouch, respond to Snider's music with richly tailored performances ... Through her smart and resplendent exploration of age-old musical formulas, Snider's eco-inspired Mass for the Endangered is a blast from the past that resonates profoundly in the present."