"For some five decades, artist and musician Laurie Anderson has been redefining cultural boundaries," says PBS NewsHour host Amna Nawaz. "In a new album, she's now exploring the story of an earlier woman who reached for the heights." Anderson spoke about that album, Amelia, and more with NewsHour senior arts correspondent Jeffrey Brown. "The stories you tell yourself about who you are and what you want, those are stories to help you live," she says. "If you don't have those suddenly, it's terrifying. I mean, you will keep living ... but it's the story that keeps you going." You can watch their conversation here.

Composer and guitarist Yasmin Williams's new album, Acadia, is out today. The album, her Nonesuch debut and her most sonically expansive work to date, comprises nine original, mostly instrumental, tracks written and produced by Williams, and features her on various guitars, banjo, calabash drum, tap shoes, and kora. Williams is joined on the album by an eclectic cast of collaborators—including Immanuel Wilkins on saxophone, Dom Flemons on rhythm bones, Aoife O’Donovan on vocals, William Tyler on guitar, and many others—creating a folk music that reflects the wide range of musical influences that have inspired her throughout her life.

The Black Keys' eighteen-track Ohio Players (Trophy Edition), featuring four previously unreleased tracks, is due November 15. This deluxe edition of the band’s twelfth studio album is a two LP set, in a gatefold jacket, with an alternate cover and new album sequencing. A new song from the set, “Mi Tormenta,” featuring DannyLux, is out now, along with a video directed by Corey Bost. Other special guests on the new Trophy Edition tracks include Alice Cooper and Beck. The Black Keys will play three shows in Latin America next spring, in Lima, Bogotá, and Mexico City.

Emmylou Harris and Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway perform at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass in San Francisco. Sam Amidon joins Teaċ Daṁsa dancers in Dublin. Tyondai Braxton is in Oakland. Hurray for the Riff Raff tours Australia. Gabriel Kahane’s Book of Travelers and Magnificent Bird continue in NYC. Natalie Merchant, Mandy Patinkin are at Hudson Valley Votes in Kingston, NY. Steve Reich is performed in Amsterdam. Gustavo Santaolalla performs Ronroco in Dubai. Caroline Shaw and Attacca Quartet perform in Oslo. Vagabon tours California with Crumb. Yasmin Williams joins Michael Kiwanuka and Brittany Howard in Chicago and St. Paul.

Silkroad and its Artistic Director Rhiannon Giddens will release the album American Railroad on November 15 via Nonesuch Records. They will also release the American Railroad podcast series, in partnership with PRX, the first episode of which will drop on November 14. Both releases are part of Silkroad's multi-year American Railroad initiative and coincide with Giddens and their November American Railroad tour. The first track from the album, Rhiannon Giddens’s arrangement of the traditional songs “Swannanoa Tunnel / Steel-Driving Man,” is available today; the accompanying performance video can be seen here.

In celebration of the Playwrights Horizons production of Gabriel Kahane’s Magnificent Bird / Book of Travelers, which opened yesterday, Nonesuch releases a recording of his song “Give Us the Ballot” today. Kahane wrote the song in October 2020, during the final month of a year spent off the internet, at the height of the pandemic. “‘Give Us the Ballot’ was written in October 2020, among the same batch of tunes that led to the album Magnificent Bird,” Kahane says. “With another election on the horizon, I thought this was the best moment to release a song that describes my relationship to voting, at a time when it is easy to become cynical about our sclerotic political landscape.”

Congratulations to Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway, whose latest album, City of Gold, won the IBMA Bluegrass Music Award for Album of the Year at the ceremony in Raleigh last night. They won the GRAMMY Award for Best Bluegrass Album for City of Gold earlier this year, and their debut album, Crooked Tree, won both awards last year.

Natalie Merchant spoke with Sheroes host Carmel Holt, a longtime friend, on the latest episode of the show and its special ten-part series The Road to Joni, honoring Joni Mitchell. This week, on episode four, "The Bridge to Joni," Merchant discusses her own relationship with Mitchell's music and shares a previously unreleased recording of her performing "All I Want" from her personal archives. You can hear the episode, which also features Madison Cunningham, here.

Gabriel Kahane’s Book of Travelers and Magnificent Bird open at Playwrights Horizons in NYC. Ambrose Akinmusire plays solo at free Hyde Park Jazz Fest in Chicago. Sam Amidon joins Teaċ Daṁsa dancers in Dublin. Julia Bullock is in AMOC's production of Messiaen’s Harawi in San Francisco. Hurray for the Riff Raff is in Bridgeport, CT. Cécile McLorin Salvant tours New England. Gustavo Santaolalla performs Ronroco in Spain. Caroline Shaw is in Bruges. Davóne Tines & The Truth perform from ROBESOИ in LA. Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway join Billy Strings in Colorado. Yasmin Williams joins Michael Kiwanuka and Brittany Howard in Philadelphia.

“The Last Supper," from Caroline Shaw's original score for Ken Burns's new two-part documentary, LEONARDO da VINCI, is out now, along with a music video you can watch here. The album, with new compositions by Shaw and performances by Attacca Quartet, Sō Percussion, Roomful of Teeth, and John Patitucci, is due October 25; the documentary airs on November 18 and 19 at 8pm ET on PBS, PBS.org, and the PBS App. Shaw wrote and recorded new music for LEONARDO da VINCI, marking the first time a Ken Burns film has featured an entirely original score.

Pianist Jeremy Denk and violinist Stefan Jackiw's performance of the first movement of Charles Ives's Violin Sonata No. 4 ("Children’s Day at the Camp Meeting"), from the upcoming album Ives Denk, is out now. Ives Denk, due October 18 in celebration of the 150th anniversary of Ives’ birth, features the composer’s four violin sonatas, performed with Jackiw, as well as remastered versions of his Sonatas No. 1 and 2 for piano, from Denk’s 2010 debut recording, Jeremy Denk Plays Ives.

Composer Donnacha Dennehy, whose new album, Land of Winter, performed by Alarm Will Sound, is due November 15, stopped by for the Nonesuch Selects video series, in which artists visit the Nonesuch office, pick some of their favorite albums from the music library, and share a few words on their choices. He chose recordings by Henryk Górecki, John Adams, Laurie Anderson, Kronos Quartet, Louis Andriessen, and Giya Kancheli, and Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares.