Journal
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Friday, April 9, 2021
Rhiannon Giddens’ new album, They're Calling Me Home, recorded with Italian multi-instrumentalist Francesco Turrisi, is out now on Nonesuch Records (vinyl June 11). Giddens and Turrisi, who both live in Ireland when they aren’t on tour, have been there since March 2020 due to the pandemic. The two expats found themselves drawn to the music of their native and adoptive countries of America, Italy, and Ireland during lockdown. Exploring the emotions brought up by the moment, Giddens and Turrisi decamped to Hellfire, a small studio on a working farm outside of Dublin, to record these songs over six days. Giddens has released a video for "Avalon," an original song on the album, which you can watch here.
Journal Topics: Album ReleaseArtist News
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Tuesday, March 9, 2021
Dan Auerbach was a guest on WNYC's All of It with Alison Stewart, part of the show's week-long series showcasing this year's Grammy nominees ahead of the awards ceremony this Sunday. Auerbach is nominated for Producer of the Year, Non-Classical, for several recordings on his Easy Eye Sound label, including Early James's Singing for My Supper. You can hear their conversation here.
Journal Topics: Artist News Radio -
Saturday, March 6, 2021
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.'"
Journal Topics: Artist News Radio -
Friday, March 5, 2021
Louis Andriessen’s The only one is out now on Nonesuch Records. This world premiere performance by the Los Angeles Philharmonic was recorded live at Walt Disney Concert Hall in May 2019, conducted by LA Phil Conductor Laureate Esa-Pekka Salonen, with solo vocalist Nora Fischer. Two artistic discoveries influenced Andriessen as he wrote The only one: a collection of poems by the Flemish poet Delphine Lecompte from The animals in me, and the work of Nora Fischer, an Amsterdam–based singer known for developing dynamic creative projects that fuse classical and pop music. You can watch a short clip from it here.
Journal Topics: Album Release Artist News -
Thursday, March 4, 2021
In anticipation of International Women’s Day, Lake Street Dive has released "Being a Woman," the latest track from their new album, Obviously, out next week. Written by the band’s bassist Bridget Kearney, the track speaks to gender inequality and the societal discrimination women face on a daily basis. "Happy Women’s History Month! This one goes out to all of the hard-working women of the world,” says Kearney. “We are thankful to the many voices that came before us shouting for gender equality, without whom we may never have had this microphone in which to say, ‘It's not fixed yet!’ With this song, we humbly add our voices to that chorus." The band will perform on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert on March 11 and CBS This Morning: Saturday Sessions on March 13.
Journal Topics: Artist News -
Wednesday, March 3, 2021
Rhiannon Giddens has released "Waterbound," a second track from her upcoming album with Francesco Turrisi, They’re Calling Me Home, out April 9. The song is a traditional fiddle tune first recorded in the 1920s that includes the refrain, "Waterbound, and I can't get home, down to North Carolina," capturing a central theme of the new album: longing for the comfort of home and family in this time of prolonged isolation. The video, which you can watch here, was filmed in Ireland and includes footage from the recording session that took place in a small studio on a working farm outside Dublin. The song and video also feature Congolese guitarist Niwel Tsumbu. Giddens says, “‘Waterbound’ is a song I learned a long time ago and it brings me forcefully home to North Carolina when I sing it, and considering that I am, indeed waterbound, and have been for a long time, it's a rare moment when a folk song represents exactly my situation in time.”
Journal Topics: Artist News Video -
Monday, March 1, 2021
Joachim Cooder was joined by his father, Ry Cooder, for a performance streamed from the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles on Saturday. They performed songs from Joachim Cooder's Nonesuch Records debut album, Over That Road I'm Bound. "My hope for tonight's performance is: we do something maybe that we've never done before," he says. "I like to let things take their own course and have each show be a little different. So I would like all my things to work and have everybody see something that they haven't seen somewhere else." You can watch the program, which also includes a set from Amythyst Kiah, here.
Journal Topics: Artist News Video -
Monday, March 1, 2021
Lake Street Dive celebrated the 50th anniversary of Carole King's album Tapestry last month with a performance from band members Rachael Price, Bridget Kearney, and Akie Bermiss of the album track "So Far Away" for Variety magazine. King replied on Twitter: "Love this!" You can now watch it here.
Journal Topics: Artist News Video -
Wednesday, February 24, 2021
Darius Marder, the director of the film Sound of Metal, is on The Backstory podcast to discuss the film and its sound design with host Jason Bentley and fellow guest Ludwig Göransson, composer of the scores to Black Panther, Tenet, and The Mandalorian. You can hear their conversation here. "Early accolades for sound design, and rightly so," Bentley says of Sound of Metal. "The use of sound in this film is a powerful tool to support the storytelling. Darius wrote the screenplay with his brother Abraham, who also contributed music, and whose song 'Green' for the film has been shortlisted for an Oscar nomination."
Journal Topics: Artist News -
Tuesday, February 23, 2021
Laurie Anderson’s 1982 debut album, Big Science, returns to vinyl for the first time in thirty years with a new red vinyl edition due April 9 on Nonesuch Records. The vinyl includes the re-mastered album first released on CD for the 25th anniversary of Big Science in 2007 and is available to pre-order now. Big Science foresaw the future, mixing performance art, pop, and electronics, most hauntingly on the hit single, “O Superman.”
Journal Topics: Album Release Artist News -
Monday, February 22, 2021
Composer, pianist, and singer Gabriel Kahane is a recipient of the American Academy of Arts and Letters' Charles Ives Fellowship. He is one of eighteen recipients of the Academy's 2021 music awards. Harmony Ives, the widow of Charles Ives, bequeathed to the Academy the royalties of Charles Ives’s music, which has enabled the Academy to give awards in composition since 1970, including two Charles Ives Fellowships of $15,000 each. The awards will be presented virtually at the Academy's Ceremonial on May 19.
Journal Topics: Artist News -
Friday, February 19, 2021
Emmylou Harris's Nonesuch Records debut album, Red Dirt Girl, which was first released more than twenty years ago, in September 2000, is now available on limited-edition, translucent red vinyl. Harris wrote all but one of the tracks on Red Dirt Girl, which won the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album. It was produced by Malcolm Burn, who also performs on the album, along with Buddy Miller, Daryl Johnson, and Ethan Johns. Dave Matthews sings a duet with Harris, and Bruce Springsteen, Patti Scialfa, and Patty Griffin also contribute vocals.
Journal Topics: Album Release Artist News -
Friday, February 19, 2021
Yola and Mavis Staples are the guests on the inaugural episode of Spotify's new Duet podcast. The two share some favorite tunes—by Dolly Parton, Aretha Franklin, Al Green, Barry White, Curtis Mayfield, and Rotary Connection—and discuss the impact the music has had on them in their lives, how it has helped them in difficult times. "Yola's music exists on the border of a few different genres—country, soul, even a little disco," says host Matthew Boll, "but her voice, that's what hits you. It's unforgettable. It somehow feels both timeless and original."
Journal Topics: Artist News