Hurray for the Riff Raff (aka Alynda Segarra)'s new album, The Past Is Still Alive, is due February 23 on Nonesuch. Segarra created the album during a period of personal grief, when they found inspiration in radical poetry, railroad culture, outsider art, the work of writer Eileen Myles, and activist groups like ACT UP and Gran Fury. They use their lyrics as a way to immortalize and say goodbye to those they have loved and lost, and to honor both the heartbroken and the hopeful parts of themselves. Though made in North Carolina by the Bronx-born, New Orleans-based Segarra and produced by Brad Cook, the record brings listeners to places far beyond, evoking vivid experiences of small shops and buffalo stampedes in Santa Fe, childhood road trips and Florida storms, struggles of addiction in the Lower East Side, and days-long journeys to outrun the cops in Nebraska. Hurray for the Riff Raff will lead a headline tour of the US and Europe from February through May.

The line-up for the 2024 Big Ears Festival—taking place in downtown Knoxville, TN, March 21–24—has been announced, including more than a dozen Nonesuch artists past, present, and future, in celebration of the label’s 60th anniversary in 2024: Sam Amidon, Laurie Anderson, Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society, Tyondai Braxton, Rhiannon Giddens, Mary Halvorson, Robin Holcomb, Wayne Horvitz, Hurray for the Riff Raff, Brad Mehldau, Ringdown (Caroline Shaw and Danni Lee), Davóne Tines, Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway, and Yasmin Williams.

Hurray for the Riff Raff, aka Alynda Segarra, who was on Norah Jones’ podcast Norah Jones Is Playing Along last week, can now be seen in a video from the session in which the duo performs Lucinda Williams’ song “Drunken Angel,” from Williams' 1998 album, Car Wheels on a Gravel Road. You can watch it here.

“I’m so in love with the music,” Norah Jones says of Hurray for the Riff Raff, aka Alynda Segarra, the guest on the latest episode of her podcast, Norah Jones Is Playing Along. “I’ve been listening to Hurray for the Riff Raff for a long time. And their voice is just breathtaking to me.” Jones and Segarra talk about Segarra’s life and music and duet on several songs together, including three from Hurray for the Riff Raff’s 2022 album, LIFE ON EARTH, and more, closing with their take on Lucinda Williams’ “Drunken Angel.” You can hear it all here.

Hurray for the Riff Raff, aka Alynda Segarra, begins a two-week, full-band headline tour of the US next week with support from Squirrel Flower followed by a week-long duo acoustic tour of the UK with support from Katie Malco. It all starts with a show at 3rd and Lindsley in Nashville July 12, followed by concerts in Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, New York, Delaware, DC, Kentucky, Iowa, and Missouri, as well as sets at the Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago, La Fête de Marquette in Wisconsin, and the Calgary Folk Festival. The UK tour kicks off with a sold-out show at Omeara in London on August 11, followed by shows in Oxford, Hebden Bridge, Manchester, and Brighton. Segarra then heads to Norway for sets at the Pstereo and Parken festivals. 

To commemorate Earth Day, Hurray for the Riff Raff has released a digital deluxe version of their acclaimed 2022 Nonesuch debut. Along with the album's original eleven songs, the deluxe edition has seven additional tracks, three of which are previously unreleased: an acoustic version of "POINTED AT THE SUN" and two originals from the Life on Earth sessions, "LET HER IN THE SKY" and "RESISTANCE ROCKERS," the Kelly Gallagher–directed video for which can be seen here.

Hurray for the Riff Raff—aka Alynda Segarra—is featured singing harmonies on fellow New Orleans–based musician Esther Rose’s just-released song, “Safe to Run,” the title track to Rose’s forthcoming album, due April 21 on New West Records. You can watch the video for the track, directed by Rett Rogers, here.

Hurray for the Riff Raff—aka Alynda Segarra—has released an acoustic version of “SAGA,” a song from their acclaimed 2022 Nonesuch debut album, LIFE ON EARTH. You can watch a lyric video for the track here. 

Hurray for the Riff Raff has released a new version of "LIFE ON EARTH"—the title track to their latest album and New York Times' Lindsay Zoladz's Song of the Year—featuring friends and fellow New Orleans musicians the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, recorded live in Esplanade Studios. The album was on many year's best lists, including those of NPR, Mojo, Rolling Stone, Uncut, and Brooklyn Vegan. Hurray for the Riff Raff tours North America with First Aid Kit in May.

Hurray for the Riff Raff performed several songs from their new album, LIFE ON EARTH, at the 9:30 Club in Washington, DC, last month as part of NPR Music’s 15th anniversary celebrations. You can watch the set here. LIFE ON EARTH made NPR Music’s list of The 10 Best Rock Albums of 2022 and NPR Music’s Ann Powers list of The 20 Best Albums of 2022. "LIFE ON EARTH sounds like what Segarra describes as ‘nature punk,'" Powers writes, "cosmic in feel, anthemic in reach."

Hurray for the Riff, aka Alynda Segarra, has released a cover of Eurythmics’ “Sweet Dreams” as part of an Amazon Original series of covers of songs by the 2022 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Inductees available only on Amazon Music. “What can you do with a classic song like this but dive in and explore the depths?” Segarra says. “My whole life I watched Annie Lennox sing it and she was so strong—superhero to me, with her suit and cropped hair. I vowed, as a kid, to one day be that unshakeable. But life happens to us all. So, I sing it today from a tender place, weary from the brutality of our world but not broken. As Annie told us all—hold your head up, keep your head up.” 

Hurray for the Riff Raff, who is currently touring North America as special guest of Bright Eyes, will join First Aid Kit on their West Coast tour in May 2023. The shows kick off at the Fox Theater in Oakland on May 15, followed by the Hollywood Palladium and stops in Phoenix, Denver, Salt Lake City, Portland, and Vancouver, culminating at the Paramount Theatre in Seattle on May 24.