Journal
- Tuesday, April 16, 2024
The Black Keys have secured the No. 1 Current Rock Album and No. 1 Current Alternative Album in US sales following the release of their new album, Ohio Players, last week. The album also is the highest debut of the week on Billboard’s Top Rock Albums Chart and Top Alternative Albums Chart, at No. 5 on both charts, and has reached No. 4 on Overall Current Album sales and No. 26 on the Billboard 200. Internationally, Ohio Players is the band’s sixth consecutive top 20 album in the UK, as well as top 20 in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Netherlands, New Zealand, and Switzerland, among others.
Journal Topics: Album Release, Artist News, Reviews
- Monday, September 9, 2019
Rhiannon Giddens performed in a concert celebrating Country Music, the new Ken Burns film, at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville in March, joining Dierks Bentley, Rosanne Cash, Rodney Crowell, Vince Gill, Kathy Mattea, Marty Stuart, Dwight Yoakam, and others. The concert was broadcast on PBS yesterday and can be seen here. Giddens performs "Ruby Are You Mad at Your Man" with Ketch Secor, Willie Nelson's "Crazy," and in the all-star finale, "Will the Circle Be Unbroken." Country Music premieres on PBS this Sunday. Giddens receives the inaugural Legacy of Americana Award at the Americana Honors & Awards this Wednesday.
Journal Topics: Artist News, Television, VideoMonday, September 9, 2019
Attacca Quartet kicks off its 2019–20 concert season in Italy this week, performing a program that opens with composer Caroline Shaw's five-part Plan and Elevation, the centerpiece to her album, Orange. On the album, the Attacca performs that and other pieces by Shaw, as it will throughout the upcoming concert season. Shaw joins the quartet for performances in Red Bank, New York City, and London, and the season's culminating concert at The Phillips Collection in Washington, DC, in May, for which they will also be joined by Gabriel Kahane as well.
Journal Topics: Artist News, On TourFriday, September 6, 2019
Ry Cooder's critically acclaimed album Chávez Ravine, first released on Nonesuch Records in 2005, makes its vinyl debut today. With a cast of legendary Chicano musicians, Cooder recounts the story of how a Mexican-American community was razed to make way for L.A.'s Dodger Stadium. "A remarkable song cycle," said Rolling Stone, "a brilliant and flavorful film-noir history lesson." The two-LP vinyl edition was remastered from the original high-resolution source files and pressed on 140-gram vinyl. The set comes in a gatefold tip-on jacket with a twenty-page, full-color booklet. It is available in the Nonesuch Store, as are new remastered digital editions.
Journal Topics: Album Release, Artist NewsFriday, September 6, 2019
Chris Thile launches new season of Live From Here from NYC … Timo Andres gives solo recital in Brooklyn … Daughter of Swords plays Hopscotch Music Fest … Rhiannon Giddens plays UK's The Long Road fest … Gabriel Kahane brings Book of Travelers to Calgary … Pat Metheny tours Midwest … Joshua Redman, Brad Mehldau reunite MoodSwing quartet in upstate New York … Yola tours as special guest of Kacey Musgraves …
Journal Topics: On Tour, Weekend EventsThursday, September 5, 2019
Devendra Banhart has released "Taking a Page," a fourth song from his new album, Ma, due September 13. For the song, he sought special permission from Carole King to lift a line and melody from her beloved 1971 classic "So Far Away." "I'm so glad Carole got to hear it," he says. "It's really just a song about my entire life. I can't explain it much beyond that." King's immediate response upon hearing the song: "I like it."
Journal Topics: Artist NewsWednesday, September 4, 2019
Yola begins an eight-concert North American tour as special guest of Kacey Musgraves with shows in Kansas City, St. Louis, Cleveland, Toronto, and Vienna, VA; two nights in New Orleans; and a culminating concert at Nashville's Bridgestone Arena. Yola also has several US headline shows and festival sets ahead—including Farm Aid, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, and Austin City Limits—then returns to the UK and Europe to tour. She will perform at the Americana Honors & Awards in Nashville on September 11; Yola is up for Emerging Act of the Year and Album of the Year.
Journal Topics: Artist News, On TourWednesday, September 4, 2019
Gabriel Kahane begins his 2019–20 concert season with a performance of songs from his album Book of Travelers at the Honens Festival in Calgary on Friday. The season ahead brings several concerts featuring music from the album, including an evening with string quartet in Seattle and performances of Pattern of the Rail: Six Orchestral Songs from 'Book of Travelers' with Oregon Symphony, of which he was recently named Creative Chair, and Louisville Orchestra. Kahane's currently scheduled season culminates in a concert with Caroline Shaw and Attacca Quartet at The Phillips Collection in Washington, DC, in May.
Journal Topics: Artist News, On TourTuesday, September 3, 2019
The line-up for Hardly Strictly Bluegrass has been announced, and among the performers are several artists familiar to readers of the Nonesuch Journal: Emmylou Harris, Kronos Quartet, Robert Plant, Punch Brothers, Chris Thile, and Yola. The free, annual outdoor music festival returns for the nineteenth year to San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, October 4–6, 2019. You can hear songs from all these artists in a playlist here.
Journal Topics: Artist News, On TourTuesday, September 3, 2019
Congratulations to composer John Adams, whose Doctor Atomic has won the Opus Klassik Award for Best Opera Recording – 20th/21st Century. On this first recording of the piece, the composer leads the BBC Singers and the BBC Symphony Orchestra, with a cast led by Gerald Finley and Julia Bullock. Peter Sellars created the libretto, drawing from original sources to explore the final hours leading up to the first atomic bomb explosion in 1945. The Opus Klassik awards ceremony will take place in Berlin on October 13.
Journal Topics: Artist NewsMonday, September 2, 2019
Devendra Banhart has confirmed eighteen European tour dates in January and February 2020 as part of a world tour in support of his forthcoming album, Ma. The European leg comprises concerts in Poland, Germany, Czech Republic, Belgium, Netherlands, UK, France, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, and Portugal, including London’s Shepherd Bush Empire on February 4.
Journal Topics: Artist News, On TourFriday, August 30, 2019
Kronos Quartet's groundbreaking 2002 collaboration with composer Terry Riley, Sun Rings, is now available as a recording for the first time. Riley incorporates into his composition "space sounds" (plasma waves) that NASA had collected from the Voyager probes, as well as a choir that represents, in his words, "the voice of humanity in its struggle to understand the meaning of our place in this unfathomable universe." Musical America calls it "a spaceship that faces ahead into the planets but also looks back toward its starting point on Earth."
Journal Topics: Album Release, Artist NewsFriday, August 30, 2019
This Labor Day Weekend, Joshua Redman and Pat Metheny return to Detroit Jazz Festival … Jeremy Denk gives a solo recital in Pennsylvania … Kronos Quartet live-scores documentary in Banff … Lake Street Dive is in Nashville … Gaby Moreno is joined by Punch Brothers Chris Thile, Chris Eldridge for her festival in Guatemala … Yola performs in Helsinki …
Journal Topics: On Tour, Weekend Events
