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Charlie Musselwhite Announces ‘Look Out Highway,’ His New Album Arriving May 16

Eric Alper
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Charlie Musselwhite Announces ‘Look Out Highway,’ His New Album Arriving May 16

Blues legend Charlie Musselwhite is pleased to announce the release of his new album, Look Out Highway, due May 16th via Forty Below Records. Rock & Blues Muse has premiered the title track and is out on all platforms today. Pre-save the album Look Out Highway here.

What do you get when you mix Delta, Chicago and Memphis Blues? The American Blues icon Charlie Musselwhite. He’s been writing classic songs for nearly six decades. He’s a prolific songwriter who writes organic, compelling stories with ease. There is real emotional depth at the core of his songs.

When asked how he chose the title track “Look Out Highway,” Charlie told Rock & Blues Muse, “I didn’t pick ‘Look Out Highway’….it picked me when I wrote it. Many years ago I was walking by a church in Memphis and I heard a great beat they were using for a song. That beat lived in my head all these years until the lyrics finally came to me.”

More than any other harmonica player of his generation, Charlie Musselwhite can rightfully lay claim to inheriting the mantle of many of the great harp players that came before him with music as dark as Mississippi mud and uplifting as California’s blue skies. In an era when the term legendary gets applied to auto-tuned pop stars, this singular blues harp player, singer, songwriter, and guitarist has earned and deserves to be honored as a true master of American classic vernacular music.

Recorded at Kid Andersen’s Greaseland Studio in San Jose, California, and Clarksdale Sound Stage in Clarksdale, Mississippi, it’s the first time Charlie has recorded with his long-time touring band, comprised of guitarist Matt Stubbs (GA-20), drummer June Core (Robert Lockwood Jr.) and bassist Randy Bermudes (James Cotton), along with Andersen who has been in and out of the band for many years. Their chemistry and command are abundantly clear from the opening notes. “We finished a gig at The Iridium in New York City and flew straight to California to record,” Charlie effuses.

 

Charlie Musselwhite has received 13 Grammy nominations throughout his illustrious career, including his last release, Mississippi Son, and 33 Blues Music Awards. In 2014, his collaboration with Ben Harper Get Up won a Grammy, and in 2010, he was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame.

Charlie’s career took off quickly soon after arriving in Chicago in the early sixties, where he was an integral part of the blues renaissance along with The Paul Butterfield Blues Band, both genuine proteges of Little Walter, Muddy Waters, and Howlin’ Wolf. In 1967, at just 22 years of age, he released his debut album, Stand Back! , which garnered significant critical acclaim.

On a whim, Musselwhite relocated to San Francisco that same year. Contemporaries like Butterfield and Mike Bloomfield followed suit and were welcomed into the counterculture scene around the Fillmore West as authentic purveyors of real-deal blues.

Charlie has also collaborated with an eclectic list of incredible artists over the years, including Ben Harper, Cyndi Lauper, Eddie Vedder, Tom Waits, Bonnie Raitt, The Blind Boys of Alabama, Gov’t Mule, INXS, Mickey Hart, and Japan’s Kodo Drummers, George Thorogood, Eliades Ochoa, Cat Stevens, Elvin Bishop and, close friend and best man at his wedding John Lee Hooker. In 2023, Musselwhite was cast in Martin Scorsese’s film Killers of the Flower Moon in the role of Alvin Reynolds.

Musselwhite’s sixty-year journey has taken him from Mississippi to Memphis, Chicago, and California. He is living proof that great music only gets better with age. Sixty years of nonstop touring, 20 albums, 1 Grammy, and 33 Blues Music Awards later, his depth of expression as a singer and an instrumentalist grew more profound with each passing year.

Forty Below Records, based in Los Angeles and helmed by Eric Corne, is proud to be Charlie’s new home. Corne declared, “Working with an artist of Charlie’s caliber is an honor and privilege. He’s one of the most iconic Blues musicians working today. And we look forward to taking his legacy to the next level.”

Track Listing:
Look Out Highway
Sad Eyes
Storm Warning
Baby Won’t You Please Help Me
Hip Shakin’ Mama
Highway 61
Ready For Times To Get Better
Ramblin’ Is My Game
Blue Lounge
Ghosts in Memphis
Open Road

My Morning Jacket Expands ‘is’ Tour with New U.S. Headline Dates Ahead of Album Release

Eric Alper
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My Morning Jacket Expands ‘is’ Tour with New U.S. Headline Dates Ahead of Album Release

My Morning Jacket is continuing to celebrate the impending arrival of their eagerly awaited new album, is, by unveiling a new slate of US headline dates. The second leg of MY MORNING JACKET “is” ON TOUR begins August 5 at Bend, OR’s Hayden Homes Amphitheater and then continues through an August 22 show at Berkeley, CA’s famed Greek Theatre. The tour will resume October 8 at Washington, DC’s The Anthem and then travel through a two-night stand at Atlanta, GA’s historic Fox Theatre on October 31 and November 1. Highlights of the newly announced dates include a two-night return to Morrison, CO’s world renowned Red Rocks Amphitheatre (August 15-16), a two-night stand at Philadelphia, PA’s The Met (October 10-11), and three-night runs at Brooklyn, NY’s Brooklyn Paramount (October 16-18) and Chicago, IL’s The Salt Shed (October 24-26). Special guests will be announced soon.

A ticket request period for MY MORNING JACKET “is” ON TOUR is now underway exclusively to members of My Morning Jacket’s One Big Family “Family Pass” program and will continue through Sunday, March 2 at 10:00 pm (ET). Standard and VIP ticket requests will then be processed for “Family Pass” holders on Monday, March 3-Tuesday, March 4. Presales will then be available to all remaining members of One Big Family beginning on Wednesday, March 5 at 10:00 am (local). To sign up for One Big Family or to learn more about “Family Pass,” please visit onebigfamily.mymorningjacket.com. Local presales start Thursday, March 6 at 10:00 am (local). Spotify presales follow on Thursday, March 6 at 12:00 noon (local). All remaining tickets will go on sale to the general public on Friday, March 7 at 10:00 am (local). For complete details, please see www.mymorningjacket.com/tour.

MY MORNING JACKET “is” ON TOUR officially gets underway April 1 at Chattanooga, TN’s Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Auditorium and then travels into early May. Support comes from Bendigo Fletcher (April 1 and May 2) and Grace Cummings (April 8-21). Highlights include a very special five-night homecoming run at Louisville, KY’s historic Louisville Palace on April 25-27 and 29-30, joined by special guests Lacey Guthrie (April 25), Future Killer (April 26), The Jesse Lees (April 27), 10th Street Dre and Maggie Halfman (April 29), and Bendigo Fletcher (April 30).

Widely regarded among the greatest live acts in music today, My Morning Jacket will further celebrate is with an array of top-billed festival performances, including New Orleans, LA’s New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival (May 4). The band is also currently set for the next edition of My Morning Jacket’s One Big Holiday, a three-night music vacation set for April 3-5 at Miramar Beach, FL’s Seascape Resort. In addition to three unique headline shows from My Morning Jacket, the event will see performances from an all-star lineup that includes Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Devon Gilfillian, Dinosaur Jr., Karina Rykman, S.G. Goodman, and Futurebirds, plus Late Night Campfire Sets by Tyler Ramsey, Maggie Halfman, and Bendigo Fletcher, as well as Late Night Silent Jam Performances by Karina Rykman, Eggy, and Illiterate Light. Tickets are on sale now exclusively at topeka.live/onebigholiday25.

My Morning Jacket is excited to continue its long-time partnership with environmental nonprofit REVERB on MY MORNING JACKET “is” ON TOUR to build upon previous successes and expand the tour sustainability program, engage fans in the Action Village at each show, and support REVERB’s Music Decarbonization Project to accelerate climate solutions within the music industry.

My Morning Jacket’s 10th studio album and first full-length new collection in more than three years, is arrives via ATO Records on Friday, March 21. Pre-orders – including limited edition vinyl, CD, and digital download – are available now. Produced by 3x GRAMMY® Award-winner Brendan O’Brien (Bruce Springsteen, Pearl Jam), the album includes the ravishing lead single, “Time Waited,” which has quickly ascended to the top 10 on Billboard’s Adult Alternative Airplay chart while earning the chart’s “Gains In Weekly Performance” award. An official music video, directed by famed photographer/filmmaker Danny Clinch and featuring new performance footage interspersed with archival photos from throughout the band’s history, is streaming now on YouTube. is was further heralded earlier this month by the psychedelically propulsive second single, “Squid Ink,” accompanied by a visually arresting official music video once again directed by Clinch. In addition, My Morning Jacket recently lit up ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live! with spectacular performances of “Time Waited” and “Squid Ink.”

For more than 25 years, My Morning Jacket have achieved an incredibly rare feat in the world of rock ‘n’ roll – upholding a long-established cultural legacy while sustaining all the curiosity and creative hunger of their very earliest days. In a monumental step for the Louisville, KY-bred five-piece – vocalist/guitarist Jim James, bassist Tom Blankenship, guitarist Carl Broemel, drummer Patrick Hallahan, keyboardist Bo Koster – is once again expands the limits of their sound and elevates their artistry to unprecedented heights. The result is perhaps the most masterfully realized work yet from a band fully committed to their belief in music as a conduit for revelation of all kinds.

Largely recorded at Henson Recording Studios in Los Angeles, is finds My Morning Jacket deviating from their typically self-produced approach by teaming up with multiple GRAMMY Award-winner Brendan O’Brien, one of the most esteemed producers in rock music, known for his extensive work with Bruce Springsteen and Pearl Jam. For James – who has produced or co-produced all of the band’s studio albums since their 1999 debut The Tennessee Fire – the decision to work with O’Brien stemmed from a newfound willingness to open up their process and involve an outside creative force in shaping My Morning Jacket’s restlessly inventive yet nuanced form of psych-rock.

“Up until now I’ve never been able to let go and allow someone else to steer the ship,” James says. “It almost felt like an out-of-body experience to step back and give control over to someone who’s far more accomplished and made so many more records than us, but in the end, I was able to enjoy the process maybe more than I ever have before.”

Prior to joining O’Brien in the studio, My Morning Jacket got together for two highly exploratory writing and recording sessions, amassing over a hundred demos before settling upon the 10 eclectic tracks that eventually comprise the finished album. New songs such as the sprawling, album-opening epic, “Out In The Open” and the delightfully warped “Squid Ink” reveal a band whose voracious creative appetite is wholly matched by a deft command of their visionary musicality. When it came time to name the collection, My Morning Jacket chose a title that speaks to the infinitely unpredictable nature of music-making.

“I like how the word “is” indicates a sense of presence in the now – there’s no logic or rationale behind this record; it just is,” says James. “All these songs came into existence out of an attempt to connect with something beyond the human experiment, which for me is the whole purpose of music – that connection with something larger than us, yet something we are all equally a part of.”

is – which arrives as My Morning Jacket celebrates the 20th anniversary of their 2005 landmark Z, a lavishly acclaimed collection named by Rolling Stone among “The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time” – represents another milestone in the band’s ever-evolving body of work, as well as an opportunity to breathe new energy into their historically stunning and hard-driving live performances. James points to the “undeniable force of loving” as the most essential factor in the band’s longevity and unending enchantment with the process of musical creation.

“One of the cool things about being around this long is that we’re not afraid to scrap something if we don’t absolutely love it,” he says. “It feels really great to have a collection of songs we all love this much, and to know that we worked as hard as we possibly could on them. Hopefully, those songs will be helpful to people and give them some kind of peace as they try to deal with the insanity of the world – because that’s what music does for me, and doing the same for others is always my greatest dream come true.”

MY MORNING JACKET “is” ON TOUR 2025

APRIL

1 – Chattanooga, TN – Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Auditorium ^

3-5 – Miramar Beach, FL – My Morning Jacket’s One Big Holiday *

8 – Birmingham, AL – Alabama Theatre #

10 – Austin, TX – Moody Amphitheater at Waterloo Park #

12 – Dallas, TX – The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory #

13 – Houston, TX – 713 Music Hall #

15 – Memphis, TN – Orpheum Theatre #

17 – Athens, OH – Templeton-Blackburn Alumni Memorial Auditorium #

18 – Milwaukee, WI – The Riverside Theater #

20 – Minneapolis, MN – The Armory #

21 – Kansas City, MO – Uptown Theater #

25 – Louisville, KY – The Louisville Palace ** (SOLD OUT)

26 – Louisville, KY – The Louisville Palace †† (SOLD OUT)

27 – Louisville, KY – The Louisville Palace ^^ (SOLD OUT)

29 – Louisville, KY – The Louisville Palace ##

30 – Louisville, KY – The Louisville Palace ^

MAY

2 – St. Louis, MO – The Factory at The District ^

4 – New Orleans, LA – New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival *

AUGUST

5 – Bend, OR – Hayden Homes Amphitheater †

6 – Nampa, ID – Ford Idaho Center Amphitheater †

8 – Bonner, MT – KettleHouse Amphitheater †

9 – Woodinville, WA – Chateau St. Michelle Winery †

13 – Dillon, CO – Dillon Amphitheater †

15 – Morrison, CO – Red Rocks Amphitheatre †

16 – Morrison, CO – Red Rocks Amphitheatre †

19 – Los Angeles, CA – Hollywood Palladium †

20 – Santa Barbara, CA – Santa Barbara Bowl †

22 – Berkeley, CA – The Greek Theatre †

OCTOBER

8 – Washington, DC – The Anthem †

10 – Philadelphia, PA – The Met †

11 – Philadelphia, PA – The Met †

13 – Boston, MA – MGM Music Hall at Fenway †

14 – Portland, ME – State Theatre †

16 – Brooklyn, NY – Brooklyn Paramount †

17 – Brooklyn, NY – Brooklyn Paramount †

18 – Brooklyn, NY – Brooklyn Paramount †

20 – Newport, KY – MegaCorp Pavilion †

22 – Madison, WI – The Sylvee †

24 – Chicago, IL – The Salt Shed †

25 – Chicago, IL – The Salt Shed †

26 – Chicago, IL – The Salt Shed †

29 – Nashville, TN – The Pinnacle †

31 – Atlanta, GA – Fox Theatre †

NOVEMBER

1 – Atlanta, GA – Fox Theatre †

* FESTIVAL APPEARANCE

† NEWLY ANNOUNCED DATE

w/ Special Guests

^ Bendigo Fletcher

# Grace Cummings

** Lacey Guthrie

†† Future Killer

^^ The Jesse Lees

## 10th Street Dre and Maggie Halfman

Garbage Announces New Album ‘Let All That We Imagine Be The Light’ Out May 30

Eric Alper
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Garbage Announces New Album ‘Let All That We Imagine Be The Light’ Out May 30

Garbage will release their highly anticipated new album Let All That We Imagine Be The Light, their eighth studio record, on 30th May.  Let All That We Imagine Be The Light was recorded at Red Razor Sounds in Los Angeles, Butch Vig’s studio Grunge Is Dead, and Shirley Manson’s bedroom. The record was produced by the band and longtime engineer Billy Bush. Pre-order/presave HERE

Let All That We Imagine Be The Light is the follow-up to 2021’s critically acclaimed No Gods No Masters, which charted at Number 5 on the UK album charts and led to some of the best reviews of Garbage’s career.

Speaking about Garbage’s new album, Shirley Manson says: “Going into making this record, I was determined to find a more hopeful, uplifting world to immerse myself in. The title of the album, Let All That We Imagine Be The Light is the perfect descriptor for this new record as a whole. When things feel dark it feels imperative to seek out forces that are light, positive and beautiful in the world. It almost feels like a matter of life and death. A strategy for survival”.

Let All That We Imagine Be The Light is unmistakably Garbage. All the hallmarks and signatures for which they are known are present here. Big angular guitars, precise, propulsive beats and cinematic soundscapes all lurk beneath Shirley Manson’s unmistakable voice, her lyrics bristling with attitude. This is the sound of a group at the peak of their creative powers – characteristically harnessing sonic juxtapositions and moods to create an album that thrums equally with both light and shade.

Butch Vig says; “We used a lot of analogue synths and sound design on the album, as they seemed to fit the dystopian vibes we were all experiencing. We started recording the album with a clean slate, although given what’s happening in the US and the rest of the world, it’s inevitable that the madness starts to infiltrate the songs. But we definitely wanted the record to have some hope, some light, to convey the feeling that people have the power”.

Speaking about the album’s opening track There’s No Future In Optimism, Shirley says: “I really wanted that song to open the album. It starts out with an anthemic call to arms, a clarion call. It’s pretty much a rallying cry to all likeminded people. If you are interested in meeting this world with love, if you are willing to invest in tenderness and not violence or hate, then we are with you. You should come with us.

I have to believe that music and art can still impact culture. I know it still impacts me – that mysterious power which no government on earth can co-opt or buy. Great music exists entirely within its own microcosm in a way – without any interference or corruptive influences. That’s what always makes it so pure and precious. Even though all the pointers in our society say otherwise, I do feel music still has the power to shift atoms, shift thinking and shift positions.”

Discussing the record’s final track, The Day That I Met God, Shirley adds: “This is the opus on the record and explores the grand theme of great love, something I haven’t written about very much before now. The idea came to me when I was recovering from major surgery and I felt so raw, vulnerable and scared.  I was on the treadmill for the first time following an operation when I suddenly felt this powerful sensation of healing love around me – it was a moment that uplifted me. It took me out from what had felt like hell. The vocal you hear is the writing demo, the first take. Just me sitting on the edge of my bed, in recovery, singing into a handheld microphone. I was feeling so vulnerable and I think that’s what lends the song added poignancy. It’s really a song about mortality but it’s also an expression of gratitude. Gratitude for getting older, gratitude for the longevity of our band, for good health, for the great mystery and for the ongoing, creative adventure of life”.

Garbage consists of all four original band members, Shirley Manson, Duke Erikson, Steve Marker and Butch Vig. Over the 30 years since their inception in 1995 they have sold over 20 million albums. Their unique sound, songwriting and electric live performances have inspired worldwide adoration, chart success and critical acclaim. They are considered one of the most influential bands of their generation.

Garbage’s new album, Let All That We Imagine Be The Light is released on 30th May, and new music will be released in the coming weeks.

Let All That We Imagine Be The Light tracklist
There’s No Future In Optimism
Chinese Fire Horse
Hold
Have We Met (The Void)
Sisyphus
Radical
Love To Give
Get Out My Face AKA Bad Kitty
R U Happy Now
The Day That I Met God

Aaron Paris & Strings From Paris Reimagine Tate McRae’s ‘greedy’ with Cinematic Classical Elegance

Eric Alper
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0
Aaron Paris & Strings From Paris Reimagine Tate McRae’s ‘greedy’ with Cinematic Classical Elegance

Take Tate McRae’s greedy, strip it down, and rebuild it as a lush, cinematic soundscape, and you get Aaron Paris & Strings From Paris’ breathtaking rework as part of The JUNO Awards video series. Blending orchestral pop with sweeping strings and grand piano, they turn the viral hit into something fit for a film score. It’s proof that a great song can thrive in any genre — whether on the dance floor or in the concert hall, greedy has never sounded so majestic.

Tom Waits Lends His Voice to Il Fattore Umano, Highlighting Homelessness in the Rural South

Eric Alper
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Tom Waits Lends His Voice to Il Fattore Umano, Highlighting Homelessness in the Rural South

https://Tom Waits doesn’t just write about America’s underbelly — he sings it, speaks it, and now, he narrates it. In the final episode of Il Fattore Umano on RAI, Waits gives voice to the invisible, performing The Fall of Troy and reading from Seeds on Hard Ground. With his unmistakable growl, he tells a raw and deeply human story about homelessness in the rural South, a place where the American dream frays at the edges. When Waits speaks, you listen. And when he sings about forgotten people, it’s impossible to forget them.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBWWjwj3zcY

Lindsay Ell Releases Apple Music Sessions Featuring ‘Pain Tolerance’ and Taylor Swift’s ‘Bad Blood’ Cover

Eric Alper
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Lindsay Ell Releases Apple Music Sessions Featuring ‘Pain Tolerance’ and Taylor Swift’s ‘Bad Blood’ Cover

Following the release of her highly anticipated EP love myself and “i shouldn’t call you”, her collaboration with Nashville indie band Nightly, award-winning artist and songwriter Lindsay Ell has released her Apple Music Sessions today: an acoustic version of her song “pain tolerance” and her cover of Taylor Swift’s “Bad Blood”. 

 

Lindsay Ell’s decade-long career that boasts three #1 hit songs, a Platinum-certified single, and over 400 million streams. Ell is a CCMA Award winner with nominations from the CMA Awards, ACM Awards, CMT Awards, JUNO Awards, and over 20 CCMA Award nominations.

 

A generational talent, Ell has always felt at home on stage. Beginning her touring career at age 10, Lindsay Ell has brought her electric live performance style to audiences across the US, Canada, Europe, and the UK with her headlining tours and alongside artists such as Keith Urban, OneRepublic, and Maren Morris. Since 2024, Lindsay Ell has proudly assumed the role of lead guitarist on her childhood hero Shania Twain’s “Come on Over” international tour and Las Vegas residency.

 

2025 sees Lindsay Ell return for her fourth consecutive season as the exuberantly warm-hearted host of Canada’s highest-rated reality program Canada’s Got Talent, which has earned her two consecutive Canadian Screen Award nominations.

 

In addition to her multi-faceted talent, Lindsay Ell’s philanthropy and advocacy have earned her prestigious recognition in both Canada and the US. In 2024, she received the CCMA’s Music Humanitarian Award in recognition of her work with her Make You Movement charitable fund, and was a guest speaker and panelist at the Clinton Global Initiative’s 2024 Annual Meeting in New York City where she shared her story of recovery from an eating disorder. The Calgary-born, Nashville-based super talent has bravely bro ught her resilient outlook to the forefront with one mission: to empower and advocate for others. 

Spotify Expands Audiobook Offerings with ElevenLabs AI Narration Integration

Eric Alper
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Spotify Expands Audiobook Offerings with ElevenLabs AI Narration Integration

As Spotify continues to roll out audiobooks to new listeners worldwide, the company remains committed to providing authors with tools that help them reach those listeners and lowering the barrier to entry so more authors than ever can have their books heard.

Starting today, they;re excited to begin accepting audiobooks from ElevenLabs, an AI software company that provides easy-to-use, high-quality voice narration technology.

For authors looking for a cost-effective way to create high-quality audiobooks, digital voice narration by ElevenLabs is a great option. Authors can use the ElevenLabs platform to narrate their audiobooks in 29 languages, with complete control over voice and intonation.

One of their most requested features, now, authors can distribute their ElevenLabs content to Spotify and select other audiobook retailers via Findaway Voices, reaching millions of new listeners and book fans.

How to quickly and easily submit ElevenLabs audiobooks on Spotify

  • After creating their digital voice-narrated audiobook in ElevenLabs, authors simply download the file package and upload to Findaway Voices by Spotify.
  • Following a standard review, the book will go live on Spotify, as well as other retailers that accept digital voice-narrated titles from Findaway Voices.

For listeners, all digitally narrated titles will be clearly marked in the metadata on Spotify and across the other retailers where Findaway Voices distributes. The book description will be prepended with the first sentence stating, “This audiobook is narrated by a digital voice.”

They previously announced support for digital voice-narrated content created with Google Play Books, and will continue to find ways for more authors and publishers to make and distribute their audiobook content to Spotify. To learn more, be sure to visit elevenlabs.io.

Yo-Yo Ma and Boston Symphony Orchestra Unveil Shostakovich: The Cello Concertos, Out April 25 via Deutsche Grammophon

Eric Alper
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Yo-Yo Ma and Boston Symphony Orchestra Unveil Shostakovich: The Cello Concertos, Out April 25 via Deutsche Grammophon

In October 2023, cellist Yo-Yo Ma returned to Boston’s Symphony Hall to play Shostakovich’s two cello concertos with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and its Music Director Andris Nelsons. Recorded by a team headed by legendary Hollywood producer Shawn Murphy and BSO lead recording engineer Nick Squire, their performances of these two very different works are now set to be released by Deutsche Grammophon to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the composer’s death in 1975.

Shostakovich: The Cello Concertos will be issued as a standalone digital, CD, and vinyl album on 25 April 2025. The opening Allegretto of the First Concerto will be available to stream or download from 28 February. Yo-Yo Ma’s recordings are also included in the anthology bringing together the BSO’s decade-long, GRAMMY Award®-winning Shostakovich project. This contains all fifteen symphonies, key incidental works, new recordings of the complete cello, piano, and violin concertos – the latter with soloists Yuja Wang and Baiba Skride respectively – and the first commercial audio release in more than 20 years of the composer’s only full-length opera, Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District. It will be released digitally and as a 19-CD box set on 28 March.

Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No. 1 in E flat major dates from 1959. Cast in four movements, it was dedicated to and premiered by the composer’s old friend Mstislav Rostropovich. Yo-Yo Ma has played the work many times, and here brings out the contrasting moods of its writing, from dark irony to poignant lyricism, with his signature virtuosic brilliance. In many places he creates an eloquent dialogue with BSO principal horn Richard Sebring.

Reviewing the First Concerto performance, the Boston Globe wrote, “in the second movement’s eerie duet between the cello and celesta, the high-pitched sound of Ma’s cello harmonics was so thin and crystalline that they sounded like a wind instrument. The extended cadenza was pensive, slowly ramping into the sardonic burlesque of the finale, which sent the orchestra hurtling to the finish line with Ma clinging to his cello as if for dear life.”

Rostropovich premiered the Second Cello Concerto in G major in Moscow on 25 September 1966, Shostakovich’s 60th birthday. He was also the soloist for the BSO’s first performance of the work, which, by sad coincidence, took place on 10 August 1975, the day after the composer’s death.

The Second begins in a melancholy vein, with a sighing phrase for the solo cello. After the extended Largo, the second and third movements are played without a break. Shostakovich mimics a street song from Odessa in the central Allegretto. That tune is dramatically restated in the finale, which begins with a horn fanfare and eventually ends with wood block, tom-tom, snare drum, and xylophone (part of the orchestra’s huge percussion section) punctuating a long-held drone note from the cellist.

This more reflective, inward-looking work is less frequently performed than its predecessor. As noted by the Boston Globe, however, “one could scarcely have asked for a better trail through [this less familiar territory] than the path Ma charted with Nelsons and the BSO … Here the cello brooded resolutely … there it raged in dark outbursts only to be answered by explosive thuds from the bass drum.”

Yo-Yo Ma will be reunited with the BSO and Nelsons at Symphony Hall on 11 April 2025 (sold out) and at New York’s Carnegie Hall on 24 April. Together they will perform the First Cello Concerto as part of an all-Shostakovich programme which will also feature the composer’s Symphony No. 11 “The Year 1905”.

“Having Yo-Yo Ma, one of the greatest cellists of our time, join us on our journey through Shostakovich’s music has been an immense privilege and a joy for all of us at the BSO,” says Andris Nelsons. “Yo-Yo has a totally unique imagination which infects everyone around him. His incredible range and depth and his humanity are ever present when performing Shostakovich’s demanding cello concertos. We are very proud to present this recording with Deutsche Grammophon, including as part of our complete Shostakovich box set, and I look forward to reprising the First Cello Concerto with Yo‑Yo in Boston and at Carnegie Hall later this spring.”

The Head and the Heart Announce ‘Aperture,’ Their Self-Produced Sixth Album, Out May 9 via Verve Forecast

Eric Alper
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The Head and the Heart Announce ‘Aperture,’ Their Self-Produced Sixth Album, Out May 9 via Verve Forecast

The Head and the Heart have confirmed a May 9 release date for their sixth studio album, Aperture, which also marks their debut for Verve Forecast.  New single “After the Setting Sun” is out today and can be streamed here. The new track follows the release of their own record setting #1 AAA single “Arrow” and a new, separate version of the track featuring Mt. Joy that supports victims of the recent LA fires. Aperture brings the band back to a DIY approach as it’s the first record self-produced by the band since their self-titled debut album in 2011.

The band has also announced the “Aperture” tour kicking off on May 31 in Detroit. The tour includes stops at Central Park Summerstage in New York City, the Greek Theater in Los Angeles, and more. The tour will include stops at Summerfest and Harvest Jazz & Blues Festival this summer. See below for a full rundown of dates. Every ticket sold will add +$1 to donate to the band’s Rivers and Roads Foundation. The foundation, started by The Head and The Heart, raises money for local Seattle-based music programs and initiatives with an emphasis on equitable access to music education, and mental health resources and support for musicians.

During more than 15 years together, The Head and The Heart have journeyed their way through a lot of different terrain – a critically and commercially revered debut album and follow up on stalwart indie Sub Pop, followed by three albums with big hits on major label Warner Records. But after touring in support of 2022’s Every Shade of Blue tour, they started asking questions. Where have we been and what’s next? Taking their future into their own hands, the band decamped to Richmond, Va., and hit the reset button with a grip of ideas in tow. As they did in their early years, band members handled production duties themselves. Staying true to their own creative vision was paramount, and through a year of sessions in their twin home bases of Seattle and Richmond, The Head and The Heart found their way forward by believing in their power as one.

“I believe we’ve made a very great record together and obviously the title is an important aspect of the final product,” says group member Matty Gervais. “For me, Aperture represents the choice we all must make between resigning ourselves to darkness, or letting the light in and recognizing our own agency to do so. It feels relevant to the times, in that we’re literally choosing between authoritarianism vs. democracy. Ignorance vs. enlightenment on a macro scale, and complacency/cynicism vs. hope, empathy and perseverance on the micro scale. To me, it sums up a lot of what each of these songs is grappling with in some form and what we’ve collectively gone through as a band. It’s about choosing hope again and again, no matter how many times it may feel that you have lost it.”

As for the title song, Gervais says it is “an invitation to wake up in the present moment recognizing that it is all we have, in all its contradictions of beauty and pain, joy and despair, unfathomable vastness and impermanence.”

At early sessions for Aperture, the group instantly tapped into a renewed enthusiasm, with a tide of ideas rippling out in a matter of days. There was a rawness and unfettered energy to these songs. A band that had built a massive audience with meticulous arrangements and studio perfection suddenly found a vim that bordered on punk. Pianist Kenny Hensley sang and contributed lyrics for the first time, and drummer Tyler Williams even sang lead for the first time, boosting an explosive tune from vocalist/guitarist Jonathan Russell called “Cop Car.”

Russell previously said the decision for the band to return to self-producing was “a 180 in terms of where we were headed. We really wanted to make our next music our own way, and it was a lot of fun to have all of us in a room together again. When we’d have downtime over the past two years, we’d all fly into either Seattle or Richmond and work in a specific studio in each place. We worked with engineers from our past. All these things went into being able to reimagine how we wanted to approach making music.”

Aperture is the follow-up to 2022’s Every Shade of Blue, which spawned hits from its title song and “Virginia (Wind in the Night).”

Fans can presave/preorder the new album Aperture and explore exclusive products, including signed copies HERE.

Tour Dates:
5/31/25 – The Fillmore Detroit – Detroit, MI *
6/1/25 – History – Toronto, ON *
6/3/25 – MTELUS – Montreal, QC *
6/5/25 – MGM Music Hall at Fenway – Boston, MA *
6/6/25 – The Met Philadelphia – Philadelphia, PA *
6/7/25 – The Fillmore, Silver Spring – Silver Spring, MD *
6/9/25 – Coca-Cola Roxy – Atlanta, GA *
6/10/25 – The Saint Augustine Amphitheatre – St. Augustine, FL *
6/12/25 – The Fillmore New Orleans – New Orleans, LA *
6/13/25 – Gilley’s Dallas, South Side Ballroom – Dallas, TX *
6/14/25 – Whitewater Amphitheatre – New Braunfels, TX *
6/15/25 – Bayou Music Center – Houston, TX *
6/18/25 – Uptown Theater – Kansas City, MO *
6/19/25 – Palace Theatre – Saint Paul, MN *
6/20/25 – Summerfest – Milwaukee, WI (Festival)
7/15/25 – Skyla Credit Union Amphitheatre – Charlotte, NC ^
7/16/25 – Red Hat Amphitheater – Raleigh, NC ^
7/18/25 – Riverfront Park, Ascend Amphitheater – Nashville, TN ^
7/19/25 – Iroquois Amphitheater – Louisville, KY ^
7/20/25 – The ICON Festival Stage at Smale Park – Cincinnati, OH^
7/22/25 – Asheville Yards – Asheville, NC ^
7/23/25 – KEMBA Live!, Outdoor Amphitheater – Columbus, OH ^
7/26/25 – Pines Theater – Northampton, MA ^
7/27/25 – Levitt Pavilion SteelStacks – Bethlehem, PA ^
7/30/25 – SummerStage in Central Park – New York, NY ^
7/31/25 – Stone Pony Summerstage – Asbury Park, NJ ~
8/1/25 – Allianz Amphitheater at Riverfront – Richmond, VA ~
8/2/25 – Riverfront Park – Harrisburg, PA ~
8/3/25 – Stage AE – Pittsburgh, PA ~
8/5/25 – Jacobs Pavilion – Cleveland, OH &
8/6/25 – Everwise Amphitheater – Indianapolis, IN &
8/8/25 – The Salt Shed, Fairgrounds – Chicago, IL &
8/10/25 – The Astro, Outdoor Amphitheater – La Vista, NE &
8/13/25 – Ogden Amphitheater – Ogden, UT &
8/14/25 – Outlaw Field at the Idaho Botanical Garden – Boise, ID &
8/15/25 – Edgefield Amphitheater – Troutdale, OR &
8/16/25 – T-Mobile Park, Direct Support to Lumineers – Seattle, WA
9/11/25 – Harvest Jazz & Blues Festival – Fredericton, NB
9/24/25 – The Greek Theatre – Berkeley, CA +
9/25/25 – Channel 24 – Sacramento, CA !
9/26/25 – Vina Robles Amphitheatre – Paso Robles, CA !
9/28/25 – Greek Theatre – Los Angeles, CA !
9/29/25 – Gallagher Square – San Diego, CA !
9/30/25 – Arizona Financial Theatre – Phoenix, AZ !
10/2/25 – Revel – Albuquerque, NM
10/4/25 – The Criterion – Oklahoma City, OK
10/5/25 – JJ’s Live – Fayetteville, AR
10/7/25 – The Lyric Oxford – Oxford, MS
10/10/25 – The Tennessee Theatre – Knoxville, TN

Maya Delilah Unveils ‘Maya Maya Maya,’ Final Single Before Debut Album ‘The Long Way Round’ Drops March 28

Eric Alper
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Maya Delilah Unveils ‘Maya Maya Maya,’ Final Single Before Debut Album ‘The Long Way Round’ Drops March 28

Maya Delilah has released “Maya Maya Maya,” the final single to be revealed from her forthcoming debut album The Long Way Round out March 28 via Blue Note/Capitol. The London-based singer, songwriter, and guitarist was recently named a 2025 Spotify “Artist To Watch,” another sure sign of her rising star after she was named to the Fender Next “Class of 2024.” Maya’s debut album makes good on that promise by bringing all the elements of her art together — the intimacy, the ability, the inspiration, the depth, the lightness — into one striking work.

Following the unvarnished funk of the flirty single “Squeeze,” the endearing soul-pop gem “Maya Maya Maya” shows yet another side of Maya’s musical personality. “It feels like a song to my younger self,” she says. “It’s about not being taken advantage of, not always trying to please people, and making sure I’m living in the right way.”

“This album is a combination of so many parts of me,” says Maya. “I get so influenced by different genres, people, places, and experiences that it’s always felt hard for me to fit my music into a consistent sound or mood. It took me a long time (hence The Long Way Round) to realize that it’s a beautiful thing to have a body of work that explores so many different influences.”

Making the album was also a literal journey, from a barn-based studio in Devon, England, to a home studio in Los Angeles, and back to various rooms across London. All with a cast of friends new and old, including producers Peter Miles, Josh Grant, Doug Schadt, Seth Tackaberry, and Aquilo’s Ben Fletcher and Tom Higham, as well as collaborators including Samm Henshaw, Grace Lightman, members of FIZZ, organist Cory Henry, and drummer Aaron Sterling (John Mayer, Taylor Swift).

Maya’s muse isn’t the only thing tying The Long Way Round together. Opener “Begin Again” introduces a powerful theme. As she looks back at her first car, her first kiss, her first home, she returns to the gentle hook: “Another day, another end / Oh, we begin again.” The idea of cycles frames the set as the album goes on. Depending on your interpretation, The Long Way Round could be about regaining trust in love or losing it entirely. Shuffled, these songs could trace the arc of one relationship from inception to end, or it could be the bridge between a failed romance and a thrilling new one, or it’s a dozen separate vignettes. With these songs — from soothing, psychedelic send-off “Look at the State of Me Now” to Western-inflected codependence tribute “Necklace” to the ‘70s soul music inspired “Actress” — Maya proves herself a master of not just an evocative guitar solo, but of capturing life’s biggest contradiction: why everything matters all the time and also why it’s not that deep.

“My biggest hope is that the album feels nostalgic to someone I’ve never met before,” says Maya. It’s an interesting thought given how uniquely “Maya” this set is, but that’s exactly what makes it work as intended. The warm glow, the wry smile, a sense of loss, and a yearning for renewal — we’re right there with her as she looks back, and ahead, at The Long Way Round.

A 24-year-old singer, songwriter and guitarist from North London, Maya Delilah attended the prestigious BRIT School whose alumni include Adele, Amy Winehouse, and FKA twigs, among many others. In 2020, lockdown put a pause on the background session work Maya had begun to do within her community of music-making friends, so she turned to livestreams and TikTok where she built up a devoted following with unadorned clips where she would sit cross-legged on the floor, a bed, or a table, her fingernails dancing over the strings, making the guitar sing out whole moods. Over the course of two self-released EPs (2020’s Oh Boy, 2021’s It’s Not Me, It’s You), she amassed more than 50 million streams of fan favorites like “Breakup Season” and “Tangerine Dream” that greeted heartache with humor. Maya began releasing music on Blue Note/Capitol in 2022, reinterpreting Cassandra Wilson’s cover of Neil Young’s “Harvest Moon” for Blue Note Re:imagined II, and following with a string of singles including “Silver Lining” and “Pretty Face.” Maya was named to the Fender Next “Class of 2024” — a huge co-sign from the guitar brand she’s been playing since age 8 — and has also been named a 2025 Spotify “Artist To Watch.”

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That Eric Alper

Eric Alper is a 6-time nominee for Publicist of the Year during Canadian Music Week and has overseen the publicity campaigns for over 183 JUNO Award-nominated albums (and 16 in 2025), 45 Grammy-nominated albums, including 47 JUNO Award, 58 Canadian Folk Music Award, 126 Maple Blues Award-winning albums and is also truly honoured to work with some of the biggest and most important artists of our time.

Contact me: eric@thatericalper.com

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