Conveying a moment in time, a vision in nature, or a fleeting feeling in a way that others can understand and relate to their own lives is the ultimate recipe for writing timeless, well-loved songs. When Toronto indie-folk artist Abigail Lapell sat down at the piano to write her newly-released tune “Pines,” she checked off each and every one of those boxes.

Corb Lund will release Songs My Friends Wrote across digital platforms on April 29th via New West Records. The 10-song set features Lund putting his spin on some of his favorite songs written by close friends and world-class songwriters such as Hayes Carll, Todd Snider, Canadian Country Music Legend Ian Tyson, and more. Songs My Friends Wrote is the follow up to 2020’s critically acclaimed Agricultural Tragic.

Bonobo (aka Simon Green) has released the music video for “Shadows,” from his just-released and widely celebrated new album Fragments (Ninja Tune). Fragments has hit #1 on the iTunes Albums Chart on both the main chart and electronic charts in the UK, is Top 10 on the main albums chart in the US and hit #1 on the electronic albums chart in 23 territories including the US. The album is also currently at number 2 in the UK Official Album Chart Midweeks with the final Chart set to land this Friday.

David Poe returns with his stirring new single “People Clap Hands” (ECR Music Group). The first track from his highly-anticipated new album Everyone’s Got A Camera (September 23rd, 2022), “People Clap Hands” is vintage Poe, with all the melodic immediacy and lyrical depth one would expect from the celebrated songwriter, producer, and recording artist.

Danny Elfman has unveiled a brand new music video for “In Time,” the latest single from his acclaimed new album Big Mess. Directed by Zev Deans (St. Vincent, Chelsea Wolfe, HEALTH), the video features artificial-intelligence-generated visuals created by Italian media artist Lorem and was produced using source footage of Danny that was run through a GAN (generative adversarial network).

Khruangbin and Leon Bridges know the time and place for a big production, with a wealth of material that crosses genres, honors multi-cultures, generations and sees the latter tapping fellow modern-day R&B savants. Today, on the pairings’ new song “Chocolate Hills,” the artists embrace spacey sensuality, as Bridges’ honeyed tones ooze into the song’s steady bassline, swirling guitar, Hammond organ and synthesizer.

Montreux Jazz Festival and BMG today announce the next instalment in The Montreux Years series with “John McLaughlin: The Montreux Years”, to be released on Friday, March 4, 2022. Curated and compiled by John McLaughlin, the album is a collection of his finest performances at the Montreux Jazz Festival between 1978 and 2016.

Is it okay to be proud of where one comes from even if that past is far from perfect? Can a country learn from the scars of its past and build something greater than any flawed, hand-me-down patriotism could ever encapsulate?

St. Paul & the Broken Bones will partner with Fitz and the Tantrums for a 17-date, co-headlining U.S. tour beginning June 1. The just-announced dates will be added to a major headlining tour for St. Paul & The Broken Bones, which will now see them perform a 50-show run that includes their biggest NYC show yet at The Beacon Theatre on March 11. The Birmingham, Alabama octet’s new album The Alien Coast will be released January 28 (ATO Records).

“This album,” says Amanda Anne Platt, “has been a wild ride — both in the global and personal events that took place during its creation and in the creation itself.” Wild ride though it may have been, that album — Amanda Anne Platt and The Honeycutters’ two disc The Devil and The Deep Blue Sea, on Organic Records — reveals, in its elegant, heartfelt combination of sweeping concept and intimate execution, an artist at the height of her powers, fronting a band exquisitely attuned to the blend.