Artist, designer and multimedia pioneer Roger Dean has announced his first NFT drop. The drop will include limited editions of three exclusive digital art pieces, each a component of his new “Allurium'' series, in collaboration with NFT studio THE MTAPHR. “Floating Islands,” originally painted in 1993 and served as the cover of Yes’s offshoot band ABWH Live at the Shoreline album, will be exclusively available on the digital asset marketplace NiftyGateway this coming Tuesday, March 16.

After four decades out of the music limelight, singer-songwriter-guitarist James Holvay makes his return with a vital five-song slab of authentic Chicago-style soul music, Sweet Soul Song on his Mob Town Records imprint and set for release on April 16, 2021.

Today, Blue Note Records announced There Is No End, a posthumous album from the legendary Afrobeat drummer Tony Allen, who died last year at the age of 79. Featuring guest rappers and singers including Sampa The Great, Danny Brown, Lava La Rue, and more, the new full-length will be released on April 30, 2021, the one year anniversary of Allen’s death. The preorder launches today along with the first single “Cosmosis (ft. Skepta & Ben Okiri).”

Acclaimed musician/singer/songwriter Gary Louris has announced his new album Jump For Joy will release on June 4 via Sham/Thirty Tigers. Written, performed and produced entirely by Louris himself, Jump For Joy is his first solo release since 2008’s Vagabonds.

Jesse Lynn Madera, a Nashville-based singer/songwriter, has released an-old favorite off of her critically-acclaimed album Fortunes with a brand-new twist. Madera stripped back the original version of “Dante” to feature only her soulful vocals and piano playing. The lyrics and emotion shine through even more powerfully than before.

Watch Jesse’s live performance video for “Dante” here.

This past year has been a challenging one for everyone across the globe.  The music industry has been hit especially hard with small venues closing, touring musicians unable to perform and uncertainty around when the concert industry will be able to open back up again. Despite this, musicians are still creating and writing new material and many folks – professional musicians and those who just enjoy playing – have spent time during quarantine devoted to becoming more proficient or learning a new instrument altogether.

NewSong Music is now accepting original song entries for its 19th annual songwriting and performance competition, presented by Citizen Vinyl. The program, whose curated showcases have been a fixture in the national music scene since 2001, is proud to announce a new partnership with North Carolina’s first vinyl record pressing facility to present this year’s performance and songwriting showcase and competition.

Every Monday for this current month of March, jam funk quartet Magic Beans are set to perform what they’ve dubbed Magic Mondays: a roughly two-hour virtual performance from their home practice space in Colorado, live streamed on their Facebook page. The band has performed two Magic Mondays thus far, which have been free to stream as they will be the rest of March as well.

Streaming as a live YouTube event on M​arch 13th and 14th at 7pm CST / 8pm EST, Pedals: The Musical is the world’s first-ever historically accurate musical comedy about guitar and guitar pedals.

Watch the trailer for Pedals: The Musical HERE.

Denver-based psychedelic dance band Autonomix has announced a new lineup that features founding members Josh Nermon on keyboards and Danny Littler on bass with the new additions of Carl Cox on saxophone, Alex Ginzberg on guitar, and AJ Gillman on drums. The group will release a remix album with the lead single “Emerald” remixed by Funkstatik out today, Wednesday, March 10th.