Produced by Jack Splash (Kendrick Lamar, Alicia Keys, John Legend) and Valerie June, the new album The Moon and Stars: Prescriptions for Dreamers achieves a transcendent effect thanks in no small part to the splendor of its sound, an exquisitely composed tapestry of folk, soul, gospel, country, blues, psychedelia, and time-bending symphonic pop. The result is a selection of songs both ornate and elegant, each moment crafted with a profound awareness of what’s most essential in creating enduring beauty. The follow-up to Valerie June’s widely adored The Order of Time—a 2017 effort that earned the admiration of Bob Dylan and landed on best-of-the-year lists from the likes of Rolling Stone and the New York Times— The Moon and Stars: Prescriptions for Dreamers is a potent catalyst for that kind of magic. With her spellbinding vocals and infectious sense of wonder, Valerie June gently eases the listener into a far more charmed state of mind, one that quickly restores a powerful feeling of joyful possibility.

The album is the third release by the band for Nonesuch Records and follows up their break out release, Free Yourself Up, which debuted top 10 on the Billboard Album charts (a career peak for the band) and garnered them their first charting radio single, "Good Kisser." Obviously was produced by Grammy Award-winning producer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Mike Elizondo

Tone Poem is the third album by Charles Lloyd & The Marvels, the genre-straddling quintet that features the master saxophonist with Bill Frisell on guitar, Greg Leisz on pedal steel guitar, Reuben Rogers on bass, and Eric Harland on drums. Released as part of Blue Note's acclaimed Tone Poet Vinyl Series, the nine dynamic tracks here include new Lloyd originals along with pieces by Ornette Coleman, Thelonious Monk, Leonard Cohen, Gabor Szabo, and Bola de Nieve.

Club44 Records is thrilled to announce that Jane Monheit has joined their roster of artists. As an artist, Jane is well known for her sultry jazz vocals and impressive range. Jane is currently in the studio working on a new album, her twelfth, set to release March 2021. "I could not be more excited to have signed with Club44," shares Jane. "The experience so far has been unbelievable. There is so much heart, so much kindness, such a feeling of family at this label! It's been nearly five years since my last album was released, so the timing couldn't be more perfect... so excited for our future together!"

Israel Nash is back with 'Topaz', his first album since 2018's critically acclaimed 'Lifted' which deservedly featured in our end of year list for the year. Set for release in March 2021, 'Topaz' is described as "a triumphant rock-and-roll experiment, full of fat horns, gospel choruses, swagger, hope, and pain." Not that we haven't had enough pain for one year!

When Linda Smith purchased a 4 track cassette recorder in the mid-1980s, it was not with the intention of launching a solo career. At the time, she was playing guitar in a band called the Woods, and thought it would be useful for sharing demos with her bandmates. In the end, the 4 track outlasted the Woods, but Smith had already started toying around with her own songs. The new hobby followed her from New York back to her native Baltimore, and over the next decade she'd release several albums worth of delicate, bewitching solo music on cassette. Till Another Time: 1988-1996 is the first retrospective collection of Smith's charmingly lo-fi music, situating her as a pioneer of the home recording boom that persists today. Sparse and gentle, Linda's music is tinged with lovelorn melancholy despite the sweetness of her voice. Over '60s pop-indebted melodies on tracks like "A Crumb Of Your Affection", she delivers observations like "I'd been so hungry for so long, I'd forgotten how to eat" with an earnest softness. Elsewhere, her voice takes on a post punk deadpan, as on "I See Your Face" when she glumly repeats "someone speaks and I hear your name." The effect of both modes is a haunting charm, equally reminiscent of early Cherry Red Records and '60s yé-yé. This sense of timelessness was bolstered by Smith's no-nonsense approach to recording. She recorded almost all of her songs at home, using 4 and later 8 track tape recorders. There was a creative freedom that came with recording on tape - it eliminated the need for a band or studio to bring her ideas to life. Unbeknownst to Smith, this was a conclusion that many musicians were reaching at the time - the seeds of the home recording movement were being sowed across the country, and she was at the forefront. Unfortunately, the independence that made at-home recording appealing to artists like Smith also made it difficult for them to reach a wider audience. Most of their communities were insular, relying on niche publications, cassette trading, and word of mouth to share music. Smith herself released a few 7"s on labels like Slumberland and Harriet, but remained relatively local in terms of reach. Nevertheless, one can trace a direct line from Smith, recording her first album in her Brooklyn apartment all those years ago, to the ubiquity of bedroom recording today. Till Another Time is an effort to do just that, shedding light on her fascinating catalog while acknowledging it's role in shaping today's musical landscape.

Just before the end of the year 2020, a mere 12 months, after the release of their celebrated record No Treasure But Hope, Tindersticks surprised everyone with mentioning a new album to be released in 2021. Stuart Staples was already nurturing seeds for a different kind of Tindersticks album before lockdown halted their tour in early 2020. If 2019's No Treasure But Hope saw the band rediscovering themselves as a unit, the follow-up reconfigures that unit so that everything familiar about Tindersticks sounds fresh again. Distractions is an album of subtle realignments and connections from a restless, intuitive band: rich in texture and atmosphere, it lives between it's open spaces and details, always finding new ways to connect with a song. If it's an album that resists easy summation, at least one thing is clear: though it isn't untouched by the lockdown, Distractions is not 'a lockdown album'. As Staples says, "I think the confinement provided an opportunity for something that was already happening. It is definitely a part of the album, but not a reaction to it."

'American Love Story' was recorded pre-quarantine, the collision of upbeat, radio friendly melodies and dark subject matter make for a thought provoking rock opera, a snapshot of American life that is needed in these troubled times.

2020 release. A fiddle prodigy who received a Grammy nod for his 2017 Compass Records release, Portraits In Fiddles, Mike Barnett returns with an album of 14 duets he's titled +1. Though he's a Nashville native who became a professional player at a young age as part of Jesse McReynolds' band, Barnett can still be considered among the recent crop of breakout talent from the Boston roots music scene that produced the likes of Lake Street Dive, I'm With Her and The Deadly Gentlemen, a newgrass outfit where he held fiddle duties from 2011 to 2014. Now relocated to Nashville where he holds down fiddle duties as a member of Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder, Barnett has been working on +1 over a period of four years. Drawing on the deep virtuostic talents of the album's cast of players, the tracks flow seamlessly from traditional American tunes to NewGrass with elements of Celtic music, pop and jazz tinged improvisation thrown in for good measure.

"Our music is an escape from the stress and pressure of modern times. Journey back through time with us, to a simpler, magical time where music enters your heart and soul", say Candice Night and Ritchie Blackmore.

The ten new tracks make for a remarkable new record - one that could only have been written by Ritchie Blackmore and Candice Night. Once again, the duo is able to mix the tradition of British Folk music and love for the Renaissance sound with their style, inspired by myths and legends of ancient times. Escapism reaching towards an ideal beauty found in different time, as understood perfectly by the audience that renew its love for Blackmore's Night since its formation

While the album is rooted in a traditional approach, fans of Ritchie Blackmore's unique style will once again not be disappointed. Heartfelt ballads such as a brand-new version of `Wish You Were Here' set the scene for magical tales on `Four Winds' and `The Twisted Oak'. For the two instrumental tracks - `Darker Shade Of Black' and `Der letzte Musketier' - Ritchie shows that his unmistakable Fender Stratocaster guitar sound is still magic as it always was!

Nature's Light (Limited 2CD Mediabook) - Blackmore's Night

Three time Grammy nominee, Peter Case (Nerves, Plimsouls) returns with The Midnight Broadcast. You're alone, at night, on a long journey in a car, far away from the nearest town, driving in the darkness. The radio is on but only receiving static. A radio station begins to tune in. A broadcast is coming in and out of focus, of a DJ who's announcing records, a rock n' roll DJ with a voice from Finnegans Wake. The music starts, but what is it? One song after another, all different, but all of a piece, like a transmission from the other end of world. Songs of cowboys, lovers, fighters, and shipwrecked sailors, hope, laughter and despair, ancient blues, gutbucket jazz, and singing machines, songs that sound like one microphone is listening in on a roomful of maniacs. Or on someone in the loneliest blue motel in the West. It's The Midnight Broadcast.

Having celebrated their thirtieth anniversary in 2020 [their first eight years spent as Crown Of Thorns], The Crown have proven themselves one of the most enduring forces in death metal. In 2021 they further up the ante with Royal Destroyer, a record that sets a new standard for the genre. "It is our album number ten, so now we are in the big boys club," says bassist Magnus Olsfelt. "I think it in some ways is our crowning achievement, and it encompasses our sound across all albums on one defining record. It's got it all - the early 90s death metal stuff, the haunting melodies, the thrash, the punk, the grind, the heavy metal and the more epic and doomy stuff."

Original Motion Picture Soundtrack for the Hulu biopic film The United States vs Billie Holiday. The score music is composed by Kris Bowers (Bridgerton, Bad Hair, Bethany Hamilton: Unstoppable). The United States vs. Billie Holiday is a 2021 American biographical drama film based on the book Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs by Johann Hari, and on the life of jazz and swing music singer Eleanora Fagan (known professionally as Billie Holiday). The film is written by Suzan-Lori Parks, directed by Lee Daniels, distributed by Hulu, stars Andra Day (as Billie Holiday), Trevante Rhodes, Garrett Hedlund, Natasha Lyonne, Da'Vine Joy Randolph, Evan Ross, Dana Gourrier, Erik LaRay Harvey, Melvin Gregg, Miss Lawrence.

GRAMMY nominated singing sensation Giveon is gearing up for another big year in 2021. The Long Beach native took 2020 by storm and has already landed in stardom, thanks to his vocals on Drake's "Chicago Freestyle," coupled with the release of his own single "Like I Want You." The video has gained over 47 million views on YouTube alone, and the single has reached over 121M WW streams to date across streaming platforms, peaking at #10 on the Billboard Emerging Artist chart and #25 on the Billboard Hot R&B Songs chart. His debut EP Take Time was met with critical acclaim, as everyone from Billboard to NPR recognized this rising star's reach. He even grabbed a song placement on Season 4 of HBO's Insecure with his track "World We Created." - By August, Giveon became the inaugural artist for Spotify's Are & Be Spotify Singles campaign, as he reworked "Like I Want You" (dubbed "Side A") with "Side B" being a cover of D'Angelo's classic "Untitled (How Does It Feel)," serendipitously also recorded at NYC's Electric Lady Studios where D'Angelo recorded the hit. His new EP When It's All Said And Done, picks up where Take Time left off, detailing the peaks and valleys of a love story gone awry. With a Rat Pack-style vibe and elevated storytelling woven tightly through his music, Giveon is here to give R&B the re-up it needs. And he's just getting started.

Selena Gomez's first ever Spanish EP, Revelación, out March 12th.

Manifesto Records is proud to announce the CD/DVD release of LEVERKUSEN '97, the fourth release of the continuing series of classic Allan Holdsworth live performances. In this performance from the Leverkusen Jazztage Festival in Leverkusen, Germany, Allan Holdsworth is accompanied by Chad Wackerman on drums and Dave Carpenter on Bass. Chad Wackerman not only wrote some very personal liner notes on the package, but also did an interview that is a DVD extra. The Performance of LEVERKUSEN '97 was beautifully recorded and filmed and was originally broadcast on German Television. The sound quality of the audio and the picture quality of the video are both amazing and were digitally remastered from the original tapes. The first three releases in this series; LIVE IN JAPAN 1984, WARSAW SUMMER JAZZ DAYS '98 and FRANKFURT '86, have all been very successful and the support from Allan Holdsworth's avid fan base has been overwhelming. We are proud to be keeping his legacy alive.

Grammy and Golden Globe nominated singer/songwriter Nick Jonas returns with Spaceman, his third solo album. The album features the title track plus 10 new songs and was largely written and recorded over zoom with Greg Kurstin & Mozella during isolation. Within a few weeks, he found a new sonic landscape that felt both fresh and a nod to the records he loves from the '80s.