Songlights: Rhiannon! Lucinda! Sufjan! Sixpence! Plus, new Jon Batiste, Jeff Tweedy, Sunny War, Robert Plant, Deerhoof, Wet Leg, Russ Taff, and more.
[UPDATE: New from Mike Reid & Joe Henry!] Here's a flight of flavors that have been helping me drink down a difficult week.
UPDATE:
I’ve added a new song from the upcoming collaboration by Mike Reid and Joe Henry! Scroll down to find it.
With the federal government declaring war on public media this week—cutting funding for PBS and NPR, and wiping out a beloved, standard-setting late-night TV show that has been serving up truth about the daily destruction of our democracy—I’m not confident that Americans will enjoy “free speech” on the Internet much longer.
So even though I’m working 10- to 12–hour days trying to concentrate on my new book, rushing to meet my publisher’s deadline for edits, I feel compelled to pause and put together a playlist. I want to share the signs of life, beauty, truth, and hope that are getting me through this present darkness… while I still can.
Here’s some music I’m drinking down like good medicine. I’ll share a couple of videos I took from one of the year’s concert highlights. And I’ll share a feast of impressive tracks from the albums I’m playing a lot this week — some of them new, some of them longtime favorites.
If you like these, check out the full albums they come from. And let me know which of these tracks is your favorite. I’m going to open comments to everybody on this one: Share a song that’s brightening your week, helping you grieve, giving you hope, or just putting you in a good mood!
I will continue to add tracks to this post as the week goes on,
so check back!
Rhiannon Giddens sings the new version of “American Tune” with Paul Simon
Is there any song more appropriate for this moment than “American Tune”?
I don’t know that I’ll experience a more profound moment of musical prayer than the one Anne and I shared at a Rhiannon Giddens concert just a few weeks ago at Seattle’s Moore Theater, hearing her sing Paul Simon’s “American Tune.” She made sure that we all understood: The revised lyrics about the Mayflower were, indeed, revised by Paul Simon himself, not by her.
I wish I had a good video of that performance. But maybe these that I will share are better.
First, a performance of “American Tune” from Other Voices Live.
And then, you can watch her perform it with Paul Simon during a Grammy salute to his life and work. Giddens joins him at about the 2:20 mark of this video.
And after that, you’ll see a couple of videos I captured from our time with Rhiannon Giddens last month. What a beautiful night it was.
If you’re enjoying this music, share it with a friend. This post is free for everybody.
This is the kind of light that shines when neighbors unite and raise their voices for freedom, justice, mercy, and love. This is what MAGA and the GOP despise, reject, and seek to crush. They hate that beauty and truth are not, and will never be, the fruit of their cruel schemes. Empowering and expanding the illegal scourge called ICE, and establishing concentration camps for our brown and black neighbors, they have shown their true colors. As every decision they make increases vulnerability, suffering, and even persecution for some people, they are harming all of us—including themselves. but they are blind to this. They are a death cult, and nothing that they do aligns with the gospel of the Jesus they so often name-drop. Nothing they seek to establish will last in eternity.
When we raise our voices in grace and truth, we increase the light that gives people hope through these days of death and darkness, the hatred that is but a passing shadow.
Get some rest, good souls.
Next up: Some Lucinda from 2020…
I dedicate this song to that orange antichrist that so many American “Christians,” taking the Lord’s name in vain, have chosen to follow, serve, and celebrate instead of Jesus.
For the latest on God’s “chosen one,” listen to the latest update from historian Heather Cox Richardson:
New from Jon Batiste!
If you need your spirits lifted, if you need a dose of joy laced with truth-telling, you know who to call.
If you’re enjoying any of these songs, subscribe to Give Me Some Light and you can get more posts like this one direct to your Inbox. If you’d like to express a little gratitude for what you’re enjoying, become a paid subscriber. That’ll help cover the costs of my music and film subscriptions, and the costs of sustaining this site. And you’ll have access to so much more!
New from Robert Plant!
This is from his upcoming album Saving Grace. The list of song titles for this upcoming album has me intrigued.
No apology: Wet Leg’s “CPR” is probably the song I’ll play most this summer.
I was recently in a pub where they kept playing INXS songs from the ’80s. And I was marveling at just how durable those songs still are. I was never a big fan — their songs seemed so frivolous, so silly, so commercial. But those guitar hooks have never gotten old, and those lyrics, lurid and goofy, are still just so much fun to sing.
So when I heard Wet Leg’s new album Moisturizer all the way through for this first time, I found myself wondering if this might be for the kids of 2025 what INXS’s Kick was for the kids of the mid-80s. I may not find any of it profound. But it sure is a joyful rock-and-roll rush.
Highlights from Sunny War’s Armageddon in a Summer Dress
On Sunny War’s new record, it sounds like she’s responding to critics who have been annoyed by her tendency to focus our attention on injustices and suffering. There are songs that motivate us to stand up and do what we can. But there are also moment of self-effacing humor in which she acknowledges her heavy-heartedness and snaps back at her critics. And then there are furious laments about the rising tide of violence and hatred all around her. She’s not going to back off from her prophetic stance just because it makes some people uncomfortable. I’m cheering her on.
Alan Sparhawk and Trampled by Turtles pray for strength
For Sparhawk, this may be a song about praying for the strength to go on through his grief over the loss of Mimi Parker, his love and his collaborator in the band Low for so many years, so many albums.
For me, it’s a song about getting through the day during the constant punishment of the daily news.
The whole album is filled with lament, gratitude, and yearning.
Crank up Deerhoof’s “Immigrant Songs,” a cry of cathartic defiance in an age of anti-immigrant cruelty
Deerhoof’s Noble and Godlike in Ruin is one of the strangest, most abrasive rock records of the year. It’s hard work — I’m still chewing on its tough stew of reckless irreverence, frequent references to the animal kingdom, allusions to Frankenstein and Pinocchio. If you like songs that are constantly changing up rhythms and riffs so we can’t settle into them, this is for you. But I found the whole jarring journey worthwhile for the epic closer: “Immigrant Songs.”
Three new ones from Jeff Tweedy!
Jeff Tweedy has a three-volume album coming called Twilight Override. Here’s one track from each volume. The first, “One Tiny Flower,” has some of those rough sonic edges that recall Yankee Hotel Foxtrot-era Wilco. “Out in the Dark” is a catchy one I’ll be singing along with as soon as I learn the words. And “Enough,” the last song on the project, is a rousing finale: “It’s hard to stay in love with everyone.” You might catch a Dylan reference going off like a firework in a sky of scorched, buzzy guitar solos.
Sam Amidon raises a prayer
I’m enjoying the edgy folk and gospel sounds on Sam Amidon’s latest.
Record store scores!
This week, I found a 50%-off rack at my local vinyl shop Musicology and brought home brand-new, unopened copies of Sufjan Stevens’s Javelin and — yes, it’s Christmas in July! — the limited-edition Record Store Day release of Sixpence None the Richer’s Christmas album The Dawn of Grace.
I also found bargains on two old favorites that have been on my priority list for a long time: World Party’s Goodbye Jumbo and Egyptology. World Party’s been on my mind since I saw that strangely compelling and yet profoundly frustrating rock biopic Better Man about the career of pop star Robbie Williams. The film featured a cover of the World Party song “She’s the One.” And it was weird, because the song plays during a scene that is supposed to be celebrating Williams’ decision to focus on his own songwriting! So… why play somebody else’s song? Anyway… very few records from the ’90s sound as fresh and exciting today as those by Karl Wallinger. World Party is on my short list of the bands I miss most.
Russ Taff has returned!
I heard tracks from this remarkable comeback record, Cover Story, by Russ Taff, produced by Steve Taylor, during its Kickstarter victory lap last year. Now it’s out on streaming platforms for everyone to enjoy. Whether or not you know Russ Taff from his Christian-music stardom in the ’80s, you would do well to attend to this in-depth and deeply moving Soft White Underbelly interview. What he reveals here about his childhood, his long struggle with alcoholism, and the saving grace of God will move you. And this new Rick-Rubin-styled revival record includes an impressive selection of covers, featuring songs by Prince, The National, U2, Bob Dylan, Depeche Mode, Simon & Garfunkel, our Rabbit Room friend Andy Gullahorn, and more.
New from Mike Reid and Joe Henry!
Here’s the Press Release:
July 23, 2025—Beloved, GRAMMY award-winning singer songwriters Mike Reid and Joe Henry today confirm a new collaborative album, Life and Time, set for release September 5 on the Work Song Inc. label via Thirty Tigers.
In support of the burgeoning collaboration, the pair will embark on a two-leg U.S. tour in September, performing selections from the album and featuring each as solo artists on selections from their separate catalogues, all with a shared backing band. The first tour includes stops along the East cost [below]. West coast dates are being planned for early 2026.
So… what music did you find here that you enjoyed most? What music do you want to share with the rest of us? Leave a comment!