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Photo by Hannah Gray Hall<\/p>\n
7x GRAMMY\u00ae Award-nominated guitar virtuoso\u00a0Julian Lage<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0has shared his latest single, \u201cTalking Drum,\u201d available everywhere today via Blue Note Records. \u201cTalking Drum\u201d is from Lage\u2019s fifth full-length Blue Note release,\u00a0Scenes From Above,\u00a0which arrives on\u00a0Friday, January 23, 2026.\u00a0The album\u00a0marks his second one made in collaboration with 3x GRAMMY\u00ae Award-winning producer\u00a0Joe Henry\u00a0(Carolina Chocolate Drops, Ramblin\u2019 Jack Elliott, Solomon Burke) and first with a striking new quartet featuring keyboardist\u00a0John Medeski, bassist\u00a0Jorge Roeder, and drummer\u00a0Kenny Wollesen. Album pre-orders\/pre-saves are available now in a variety of formats including black vinyl, CD, and digital download, as well as a brown vinyl variant available exclusively on the\u00a0Julian Lage Artist Store<\/a>\u00a0and the\u00a0Blue Note Store<\/a>.<\/p>\n The quartet sizzles during \u201cTalking Drum\u201d as Medeski stabs his organ between the beat until he lifts up to ride alongside Lage and \u201cdiscuss\u201d the melody. There is, as Lage had hoped, plenty to talk about. The track is as close as\u00a0Scenes From Above\u00a0gets to groove and jam, but there is a gleeful resistance to it, too, of never sitting still with a solo or rhythm. The band gets into the idea and gets out, too excited by what may still happen to belabor anything they\u2019ve already found.<\/p>\n LISTEN<\/a>\u00a0TO \u201cTALKING DRUM\u201d<\/p>\n PRE-ORDER\/PRE-SAVE<\/a>\u00a0SCENES FROM ABOVE<\/p>\n The album \u2013 which follows 2024\u2019s GRAMMY\u00ae Award-nominated\u00a0Speak To Me\u00a0\u2013 was introduced last month with the gorgeous invocation, \u201cOpal<\/a>,\u201d joined by an official live performance video streaming now on YouTube.<\/p>\n LISTEN<\/a>\u00a0TO \u201cOPAL\u201d<\/p>\n WATCH<\/a>\u00a0\u201cOPAL\u201d LIVE PERFORMANCE VIDEO<\/p>\n