Jon Batiste Teams With Randy Newman For 'Lonely Avenue' Video
(ID) Academy Award and multi-Grammy winner Jon Batiste today released the official music video for "Lonely Avenue," the second single from his forthcoming album Big Money, out August 22 via Verve/Interscope.
Directed by David Henry Gerson, the video follows Batiste as he moves through a quiet, timeworn apartment-drawn toward the voice of Randy Newman singing "Lonely Avenue" from another room. As the two connect at the piano, music becomes a bridge between memory, imagination, and something greater.
A cover of the Doc Pomus classic made famous by Ray Charles, "Lonely Avenue" is the album's only reinterpretation-a stripped-down, one-take performance recorded live in Randy Newman's living room. The track emerged organically during a conversation between Batiste and Newman about life, music, and family. With a handheld recorder running, the two sat at the piano and created something intimate, spontaneous, and entirely unfiltered.
"Ray is my patron saint," Batiste says. "Just as the Big Money songs are in conversation with each other, I'm in conversation with Randy and Ray."
"Lonely Avenue" follows the album's title track, "Big Money," a groove-forward anthem anchored by Batiste's guitar and brought to life by the soaring vocals of The Womack Sisters-a rising trio and granddaughters of soul legend Sam Cooke-who echo the refrain: "Might as well live for something you can feel...something that's real."
Marking a bold and expansive new chapter in Batiste's catalog, Big Money is rooted in American traditions-from gospel and soul to blues, folk, and rock & roll. Batiste describes it as an "explicit Americana blues statement," one that continues a cultural throughline present in all of his work. The album reflects what he sees as a broader "repatriation process" within Black American artistry-reclaiming heritage and authorship across genres that were born from the Black experience.
Co-produced by Batiste and longtime collaborator Dion "No ID" Wilson, the album spans a wide range of moods and styles across its nine tracks. Highlights include "Lean on My Love," a standout duet with Andra Day that channels the spirit of vintage soul with a gently defiant tone, and the genre-blurring closer "Angels," voiced by Batiste's cosmic alter ego Billy Bob Bo Bob.
Described by Batiste as "some deeply serious fun," the album builds on a landmark year that includes his Super Bowl performance, two GRAMMY wins for his work on American Symphony, and the chart-topping success of Beethoven Blues, which spent nine weeks at No. 1 on Billboard's Classical Albums chart.
Batiste will support Big Money with a national headlining run, The Big Money Tour: Jon Batiste Plays America, kicking off August 27 in Kansas City, MO. The tour will stop at more than 30 venues across the country, including Red Rocks Amphitheatre, the Grand Ole Opry, and a co-headline date with Diana Ross at The Muny in St. Louis, MO.
[an error occurred while processing this directive]