On November 2, Norah Jones will release …Featuring, a decade-spanning, 18-track collection of mostly previously released collaborations with the likes of Ryan Adams (“Dear John”), Willie Nelson, Gillian Welch, Dolly Parton, Ray Charles, Q-Tip, OutKast, and many more. Also included are recordings of “Little Lou, Ugly Jack, Prophet John” with Belle & Sebastian and a duet cover of Roy Orbison’s “Blue Bayou” with M. Ward. Watch Jones and Ward sing the Orbison classic off her Live From Austin DVD and check out the full tracklist below:

If you haven’t caught Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward perform together yet (like myself) or simply wish to catch their live show one last time within the year (until LP3 arrives perhaps), now’s your chance, San Fran, SLC, Omaha, St. Louis, K.C., Nashville, Portland, Seattle, Vancouver, or L.A. residents. Merge Records announced the pair’s final 10 dates of the year today, as well as their forthcoming “Thieves”/”I Knew It Would Happen This Way” limited 7-inch vinyl single.

Though we’re late to the party on posting their Norwood Cheek-directed “Thieves” video and I completely missed the gorgeous Volume 2 bonus cut and now B-side, now’s as good a time as any to get caught up. Check out both tunes below alongside She & Him’s remaining 2010 tour dates:

The latest installment of Levis’ “Pioneer Sessions,” in which the likes of Nas, the Swell Season, Dirty Projectors, the Kills, Passion Pit, and others “re-craft the classic songs that have inspired their sound,” hit the Web this morning: For their contribution, She & Him’s Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward chose “Fools Rush In (Where Angels Fear to Tread),” a song originally written way back in 1940 and made famous by a host of notable crooners in the 1960s, most notably perhaps Ricky Nelson in ‘63. (Brenda Lee’s version is pretty great too.)

While Zooey nails the vocal, as usual, M. Ward employs his distinctive (and underrated, I might add) acoustic guitar chops to channel the shuffling rhythm of Nelson and co.’s earlier renditions. Watch the pair sing about the timeless tale of foolish love below and/or download a copy here.

Today in vampire soundtrack news, HBO’s True Blood won’t require you to hone in on each scene’s background music for a snippet of a new Beck song or M. Ward cover of Howlin’ Wolf’s “Howlin’ For My Baby” as the series’ 14-track soundtrack is now available to stream in full via EW.

Brand new original songs include Beck’s “Bad Blood,” Lucinda Williams and Elvis Costello duet “Kiss Like Your Kiss,” and the Band guitarist Robbie Robertson’s “How To Become Clairvoyant.” Call me crazy, but after one listen to Beck’s new crunchy blues/rock jam, I’d say a Black Keys collaboration is in order. (They have shared the stage before, after all, not to mention producers.)

Give True Blood: Volume 2 a spin thataway.

Zooey Deschanel broke out the electric piano on Friday night while M. Ward donned an electric guitar for this performance of the first single from She & Him’s new album, Volume Two, on the Late Show with David Letterman.

This rendition of “In The Sun” sounds uncannily similar to the original recording — as if we needed even more proof that Deschanel requires none of the studio magic that some of her fellow thespians require. Why watch, then? Well, M. Ward’s guitar work is pretty stunning at the tail end of the tune, and for some reason this clip warms our hearts a bit to their second album, which we’ve been having trouble choosing over their debut lately. Watch it here or below:

Conor Oberst, Mike Mogis, M. Ward, and Jim James may be busy attending to their other projects this spring/summer (Bright Eyes, She and Him, and My Morning Jacket, respectively), but the Monsters of Folk aren’t done spreading the word about their eponymous debut LP just yet. In addition to a contest-winning music video to their soulful single, “Dear God,” the trio have uploaded a new semi-animated video by Lauri Faggioni, who has directed similarly styled work for the likes of Devendra Banhart, Iron & Wine, and Bright Eyes in the past.

Okay, last night’s Prince story seriously gave me nightmares. Anyway, here are some bits that are making the rounds this morning…

• She & Him unveiled M. Ward’s brand new goatee our first listen to their forthcoming album, Volume Two. Stream “In the Sun” thataway.
• Franz Ferdinand’s Alex Kapranos aired his grievances via Twitter about the “[s]tupid arrogant motherfucking pig-brained arseholes” at his record label, Epic/Sony, for allowing their song to be used by McDonald’s. He’d “rather eat a cowpat on a bun than a bloody McDonald’s,” you see.
• I know this is a bit of “olds” by now, but did you check out Peter Gabriel’s orchestral cover of Arcade Fire’s “My Body is a Cage” yet? Enjoy!
• A new song, (possibly) called “Fragile” that is (possibly) from Daft Punk’s Tron soundtrack, has (definitely) leaked.
• Follow Friday: Our friends at Strangers Almanac have hit the ground running with a brand new music blog called Speakers in Code (get the Tweedy reference?). All I know is that when Jason and Katie suggest new music, I listen. Follow ‘em!

We knew that She & Him’s M. Ward and Zooey Deschanel have been busy working on their follow-up to Paste’s favorite album of 2008 since this past summer, but in a recent interview with MTV, Deschanel has revealed that the album is in the can and set to rock 2010.

“I have a new [She & Him] record coming out in the spring,” she said. “It’s official. It’s done and being released in the spring. And we’re going to go on tour.” Also: in a recent Q&A with the WSJ, she confirmed that they are, in fact, continuing the “Volume” album title series.

I’m telling you, kids, 2010 will totally pwn 2009. I mean, with possible LPs from Leonard Cohen (?), Arcade Fire (?), and the Strokes (?), plus confirmed releases by Interpol, LCD Soundsystem, MGMT, and more, I’m ready for the New Year now (Oh, and speaking of “In The New Year,” the Walkmen have something cooking too).

**Update: Paste posted some new quotes from M. Ward and Zooey on Volume Two.

Bright Eyes’ Conor Oberst, My Morning Jacket’s Jim James, and M. Ward’s M. Ward have been singer/songwriter buddies for years, so it came as no surprise when details about a collaborative album came out. Those details, however, were few and all we had until today was a release date (Sept. 22) with a virtually barren official site.

Speaking to NME.com, the trio revealed that they are actually a quartet and that their forthcoming album will be, as we could’ve predicted, a stripped down affair. Bright Eyes’ Mike Mogis is not only producing the record, as previously reported, but he also performs on the songs, making the lineup very similar to Bright Eyes’ critically acclaimed I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning, which also featured James and Ward.

“The only rule we made was that we only wanted the four of us to play on it,” Oberst said of the sessions. “There were no extra hired guns, no drummers… we took turns playing drums and bass and experimenting.”

Click here to read how they are also playing up the whole “Monsters” thing by claiming the sessions at Shangri-La studios were haunted.