Norah Jones and Chris Stapleton have finally recorded together, and the song they picked is a Christmas duet with a spring month in its title. ‘April’s Gone’ follows a couple whose love has cooled and who are looking for a holiday spark to restart it, so the title is less odd than it first sounds. April is the season the love belonged to. Winter is the season of the song.

The duet started with a song and a voice Jones could not shake. She wrote ‘April’s Gone’ with Leon Michels, the producer behind her holiday album I Dream of Christmas and her later album Visions, and according to the release announcement, she kept hearing Stapleton sing it in her head once the two had finished. She has said she always admired him and wanted to sing with him. Mickey Raphael, who has played harmonica in Willie Nelson’s band for more than five decades, made the introduction, and a recording of Stapleton singing the song soon turned up in her inbox.

On paper the two voices come from different rooms. Jones is the Blue Note pianist whose debut, Come Away With Me, made her a jazz-pop name, and Stapleton is the Kentucky singer-songwriter whose rough baritone carries modern country. Their paths had already crossed on the bill of Willie Nelson’s 90th birthday concerts at the Hollywood Bowl. Universal Music Japan describes a spare arrangement built on piano, bass and drums, and the track runs four and a half minutes, long for a holiday single and closer to a slow ballad than a jingle.

Neither singer is new to the season. Jones made a full Christmas album with Michels and later shared a holiday EP, Christmas With You, with Laufey. Stapleton sang ‘Glow’ with Kelly Clarkson on When Christmas Comes Around…, her second Christmas album. ‘April’s Gone’ is the first time either has brought the other into that territory, and it turns on heartbreak rather than celebration.

Plenty remains unannounced. The single is not tied to a new album from either artist, there is no full music video yet, only a visualizer built on the dove artwork, and no joint live performance has been scheduled. Whether a holiday duet holds on depends on radio programmers and playlist editors in December, not on its first weekend.

‘April’s Gone’ came out on streaming services on October 9, 2026, through Blue Note. Jones has also announced Playing Along, Volume 2, a vinyl LP exclusive to Record Store Day Black Friday on November 27, so it will be sold only in participating record stores. It collects performances from the second season of her podcast Norah Jones Is Playing Along, with guests including Lucinda Williams, Jason Isbell, Joshua Homme, Meshell Ndegeocello, Lucius, Ron Carter, Bill Frisell and Josh Groban.

The LP lands about a month before Christmas, and that is the real test for ‘April’s Gone’: whether it gets played in December next year as well as this one.

Tags: jazz, blue note records, Chris Stapleton, Norah Jones, April’s Gone, Christmas music