The Late Show with Stephen Colbert unveils guitar-heavy list of musical residents, including St. Vincent, James Taylor and Joe Walsh

The first run of musical residencies on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert will include week-long appearances from St. Vincent, Joe Walsh and James Taylor.

Each of the artists will collaborate with the show’s house band, Stay Human across a week of shows, beginning with St. Vincent (aka Annie Clark) – who makes her first appearance tonight (July 25). Taylor will sit in the following week (beginning August 1) and Walsh then takes over from August 8. 

As Deadline points out, the move reprises a format that has proven successful on James Corden’s The Late Late Show, which also airs on CBS – though this marks the first time that any of the three artists announced have played with a house band. 

It’s a pretty stellar opening line-up and exactly the sort of thing you’d expect, given the draw of the veteran host. Nonetheless, Colbert’s house band Stay Human has some form of its own. 

As regular viewers will know, the ensemble – first selected by Colbert back in 2015 – features guitarist and multi-instrumentalist Louis Cato and is fronted by band leader and vocalist/pianist Jon Batiste. The band have previously collaborated with Wynton Marsalis, Nas, Billy Joel, Cory Wong and Chad Smith, to name a small but eclectic selection. 

Batiste also worked with Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross scoring the 2020 Disney Pixar film Soul. The trio later received an astonishing awards haul for their efforts, including a Golden Globe, a BAFTA, a Grammy and an Oscar.

Finally, this Reznor link brings us back to St. Vincent, who this week released a filthy and thundering cover of Nine Inch Nails track Piggy, featuring Dave Grohl on drums. You can listen to that above. It is menacing, messy, and has the sort of bruised post-party sheen of Clark’s most rock-oriented material. 

Either way, we imagine she’ll have plenty to chat about with Batiste on set at The Late Show…