The Staves start a North American tour at Union Stage in DC. John Adams conducts The Cleveland Orchestra in his City Noir. Sam Amidon is joined by fellow Sams Gendel and Wilkes in LA. Timo Andres’ The Blind Banister is performed in Sweden. Laurie Anderson gives a sold-out show at Koerner Hall in Toronto. Hurray for the Riff Raff is in Los Angeles, Pioneertown, and Phoenix. The Magnetic Fields perform 69 Love Songs at The Town Hall in NYC. Mandy Patinkin is in New Brunswick. Caroline Shaw and Sō Percussion perform in North Carolina. Yasmin Williams is in New Orleans.

"Comfort can come in the form of drawing attention to something that other people feel alone in seeing," Natalie Merchant tells Guy Raz on the latest episode of his podcast The Great Creators. "'Am I the only person who's noticing this?' Well, that's pretty isolating. But the comfort can come in someone saying, 'I see it too, and I'm frightened about it too.'" You can hear their conversation, about her life and career, including her new album, Keep Your Courage, here.

Rectangles and Circumstance, an album of ten songs co-written and performed by Caroline Shaw and Sō Percussion, is due June 14. Shaw and Sō's Eric Cha-Beach and Adam Sliwinski "sourced a group of nineteenth-century poems that shaped its expressive mode [and] ended up using verses by Christina Rosetti, Emily Brontë, Emily Dickinson, Gertrude Stein, and William Blake," says Sliwinski. "The lyrics on this album by members of the band contain wordplay that explores the same profound feelings explored by Blake and Dickinson.” Shaw and Sō co-produced the album with Grammy-winning engineer Jonathan Low (The National, Taylor Swift).

The Black Keys have announced a 2024 North American headline tour in support of their new album, Ohio Players, out this Friday. The 31-date run kicks off in Tulsa on September 17 and travels across the country to cities including Austin, New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago, with two dates in the band’s home state of Ohio. The Head & The Heart will be joining the tour as direct support for select shows.

Sam Amidon, who is currently leading a US headline tour, is on the latest episode of BBC World Service’s Music Life along with Brìghde Chaimbeul, Rhodri Davies, and Linda Buckley. They discuss the roles of tradition and place in music, and what they might think about when performing. You can hear their conversation here.

NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross gave an encore broadcast to Carolina Chocolate Drops' 2010 interview and performance on the show. Original band members Rhiannon Giddens, Dom Flemons, and Justin Robinson spoke with host Terry Gross about their then newly-released Nonesuch debut album, Genuine Negro Jig, which went on to win the Grammy Award for Best Traditional Folk Album. You can hear the episode here.

This Easter Weekend, Sam Amidon celebrates the 10th anniversary of his album Lily-O at LPR in NYC with Bill Frisell, Shahzad Ismaily, and Chris Vatalaro, then heads to Cambridge. Ambrose Akinmusire is in NYC to lead his sextet at Harlem Stage. Laurie Anderson brings her Let X=X show to Portland and Seattle, where Hurray for the Riff Raff performs from The Past Is Still Alive. Jeremy Denk joins Dallas Symphony Orchestra. Brad Mehldau is in Boulder. Caroline Shaw and Sō Percussion play from Let the Soil Play Its Simple Part in Tucson.

The original cast album of Adam Guettel’s Broadway musical Days of Wine and Roses, with a book by Craig Lucas, starring Kelli O’Hara and Brian d’Arcy James, will be released on CD on May 17, following its recent digital release.  “Repeated listenings compound the amazement,” the New York Times says of Guettel’s work, which “has always offered that kind of challenge—initially leaving a feeling of: Beautiful, but wait, I need to hear it again—and those up for it have a way of coming away shining like Moses down from the Mount. The new score has the same effect.”

Cécile McLorin Salvant's acclaimed 2023 album, Mélusine, was released one year ago this week. To mark the occasion, we're sharing live performances of four songs from the album made at Oberlin College and Conservatory, starting with "Dites moi que je suis belle," featuring Weedie Braimah on djembe, followed by "Le temps est assassin" with Sullivan Fortner on piano and "Fenestra" and "Dame Iseut" with both Fortner and Braimah. You can watch it here.

"The beauty of song is you can spread information, you can make people feel not alone. And you can also create a time capsule for people in the future to know what we’re dealing with now," Hurray for the Riff Raff (aka Alynda Segarra) tells KCRW's Press Play. You can hear it here. "The Troubadour: How Alynda Segarra, a former train-hopping punk from the Bronx, became one of America’s best songwriters," titles an extensive profile in New York magazine's Vulture on Segarra and their new album, The Past Is Still Alive, written by Jenn Pelly.

"The Staves' songs are sweet and melancholic, often belying the depth of emotion and subtleness of their lyrics," says Monocle on Culture host Robert Bound. "Their music manages to be both gentle and punchy, driven home by their perfect, perfect harmonies." The duo is on the podcast to discuss their new album, All Now, which Bound describes as "sonically rich, full of moments of euphoria," and perform live on the show. You can hear it here. Atwood Magazine's Mitch Mosk calls All Now "the strongest releases of the band’s career ... utterly enchanting—a catchy, cohesive, and many-sided listening experience with endless returns."

The Black Keys' Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney are on Billboard's Behind the Setlist podcast to talk with host Jay Gilbert about their new album, Ohio Players—a title honoring the legendary Dayton, Ohio, funk band of the same name—out next Friday, April 5. They discuss how they were inspired by the rock, R&B, and funk 7" singles they've spun during their Record Hang DJ sets around the world, and working with Noel Gallagher, one of a number of friends and colleagues with whom they worked on the album, including Dan “The Automator” Nakamura, Beck, Greg Kurstin, and others. You can hear their conversation here.