Rhiannon Giddens continues a week of New York City performances with three-sold out shows with multi-instrumentalist Dirk Powell at the Irish Arts Center tonight, Saturday, and Sunday. WNYC selected her performance with pianist Lara Downes at National Sawdust in Brooklyn last night to showcase as its Gig Alert.

Giddens and Powell were guests on WNYC's Soundcheck earlier this week. They discussed and performed music from her 2017 album, Freedom Highway, songs from an in-progress theater work, and more. You can watch the conversation and performances here.

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Sam Amidon’s six-city tour of Italy continues with concerts at Bronson in Ravenna tonight, Sala Vanni in Florence on Saturday, and Teatro La Nuova Fenice in Osimo on Sunday. His latest album, The Following Mountain, was released on Nonesuch Records last year. The London Evening Standard gives the album four stars, praising its “captivating arrangements and elegiac charm.”

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Laurie Anderson brings The Language of the Future to Wisconsin Union Theater’s Shannon Hall in Madison tonight. The piece is Anderson’s ongoing exploration of the American narrative, a collection of songs and stories about contemporary culture that crosses borders between dreams, reality, and the world of information.

Laurie Anderson and Kronos Quartet's first collaboration, Landfall, due out on Nonesuch next Friday, is currently streaming in full as an NPR First Listen.

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Dan Auerbach launches his Easy Eye Sound Revue, featuring music from his latest release, Waiting on a Song, at the Vogue Theatre in Vancouver on Saturday, followed by a sold-out show at Crystal Ballroom in Portland on Sunday. Mojo gives his new album four stars, saying it “confirms [Auerbach] as a craftsman of rare skill and few equals … Waiting on a Song is a triumph.”

Auerbach can be seen on PBS stations across the United States when his Austin City Limits set premieres on Saturday night.

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Audra McDonald joins the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Jack Everly, at Hilbert Circle Theatre tonight and Saturday. New York Magazine raves: “It’s entirely possible that Audra McDonald is the greatest singer alive.”

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Robert Plant begins a sold-out tour of the United States with his band the Sensational Space Shifters in North Carolina this weekend, bringing music from his new album, Carry Fire, to Raleigh Memorial Auditorium tonight and Ovens Auditorium in Charlotte on Sunday. To coincide with the launch of the US tour, Plant released a video of their performance of the album’s title track from their fall UK tour earlier today; you watch it here.

NPR calls Carry Fire “transfixing,” adding that "Plant and his collaborators create music that overflows with irrepressible life force ... Carry Fire is rivetingly intimate."

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Saxophonist Joshua Redman is joined by guitarist Lionel Loueke, drummer Larnell Lewis, and multi-instrumentalist Michael League in a set at North Beach Bandshell in Miami Beach tonight, for the GroundUP Music Festival. Redman also takes part in a festival Q&A session on Sunday afternoon.

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Rostam continues his North American tour, featuring music from his debut album, Half-Light, with a concert at The Ladies Literary Club in Grand Rapids, Michigan, tonight, followed by a sold-out show at Lincoln Hall in Chicago on Saturday.

NPR calls Half-Light "stunning … one of the year's most arresting albums." The New Yorker says it’s "a wondrous album, full of coy dreams and quiet yearning."