Caroline Shaw and Attacca Quartet cellist Andrew Yee are on a special bonus episode of WNYC's Dolly Parton's America podcast hosted by Jad Abumrad. This episode features performances recorded live at Brooklyn's National Sawdust. "I got to thinking about all the songs that we sing about home, and as we leave home, we carry those songs with us. We morph them, transform them," Abumrad says. The performers "played traditional music that they connect to, that reminds them of home, that is from their home, but they all took that music and gave it a new spin." Shaw, accompanied by Yee, offers her take on the 18th-century hymn "On Jordan's Stormy Banks I Stand" and Alfred Brumley's 1929 song "I'll Fly Away." Hear it here.

Rachael & Vilray recently performed at The Club Car at The McKittrick Hotel in New York City, where public radio’s WFUV was on hand to record the set for an FUV Live show. “Like Rachael and Vilray themselves, the songs have a timeless quality and an unpredictable sense of humor,” writes Rita Houston. You can watch two of their performances here, and listen to the entire session at wfuv.org

Vagabon was a special guest on Live From Here with Chris Thile from The Town Hall in NYC on Saturday. You can watch her perform songs from her self-titled sophomore album here.

Rhiannon Giddens and Yola, both nominated for Grammy Awards last week, were featured on the Austin City Limits special of performance highlights from the Americana Honors & Awards. Giddens and Francesco Turrisi performed "Wayfaring Stranger," from their album, there is no Other. Yola sang "Faraway Look" from her album, Walk Through Fire. The special aired on PBS stations over the weekend and can now be seen here.

Rhiannon Giddens and Francesco Turrisi begin the UK and European leg of their tour with two sold-out concerts for the EFG London Jazz Festival: at the HM Prison Wormwood Scrubs tonight and Royal Festival Hall on Friday. The tour continues in the UK into December, then heads to the Netherlands, Germany, France, and Italy. They return to the States in February and head to New Zealand and Australia in March. Uncut and Mojo named their album, there is no Other, among the Albums of the Year.

Congratulations to all of the Nonesuch nominees for the 62nd Grammy Awards: Yola with four nominations, including Best New Artist and her album Walk Through Fire; Dan Auerbach for Producer of the Year; Rhiannon Giddens for "I'm on My Way" from her album with Francesco Turrisi, there is no Other; Brad Mehldau's Finding Gabriel, Joshua Redman Quartet's Come What May, Caroline Shaw and Attacca Quartet's Orange; and Kronos Quartet for Terry Riley's Sun Rings.

David Byrne and the cast of American Utopia on Broadway performed the classic Talking Heads tune "Road to Nowhere" on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon last night. The song is featured in the critically acclaimed production and on the original cast album. Before the performance, Byrne sat down to speak with Fallon about the Broadway show and to teach him a bit of his Annie-B Parson–choreographed dance moves from the show. You can watch it here.

Daughter of Swords has announced a new run of shows in February with The Dead Tongues. They lead a joint six-city tour of the US East Coast in February, with stops in Richmond, Charlottesville, Brooklyn, Boston, DC, and Asheville. She closes out the tour with a performance at the historic Ryman Auditorium in Nashville as special guest of Tyler Childers on February 16. Daughter of Swords performs with her band in North Carolina next week and joins Joan Shelley in a five-city swing through the Midwest in December.

The Black Keys were on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on ABC last night. They performed "Lo/Hi" and "Go" from their new album, "Let's Rock." You can watch both here. The band closes out its 2019 North American "Let's Rock" tour on the West Coast this week.

Lake Street Dive has announced its first tour dates of 2020: its Lounge Around Sounds Tour. The tour will be an easygoing, semi-acoustic, fireside evening with the band. Fans are encouraged to sing along as the band performs a revue of its sixteen-year catalog of songs, including deep cuts, works-in-progress, and fan favorites, all sung around a grand piano. The band also invites audience members to wear silk pajamas if they are so inclined.​

Mandy Patinkin was on CBC's Q while on tour in Toronto. He spoke with host Tom Power about life and music, including his new album, Children and Art. "I love these songs. They are songs that talk to me right now, at this moment," Patinkin says. "Whether it's funny, sad, meaningful, connective, they're all like little remembrances or prayers to me, or recollections ... But I guess more than anything, they're about finding the light for me." You can watch the conversation here.

The original cast recording for three-time Tony Award nominee Dave Malloy's musical Octet—recorded live during Signature Theatre's world premiere production—is out today digitally and January 17 on CD. Featuring a score for an a cappella chamber choir and an original libretto inspired by internet comment boards, scientific debates, religious texts, and Sufi poetry, Octet explores addiction and nihilism within the messy context of twenty-first century technology. "The most original and topical musical of the year," says the New York Times; "the sublime a cappella chamber opera is a portrait in song of perhaps the greatest David and Goliath struggle of our time."