Natalie Merchant will receive the ASCAP Foundation Champion Award at The ASCAP Foundation Honors in NYC on December 11. The Champion Award celebrates ASCAP members whose contributions extend beyond music to significant charitable and humanitarian efforts. Also being honored at the event is Francisco Núñez, the founder and artistic director of the Young People's Chorus of New York City, who will receive The ASCAP Foundation Life in Music Award. "Their passion and commitment to philanthropy are sterling examples of how the creative community can step forward to improve the human condition," said ASCAP Foundation President Paul Williams. "They 'walk the walk' and are inspirations for all of us."

Chris Thile hosted his public radio show Live From Here from The Town Hall in NYC on Saturday with musical guests Rachael & Vilray, Rachael Price, and Gabriel Kahane, plus fellow guests Mavis Staples and Janeane Garofalo. You can watch Rachael & Vilray perform three songs, Price sing the musicians birthdays medley and cover Atoms for Peace, and Kahane play one of his own here.

Chris Thile was on WNYC's All of It to chat with host Alison Stewart about his public radio show Live From Here and perform a couple of songs. "As well as being the host of Live From Here, Chris Thile is an excellent mandolin player, a multiple Grammy winner, a 2012 MacArthur Fellow, and he wrapped up a residency at Carnegie Hall earlier this year," says Stewart. "Are you getting a theme here? He is really good at what he does." He performs "Elephant in the Room," from his 2017 solo album, Thanks for Listening, and the traditional tune "House Carpenter," which he had recorded with his band Nickel Creek. You can hear the session here.

Mandy Patinkin's Children and Art, his first new album since 2002, is out now. The songs were recorded in New York with pianist/producer Thomas Bartlett (aka Doveman); several have been previewed over the last two years as part of the digital Diary series. Composers on the record include Randy Newman, Laurie Anderson, Lyle Lovett, Taylor Mac, Stephen Sondheim, Tom Waits, Rufus Wainwright, Teitur, and Patinkin himself. Mandy Patinkin will tour North America, accompanied by pianist Adam Ben-David, from October 30 through February 2020.

David Byrne was on Jimmy Kimmel Live! from the Brooklyn Academy of Music, joined by the Brooklyn Youth Chorus and drummer Mauro Refosco to perform "One Fine Day," a song featured on David Byrne's American Utopia on Broadway, now at the Hudson Theatre, and its original cast recording, out now on Nonesuch. You can watch the performance here.

The cast album for the critically acclaimed Broadway production of David Byrne’s American Utopia is now available digitally; the two-CD version will be released on November 22 and is available to pre-order; a vinyl edition is due this winter. The show includes songs from his 2018 album, American Utopia, along with music from Talking Heads and Byrne’s solo career. "Dazzling, rapturous and jubilant," exclaims the New York Times of the show. "Astonishing," raves Hollywood Reporter. "A knockout celebration of music, dance and song. Pure bliss." Byrne performs on Jimmy Kimmel Live! from Brooklyn tonight and on the Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on November 19.

Rhiannon Giddens was on Amanpour & Co. on PBS. "The award-winning musical polymath," says host Christiane Amanpour is "on a mission to re-frame the history of African Americans and their contributions to the musical landscape." Historian Walter Isaacson talks with Giddens about that history and how it influenced her "amazing" new album, there is no Other. You can watch it here.

"What I want to do with any sort of power or influence that I garner is to just shout out the people who are also deserving but because of their race, their orientation, their sexual identity—because of all these things, they somehow feel slept on," Vagabon tells NPR's All Things Considered of her new album. "We have to stand up for each other. The others have to stand up for each other ... I have no interest anymore of making myself small, to not be intimidating. I just made an amazing record." Hear the conversation here.

Vagabon (aka Lætitia Tamko)’s self-titled sophomore album is out now on CD and digitally, with vinyl coming soon. "Vagabon chronicles a life enriched, and made complicated, by stepping into new contexts," writes the New Yorker. "Each song on Vagabon feels like a small world." "Her songs embrace mixed, elusive emotions," writes the New York Times: "longing and ambivalence, displacement and stability, seeking a home and leaving it behind, confronting fears and searching for hope." It's an "indie-pop masterpiece," Clash exclaims, "simply captivating from start to finish ... The work of an immensely talented melodic mastermind, Laetitia Tamko's second album touches on the magical."

Devendra Banhart is on Jenny Eliscu's LSQ podcast. His new album, Ma, is "awesome," says Eliscu, "his best album in a minute, kind of a return to form and a reminder of all of the heart and soul in his music." Of their conversation, she says: "It was great to get to talk with my dear old friend about stuff we've never gotten to before. You don't always get to ask your friends such nerdy questions as I do in this convo ... I was so curious to know about how this incredibly interesting and unique artist ended up sounding the way he does." Hear what he had to say here.

Devendra Banhart stopped by KCRW on Monday to perform six songs from his new album, Ma, plus an earlier tune from his album Mala, on Morning Becomes Eclectic and chat with Raul Campos. Hear it here. Banhart's twenty-five city US tour, which began in Ventura, CA, last night, continues with shows in San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, Los Angeles, Chicago, Mexico City, Detroit, Toronto, Brooklyn, and more in the months ahead.

Yola stopped by the KCRW to performs six songs from her album Walk Through Fire plus Elton John's "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" on Morning Becomes Eclectic and chat with host Anne Litt about her music. You can watch it here. Yola is also on the latest Broken Record podcast with Bruce Headlam. She performs at the Grammy Museum in LA this Wednesday and as special guest of Kacey Musgraves at Nashville's Bridgestone Arena October 25.