Lianne La Havas kicked off her month-long North American tour last week in Dallas, followed by sold-out shows in LA, San Francisco, and Seattle and sets this week in Portland and Vancouver. The 19-city tour heads next to Boulder and on to the Midwest. While she was in LA, La Havas performed on Jimmy Kimmel Live, and while in Portland, she stopped by the Bing Lounge at 101.9 KINK FM to perform three songs, which you can watch here.

Tuareg guitarist, singer, and songwriter Bombino's Nonesuch debut album, Nomad, is due out next week. But you don't need to wait till then to hear it: it's streaming in full all this week as an NPR First Listen. NPR calls Bombino's pairing with producer Dan Auerbach "inspired." "The fuzzy, loose and wide-open sounds will be familiar to Black Keys fans—and totally complement the singular honey-and-sand texture of Bombino's voice," says NPR; Bombino's "sound and style are alluring on a global scale." Nomad earns four stars in Mojo and the Financial Times, which calls it "a revelation." The BBC World Service says it's “utterly, utterly fantastic.” 

Iron and Wine, whose Nonesuch Records debut album, Ghost on Ghost, is due out on April 16, hit SXSW last week, performing at several showcases throughout Austin. One such set was at the SXSW Radio Day Stage, where Sam Beam and band performed songs from the new album and more. You can now listen to the entire set, including "Grace for Saints and Ramblers" and "Winter Prayers" from Ghost on Ghost, streaming here via WFUV.

Devendra Banhart will mark the release of his new album, Mala, with a series of spring tour dates in the US and Canada in May and June. The tour starts in Aspen on May 4 and includes stops all along the West Coast, in the Midwest, and on the East Coast. Tickets for most of the shows go on sale Friday. The Guardian calls Mala a "triumph." Magnet, which calls it "the best thing he's done since his debut," features Banhart on the cover and as guest editor of its website. He recently spoke with WNYC's Soundcheck from SXSW; you can listen to the show here.

Alarm Will Sound will perform a program of new works, featuring Steve Reich's Radio Rewrite and scenes from Donnacha Dennehy's The Hunger, at Sheldon Concert Hall in St. Louis on Wednesday. The group gave the US premiere of Radio Rewrite at Stanford University last Saturday and gives the NY premiere of The Hunger at Carnegie Hall on April 6. Dennehy has been named composer-in-residence for the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra next season, which will include performances of his That the Night Come. Crash Ensemble and Dawn Upshaw will perform the piece at The Kennedy Center and Carnegie Hall this May.

Rokia Traoré has announced a series of new tour dates in the UK for May. She celebrates the April release of her new album, Beautiful Africa, with a tour of France, Switzerland, and Luxembourg and will perform at a number of European summer festivals, including Roskilde and a return to the UK for Glastonbury and WOMAD. Traoré is on the cover of Songlines, which gives Beautiful Africa a perfect five stars. The Chicago Reader says the new album "marks a major transformation and a huge step forward artistically." The LA Times says "Beautiful Africa ... confirms the album title's truth."

The 27th South by Southwest (SXSW) Music and Media Conference gets under way in Austin, Texas, as thousands of bands and music lovers from all over the world descend on the live-music capital for several days of non-stop music making. Nonesuch artists will be well represented among them, with several performances throughout the week from Devendra Banhart, Nataly Dawn, Emmylou Harris & Rodney Crowell, Lianne La Havas, and Iron and Wine.

Devendra Banhart makes his Nonesuch debut with the release of Mala, his eighth studio album, out now. Pitchfork calls it his "best record in nearly a decade." It's earned four stars from Mojo, the Times (UK), and Q, which calls it a "career-best LP ... surprising and enthralling." Record Collector gives it a perfect five stars, exclaiming: "The prospect of sitting down and listening to Mala as a whole is a thrilling, private and all-too-rare feeling." Banhart performs at SXSW this week.

Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell, whose new duets album, Old Yellow Moon, debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard Country Album chart, perform three songs from and discuss the album on Soundcheck, airing tonight on WNYC. You can also watch the show here. The two host an exclusive one-hour special on SiriusXM's Outlaw Country tonight and join Steve Earle for his "Hardcore Troubadour Radio" show this weekend. Harris and Crowell launch their US tour next week.

Sara Watkins launches a three-week headlining tour of the US at the Red Clay Theatre in Duluth, Georgia, tonight. The 18-city tour includes stops in Louisville, Cincinnati, Ann Arbor, Madison, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and more. Watkins will also make a two-week spring tour of the West Coast in May, performing newly announced shows in Arizona, California, Oregon, and Washington. This summer, she will join Jackson Browne as special guest on his Acoustic Tour, picking up where they left off on their fall 2012 tour together.

American Master: A Portrait of John Adams, a new film documentary about composer John Adams by Mark Kidel, will be broadcast for the first time on BBC4 TV on Friday, March 8, at 8 PM. The film, which offers a journey through the musical landscapes of the composer, will be repeated on BBC HD on March 15. The film will also be screened at the Barbican in London on March 16 as a prelude to the European premiere of Adams's The Gospel According to the Other Mary with the LA Philharmonic conducted by Gustavo Dudamel. Watch an excerpt from the film here.

Brad Mehldau launches a month-long European tour with Mehliana, his duo project with drummer Mark Guiliana, in Atwerp, Belgium, tonight. Mehliana, for which the composer/pianist switches to Fender Rhodes and a battery of synths, then heads to Brussels and continues the tour to the end of March, making stops in Hungary, the Czech Republic, the UK, Italy, Luxembourg, Norway, Sweden, Portugal, and France. The new tour comes on the heels of Mehldau's recent run with fellow pianist Kevin Hays and precedes his US tour with Chris Thile in April.