Chris Thile is a guest on today's Here and Now, from NPR member station WBUR in Boston. Thile talks about his lifelong love of the mandolin, from the first time he saw the instrument, at the age of two, to some of the many projects in which that has manifest itself, including Punch Brothers. Listen to the interview here. Thile and guitarist Michael Daves perform a duo show at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville this Thursday; Punch Brothers are at ROMP: Bluegrass Roots & Branches Festival in Owensboro, Kentucky, on Friday.

Following the US Supreme Court's ruling in the case against Arizona immigration law SB 1070, the Los Angeles Times' Pop & Hiss blog put together a list of "five great songs about immigration that are worth revisiting," including Ry Cooder's "Quicksand" along with songs by Rage Against the Machine, Bruce Springsteen, U2, Woody Guthrie, and Led Zeppelin. "For decades, Cooder has written blues-rock at the junction of L.A.'s Anglo and Latino cultures," says the LA Times. "'Quicksand' is one of his most vivid character sketches about a harrowing border crossing." Cooder wrote the song in response to the passing of SB 1070 in 2010 and donated the proceeds from its sale to MALDEF, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund.

Singer/songwriter Fatoumata Diawara’s debut album, Fatou, will be released in North America by World Circuit / Nonesuch Records on August 28, 2012. Diawara has been receiving rave reviews since the album’s release in the UK and Europe last year. The Telegraph says “this stylish debut doesn’t put a foot wrong"; Pitchfork calls it "beguiling." Diawara uses elements of jazz, pop, and funk along with her ancestral Wassoulou tradition in her songwriting. John Paul Jones, Toumani Diabate, and Tony Allen all make guest appearances on Fatou. Watch the official video for the album track "Bissa" here.

British singer/guitarist Lianne La Havas' full-length album Is Your Love Big Enough? is due out in the United States on August 7 via Nonesuch Records. The title track—which was recently featured on NPR Music’s list of “5 Songs Public Radio Can't Stop Playing” and comes recommended by The Root—is out today on iTunes in the US, paired with the album version of the song “Lost & Found,” both mastered for iTunes.

Shawn Colvin is the subject of a feature profile on PBS NewsHour. She spoke with the show's Art Beat correspondent Jeffrey Brown, sharing some stories from her new memoir, Diamond in the Rough, and offers solo acoustic performances of two songs off her new album, All Fall Down: the title track and "Change Is on the Way," which she co-wrote with Patty Griffin. Watch the interview and performances here.

Pianist Jeremy Denk recently invited NPR into his NYC apartment as he prepared his "piano boot camp" to practice the Ligeti Piano Etudes featured on his new album, Ligeti/Beethoven, for a video posted last week. Now come the performances themselves: three etudes from Book 1—"Fanfares," "Arc-en-ciel," and "Automne à Varsovie." Watch them here.

Shawn Colvin and Mary Chapin Carpenter will embark on a series of tour dates in the UK and Ireland this October. These special shows will feature the acclaimed songwriters (and longtime friends) performing as an intimate duo and will include material spanning their vast catalogs as well as some of their favorite songs. Tickets go on sale this Thursday, June 28.

Billy Bragg launches a North American tour this weekend in celebration of the 100th anniversary of Woody Guthrie's birth. The tour, titled The Ain't Nobody That Can Sing Like Me Tour, follows the recent release of Mermaid Avenue: The Complete Sessions, and features songs from that collection, in which Bragg and Wilco's Jeff Tweedy set Guthrie's words to music, as well as favorites from throughout Bragg's career. The tour begins with shows at Chicago's Old Town School of Folk Music and The Ark in Ann Arbor this weekend.

The Pat Metheny Unity Band—featuring a new ensemble from the guitarist with Chris Potter on sax and bass clarinet, Antonio Sanchez on drums, and Ben Williams on bass—launches an extensive international tour in Europe, starting this weekend in Germany, followed by stops throughout the continent and in the UK. The band tours the US later this summer and into the fall. The tour includes songs from the band's new album, which earns four stars in the Guardian, Evening Standard, and the Financial Times.

A new production of Adam Guettel's critically acclaimed musical Floyd Collins from Chicago's BoHo Theatre company has opened and is earning accolades anew for the piece. "I can't imagine a better revival of a show that makes most of the Broadway musicals of the past decade look like shiny, tawdry junk," exclaims the Wall Street Journal, which calls Floyd Collins "a masterpiece." The Chicago Sun-Times says "the production is utterly enthralling." Also playing in Chicago, at the Theo Ubique Cabaret Theatre, is Guettel's 2005 Tony Award-winning musical, The Light in the Piazza.

Rokia Traoré is in London for the first of two major projects she will unveil there this summer. This week, she presents a series of three shows produced by the Barbican based on aspects integral to Malian music and its traditions: Donguili – Donke – Damou (Sing – Dance – Dream). The Guardian gives four stars to Monday's show, citing "Traoré's exquisite, cool, clear vocals," and says "she proved to be as compelling a storyteller as she is singer." In July, she returns to the Barbican for the UK premiere of Desdemona, a collaboration with Toni Morrison and Peter Sellars.

Last week, the staff at NPR Music announced their 25 Favorite Albums of 2012 (So Far), including Dr. John's Locked Down and Jeremy Denk's Ligeti/Beethoven. NPR listeners have now weighed in. Their list of the year's best albums (so far) includes those two albums and adds Amadou & Mariam's Folila, Sara Watkins' Sun Midnight Sun, and the new album of works by Krzysztof Penderecki and Jonny Greenwood. Says NPR: "The poll results reconfirmed that we've got another great year of music on our hands."