Conor Oberst kicks off a tour of Australia and New Zealand, featuring music from his 2014 Nonesuch Records debut album, Upside Down Mountain, with a performance at The Triffid in Brisbane Wednesday night. The tour includes multiple shows in Melbourne and Sydney, a stop in Auckland, and a culminating set at the Golden Plains Festival. The Felice Brothers join as special guests. In June, Oberst will play The Governors Ball in New York City.

Punch Brothers’ T Bone Burnett–produced new album, The Phosphorescent Blues, which was released late last month on CD and digitally, is now available on vinyl. The double LP, pressed on 140-gram audiophile vinyl, includes four additional tracks not available elsewhere. The band continues its North American tour in Asheville, North Carolina, tonight, followed by stops in the days ahead in Atlanta, Nashville, and Chicago, where the Chicago Reader calls the new album "stunning."

Punch Brothers kick off a North American tour featuring music from their new album, The Phosphorescent Blues, with three nights at the 9:30 Club in Washington, DC, starting tonight (Chris Thile's birthday). The tour includes stops in Nashville, Chicago, New York, Boston, and Vancouver; four dates in California; three in Texas; and more, with supporting sets from Gaby Moreno, Michael Daves, and Gabriel Kahane along the way. The vinyl edition of The Phosphorescent Blues is due out Tuesday.

Rhiannon Giddens recently stopped by Q104.3 in New York City for an appearance on Out of the Box. She spoke with host Jonathan “JC” Clarke about her recently release solo debut album, Tomorrow Is My Turn, and about working with producer T Bone Burnett on that and the Lost Basement Tapes project. She also performs the song “Angel City,” which closes out Tomorrow Is My Turn. Watch the interview and performance here.

The ECHO Jazz 2015 Award nominations have been announced by the German Recording Academy, and among the nominees are Brad Mehldau, who is up for International Instrumentalist of the Year, Piano/Keyboards, for his album with drummer Mark Guiliana, Mehliana: Taming the Dragon; Pat Metheny for International Instrumentalist of the Year, Guitar, and Pat Metheny Unity Group for International Ensemble of the Year for Kin (←→); and Joshua Redman for International Instrumentalist of the Year, Saxophone/Woodwinds, for Trios Live. 

The Staves unveiled a live performance of "Black & White," off their forthcoming Justin Vernon–produced album If I Was. You can watch it here. The album version is available to download now with album pre-orders, along with two additional tracks: "Blood I Bled" and "Steady." The Staves will perform at the Eaux Claires Festival, curated by Vernon and Bryce Dessner, held in Eau Claire, July 17 and 18, as will Sam Amidon, among others.

Devendra Banhart and longtime friend, musical collaborator, and fellow singer-songwriter Andy Cabic (Vetiver)—who together formed the vanguard of an experimental and folk-influenced aesthetic that emerged in the Bay Area around the turn of the millennium—will tour Spain and Portugal in May, performing both individually and together in a casual mix of older and newer material, including Banhart's 2013 Nonesuch Records debut album, Mala.

Pianist Tigran Hamasyan's Nonesuch Records debut, Mockroot, is out now, featuring new tracks written by Hamasyan, as well as his arrangements of traditional Armenian songs. Although trained as a classical and jazz musician, Hamasyan draws on a wide range of influences, including Armenian folk music, rock, electronica, poetry, and more. "There are many brilliant and perfectly finished young jazz pianists around," says the Telegraph, "but Hamasyan stands out because he has something important and urgent to say." "You will find it difficult if not impossible to get this disc out of your machine for quite a while," raves the Buffalo News. "Don’t count on getting it out of your head for a long while either." Hamasyan and his trio are currently on tour in the US.

Conor Oberst is the guest on the latest episode of WTF with Marc Maron. Oberst, whom the show calls "a virtuoso singer-songwriter," talks with Maron about his Nonesuch Records debut album, Upside Down Mountain, what WTF describes as "the intangible nature of writing songs," and much more. Oberst kicks off a tour of Australia and New Zealand with special guests The Felice Brothers next week.

Tickets are on sale now for Rhiannon Giddens' spring solo tour, featuring music from her debut solo album Tomorrow Is My Turn. The shows begin at the Big Ears Festival in March and continue through June, with stops in cities and at festivals along the way, including NYC, Chicago, LA, and the Bonnaroo Music Festival. Giddens’ bandmates from Carolina Chocolate Drops are part of her touring band. They perform on A Prairie Home Companion this weekend.

Emmylou Harris joins Willie Nelson, Lyle Lovett, and more for a special episode of Austin City Limits (ACL) featuring performances from the inaugural Austin City Limits Hall of Fame presentation, which took place in April. The hour-long special, hosted by actor Matthew McConaughey, debuts on PBS this weekend. Harris and ACL Hall of Fame inductee Nelson perform "Crazy," and Lovett joins them both for a trio take on "Pancho & Lefty" and "On the Road Again." Harris's groundbreaking album Wrecking Ball was the featured classic album on BBC Radio 2's Johnnie Walker’s Long Players program earlier this week. 

Tigran Hamasyan, whose Nonesuch Records debut album, Mockroot, is due out on Tuesday, kicks off a tour of the US with a performance at the University of Chicago's Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts—his Chicago debut—on Friday. The tour continues through the month, with stops in Oakland, Santa Cruz, Los Angeles, and Cambridge, two nights in New York City, and two sets in College Park, Maryland.