Today marks the release of two new albums from guitarist, composer, and bandleader Pat Metheny on Nonesuch Records. Metheny is well-known as a musical collaborator, and both records feature friends and colleagues with whom he has worked for years. The Unity Sessions is taken from a filmed performance with Pat Metheny Unity Group that was recently released on DVD, and Cuong Vu Trio Meets Pat Metheny joins the guitarist with a trio led by longtime Pat Metheny Group trumpeter Cuong Vu.

Kronos Quartet begins its first UK tour in many years at the Barbican this Monday, May 9. The tour program includes works by Steve Reich, Laurie Anderson, and Terry Riley, a world premiere, and three UK premieres from the Kronos Fifty for the Future commissioning project. Kronos will perform on BBC Two's Later... With Jools Holland live show on Tuesday, May 10, and the one-hour episode on lucky Friday the 13th; the line-up includes Corinne Bailey Rae, Bloc Party, and Sir Elton John.

Lianne La Havas, who will open for Leon Bridges on his autumn US tour, has just announced four headlining shows in the fall as well: Webster Hall in NYC, Civic Theatre in New Orleans, Teragram Ballroom in LA, and Buckhead Theatre in Atlanta. Tickets for the newly announced dates go on sale today. La Havas joined Coldplay on its recent Latin American tour and will tour Europe and the UK with the band starting in late May.

Sam Amidon and guitarist Bill Frisell are the guests on the eTown radio show. Following Frisell's set, Amidon makes his eTown debut performing three songs from his latest album, Lily-O—"Down the Line," "Walkin' Boss," and "Your Lone Journey"—as well as "Another Man Done Gone," from an earlier album, and joins host Nick Forster for a conversation about his life and music. The show closes with a group performance of "I'll Fly Away." You can listen to the complete show and watch the performances here.

Nonesuch Records releases Sleeping In A Car, a three-song EP from the English trio The Staves, on May 13, 2016. The EP was recorded at Justin Vernon's April Base studio in Eau Claire, WI, and at Urchin Studios in London. The Staves will embark on a North American tour beginning June 3, with stops in Minneapolis, Washington, Nashville, New York, and more, along with the Firefly, Newport, and Eaux Claires festivals. Sleeping In A Car is available to pre-order digitally; CDs will be available exclusively at the Staves' shows.

When Record Store Day took place earlier this month, included among the special releases were the first-ever vinyl edition of Clint Mansell's soundtrack to Darren Aronofsky's film Requiem for a Dream, featuring Kronos Quartet, and the first worldwide vinyl release of Emmylou Harris's groundbreaking, Grammy-winning album Wrecking Ball, produced by Daniel Lanois. Both albums are now available in the Nonesuch Store.

Punch Brothers kick off a two-week US tour at the Charleston Music Hall in South Carolina on Friday. The tour will take the band across the South, including a set at the New Orleans Jazz Festival and stops in Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, before heading north to Philadelphia and Cambridge, and to the Midwest for a night in Milwaukee and two in Chicago. Gabriel Kahane supports. The band plays several summer festival dates, including a Chris Thile–curated festival at The Kennedy Center, and heads to Japan and Australia in August.

Congratulations to Rhiannon Giddens, who has won the award for Folk Singer of the Year at the 2016 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, the first American artist to do so. The awards show took place at Royal Albert Hall in London and can be seen again in the UK via the BBC iPlayer. "Your sheer artistry defies all known genres," said Sandie Shaw in presenting her with the award. "You are a one-off, genuine original. Listening to your work takes me to deep intriguing places I never before imagined ... Congratulations, you truly deserve this award. I am a huge, huge fan. Tonight is your turn, Rhiannon Giddens."

Laurie Anderson's new film, Heart of a Dog, receives its HBO premiere tonight, April 25, at 9 PM ET. The film, Anderson's first in 30 years, is a personal essay encompassing joy and heartbreak and remembering and forgetting, at the heart of which is a lament for her late beloved dog Lolabelle. Heart of a Dog opens in UK cinemas starting May 10 at the Brighton Festival, of which Anderson is the guest director.

Michael Daves celebrated the release of his new two-album set, Orchids and Violence, with a series of live NYC performances, culminating at The Bell House in Brooklyn on March 5. As on the album, the concerts featured both acoustic and electric takes on mostly traditional bluegrass songs, including Ralph Stanley's "Pretty Polly." You can now watch videos of both version of the song from the concert here. Daves and friends will mark the May 6 release of the album's vinyl edition at Littlefield in Brooklyn on May 19.

Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil closed out their US tour with two sold-out nights at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, celebrating the release of what the New York Times calls their "gemlike" new live double album Dois Amigos, Um Século de Música: Multishow Live. While on tour, they spoke with NPR's alt.latino about the new album, their friendship, and their legendary careers. They also spoke with Rolling Stone, which says: "The two continue to record exquisite, playful, even noisy music belying their septuagenarian status." And Veloso is the guest on this week's New York Times Popcast.

Congratulations to Brad Mehldau, James Farm, and Tigran Hamasyan, who are all winners of ECHO Jazz 2016 Awards. James Farm was named International Ensemble of the Year for City Folk; Tigran Hamasyan was named International Instrumentalist of the Year, Piano, for Mockroot; and Brad Mehldau will be given a Sonderpreis ("special prize") for his box set 10 Years Solo Live. The ECHO Jazz 2016 Awards ceremony will take place in Hamburg on May 26 and will be televised by NDR.