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."

Carolina Chocolate Drops' tour brought the band to the Mystic Theater in Petaluma, California, this spring. While there, the band sat down backstage with PBS's Sound Tracks: Quick Hits to discuss their new album, Leaving Eden, the history of the band, and the music they champion. Band mates Dom Flemons and Rhiannon Giddens gave an exclusive backstage performance. Watch both videos plus two songs from the stage here. Says Quick Hits: "It's hard to imagine a quartet being more in sync than the Drops are during this virtuoso, rowdy romp."

British singer/guitarist Lianne La Havas's song "Tease Me" has been selected as Today's Top Tune by KCRW in LA. Download the track today at kcrw.com. The station, which says La Havas "has captured our hearts," chose the title track to her forthcoming album, Is Your Love Big Enough?, for NPR Music’s list of “5 Songs Public Radio Can't Stop Playing.” That song will be released as the album's first single this Tuesday on iTunes, paired with the album track “Lost & Found.”

Pianist Jeremy Denk invited NPR into his NYC apartment as he sat down to practice the Ligeti Piano Etudes featured on his new album, Ligeti/Beethoven. Watch the resulting video here. NPR Music recently named Ligeti/Beethoven one of its 25 Favorite Albums of 2012 (So Far), saying Denk's "technical prowess, insight, wit and ardor have resulted in an album that people are going to be talking about for years to come."

Here Lies Love, the new David Byrne and Fatboy Slim musical on the life of Imelda Marcos, begins a five-night, sold-out run at MASS MoCA tonight. The performances offer an early look at the musical, which will receive its official world premiere at NYC's Public Theater in April 2013. The Boston Globe calls the 2010 Nonesuch recording of the song cycle "superb" and "sumptuous." Director Alex Timbers, in an interview with the Globe, calls Byrne "one of the most important artists of the last several decades."

Ry Cooder joined TIME's Joe Klein on the columnist's road trip across the US. Klein is crossing the country, talking to Americans about the state of the nation as the fall election season approaches. It's something to which Cooder is particularly attuned, given the subject of his new album, Election Special, out August 21. "Ry Cooder has provided much of the sound track of my life," writes Klein. "He’s been writing political songs in recent years, and unlike most in that often-too-obvious genre, each is musically exquisite." Watch a video of the pair meeting up with fiddler Dan Gellert in Dayton, Ohio, here.

Punch Brothers have announced the first leg of their Who's Feeling Young Now? fall tour. The band has added a number of new East Coast dates in addition to the previously announced appearance at the Austin City Limits Music Festival on October 13. Punch Brothers kick things off north of the border with two Canadian dates—Montreal on September 27 and Toronto on September 28—followed by shows in New York, North Carolina, New Orleans, Georgia, and more. A limited pre-sale for most dates is underway.

Sara Watkins, who brought her spring tour to a close with three performances over the weekend, has now added a string of new fall dates as special guest of Jackson Browne on his US Acoustic Tour. The tour, which begins this summer on July 14 in Charlotte, North Carolina, runs through mid-August, before picking up again mid-October and ending on November 15 in Colorado Springs. Browne makes a special guest appearance on Watkins' new album, Sun Midnight Sun.

The title track to Lianne La Havas' forthcoming debut album, Is Your Love Big Enough?, is in NPR's Heavy Rotation: Five Songs Public Radio Can't Stop Playing. "Our song for the summer, 'Is Your Love Big Enough?' is laid-back, dusty soul from a 22-year-old U.K. singer-songwriter," says LA's KCRW, which selected the song. "La Havas' optimism and ability to write a song that sticks in your head in all the best ways—with handclaps to boot—makes her a perfect fit for summer in Southern California." Download the track for free now at npr.org.