Ry Cooder, Emmylou Harris, Rodney Crowell, Kronos Quartet, Conor Oberst, Punch Brothers play free Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival in San Francisco … Laurie Anderson premieres new work at Park Avenue Armory … Orquesta Buena Vista Social Club passes through Pacific Northwest … Olivia Chaney concludes week-long US tour with Decemberists … Rhiannon Giddens plays Austin City Limits … Lianne La Havas takes tour to Toronto, Detroit, Chicago … Brad Mehldau visits Vienna … Audra McDonald performs in Disneyland … Randy Newman shows LA some love … and more …

London-based singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Olivia Chaney joins The Decemberists as their special guest for several shows in the US this week. The shows begin at the Iroquois Amphitheater in Louisville tonight, followed by stops in Indianapolis, Madison, Dallas, and Austin, for an ACL Festival Late Night Show, on Saturday. Chaney rounds out her US tour with a solo show at McCabe's in Santa Monica on Sunday.

The Arcs announce their first tour this fall with music from their acclaimed new album, Yours, Dreamily, with North American dates in December at Chicago's The Vic, Akron's Civic Theatre, New York's Terminal 5, and Nashville's Ryman Auditorium, among others, following recently announced European tour dates in November. The December tour dates also follow the band's sold-out performance at Bowery Ballroom in NYC this Saturday, September 26, which will be live streamed exclusively on Yahoo. The band makes its television debut on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert this Friday, September 25.

Robert Plant and the Sensational Space Shifters play NYC and Boston … Sam Amidon closes out Ireland tour … Jeremy Denk joins Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra … Rhiannon Giddens tours US Midwest, as do Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell … Lianne La Havas kicks off North American tour … Audra McDonald joins Sioux City Symphony Orchestra on Opening Night … Punch Brothers play Fresh Grass Festival … Joshua Redman closes out Europe tour … and more …

English singer/songwriter/guitarist Lianne La Havas, whose second album, Blood, was released this summer, kicks off a month-long North American tour at Theatre of Living Arts in Philadelphia this Sunday, September 20, followed by stops in Washington, DC; Chicago; Boston; San Francisco; Los Angeles; and Austin, among many others across the US and Canada. 

Park Avenue Armory premieres a new work this fall developed by Laurie Anderson in collaboration with Mohammed el Gharani, a former Guantanamo Bay detainee. Habeas Corpus, commissioned by the Armory, expands on Anderson's fusing of storytelling and technology, creating an installation and performance piece that examines lost identity, memory, and the resiliency of the human body and spirit. The work premieres for three days and nights, October 2–4, 2015.

Rhiannon Giddens continues to tour this fall, in support of her solo debut album, Tomorrow Is My Turn, starting today in Louisville, Kentucky. She stops in 33 cities, including newly announced dates in November, which go on sale on Friday. Giddens gave a show-stopping performance of "Waterboy" from the album at the Americana Awards in Nashville last night. Highlights from the ceremony will air on PBS's Austin City Limits on November 21. In addition, she participated in NPR Music's Songs We Love: Americana Edition, which will be posted to npr.org/music.

The full line-up for Hardly Strictly Bluegrass has been announced, and, as is often the case, featured among the performers are a number of artists familiar to readers of the Nonesuch Journal: Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell, Punch Brothers, Conor Oberst, and Kronos Quartet. The free, annual outdoor music festival returns for the 15th year to San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, in the Hellman Hollow, and will take place October 2–4, 2015.

Sam Amidon, who is touring Ireland this week, has just announced several new tour dates in North America supporting the band San Fermin in December. The dates begin at World Café Live at the Queen in Wilmington, Delaware, on December 2 and include stops along the Eastern US and Canada and into the Midwest, culminating at Bowery Ballroom in NYC on December 17. Amidon will play a number of previously announced shows in the Midwest with Wilco guitarist Nels Cline in November.

Punch Brothers have announced a number of new US tour dates for this December, starting at Overture Hall in Madison, WI, on December 1, and making their way across the Midwest, over to the Northeast and Southeast. Gabriel Kahane will again join the band for the first two weeks, after which Anaïs Mitchell will join for several shows. A limited ticket pre-sale begins Tuesday, September 15, at PunchBrothers.com; general on-sale begins this Friday, September 18. The current leg of the tour, which kicks off Friday at FreshGrass Festival, now includes a set at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass in San Francisco.

Sam Amidon performs at Kings Place in London before kicking off tour of Ireland ... Nashville Symphony performs John Adams's On the Transmigration of Souls ... Laurie Anderson's Heart of a Dog receives Canadian premiere at Toronto International Film Festival ... Tyondai Braxton has solo shows in Oberlin, Portland ... Jeremy Denk plays Rhapsody in Blue with Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra ... Rhiannon Giddens heads home to Greensboro for National Folk Festival ... Emmylou Harris, Rodney Crowell tour Virginia, Pennsylvania ... Audra McDonald opens Minnesota Orchestra season ... Robert Plant headlines Lockn' Music Fest ... Punch Brothers are at Ellnora Guitar Fest ... Joshua Redman starts Europe tour in Germany, Spain ... and more ...

Joshua Redman kicks off a European tour at Musikfest Bremen in Germany this Saturday, joining the Metropole Orkest, Ibrahim Maalouf, and Lalah Hathaway on stage. He then tackles the piano-less trio format with Ole Morten Vågan on bass and Jorge Rossy on drums September 13–19 in Spain, Hungary, the Netherlands, and Norway. In November, Redman returns to Europe to perform with the collaborative band James Farm. Before and after the James Farm tour, Redman resumes his North American tour with The Bad Plus in October and December.