Rokia Traoré kicks off a six-date tour of the UK with a performance at the Brighton Corn Exchange tonight, followed by stops in Leeds, Edinburgh, Derry, and Manchester, before culminating in a show at the Royal Festival Hall in London. Traoré and her band then head to New York City to launch a two-week North American tour at Jazz at Lincoln Center for the White Light Festival. Songlines has just named Traoré's new album, Beautiful Africa, among the Best Albums of 2013.

Chris Thile closes out US solo tour with a sold-out show in Atlanta, then heads to Europe ... Timo Andres performs Pierrot Lunaire at the Met Museum ... Bombino tours UK ... Shawn Colvin, Mary Chapin Carpenter tour Midwest ... Richard Goode gives Amnesty benefit concert in NYC ... Emmylou Harris, Rodney Crowell perform in California; their Austin City Limits duo debut airs on PBS ... Iron and Wine continues West Coast tour ... Kronos Quartet is at Syracuse ... Audra McDonald sings in Arkansas ... Natalie Merchant joins Louisville Orchestra ... and more ...

Iron and Wine kicks off the second leg of its North American fall tour at LA's Orpheum Theatre on Thursday, Halloween night. Sam Beam and the band perform up the West Coast, making stops in Oakland, Portland, Vancouver, and Seattle, with opening sets along the way from Laura Mvula. Iron and Wine then heads inland for shows in Missoula, Salt Lake City, Denver, Lincoln, and Kansas City, before landing in Nashville and Atlanta in mid-November, with support on those dates from Jesca Hoop. On December 10, Iron and Wine headlines the Holiday Cheer for FUV concert benefitting New York public radio station 90.7 FM WFUV. 

Bombino kicks off seven-city UK run at Southbank Centre in London tonight ... Sam Amidon plays London's LSO St. Luke's ... Dr. John performs in Amidon's home state of Vermont ... Emmylou Harris, Rodney Crowell celebrate Bucknell homecoming ... Kremerata Baltica plays Gidon Kremer’s hometown of Riga ... LA Opera presents Audra McDonald ... Brad Mehldau, Mark Guiliana conclude Mehliana US tour in Massachusetts ... Joshua Redman plays Central European festivals ... Chris Thile takes tour to Toronto ... Allen Toussaint headlines in Hawaii ... Rokia Traoré is in France ... and more ...

Chris Thile's solo tour brought him to Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall on Tuesday for an eclectic, sold-out set that featured music from his new album, Bach: Sonatas and Partitas, Vol. 1, and much more. "The most impressive musicians are often versatile, but few match the breadth of the brilliant mandolinist Chris Thile," raves the New York Times's Vivien Schweitzer. Of his performing Bach violin works on the mandolin, Schweitzer writes, "in Mr. Thile’s virtuosic hands, the results are breathtaking ... a revelatory reading, poignant and exuberant by turns."

Chris Thile brings his solo tour, featuring music from his new album, Bach: Sonatas and Partitas, Vol. 1, back home to New York City for a sold-out performance in Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall. The tour continues with stops in Philadelphia, Princeton, Toronto, and Albany before heading back down South, then on to Europe in November. Thile spoke with the New York Times about the tour and the music of Bach: "You can get me moving, and be playing some of the most profoundly well-organized music that humans could possibly imagine. It’s visceral, but everything’s in its right place."

Tune in to hear Sara Watkins on A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor ... Bombino tours Benelux ... Shawn Colvin, Mary Chapin Carpenter head East ... Dr. John is in the South ... Iron and Wine plays upstate NY ... Kronos Quartet performs Philip Glass in Vancouver ... Audra McDonald tours Texas ... Brad Mehldau's Mehliana is at Largo in LA ... Natalie Merchant joins the Alabama Symphony Orchestra ... Randy Newman goes to Galveston ... Joshua Redman is in Rome ... Chris Thile brings Bach to Boston ... and more ...

Pianist and composer Brad Mehldau kicks off a ten-day US tour in a new electric duo with drummer Mark Guiliana called Mehliana. The configuration presents Mehldau performing on Fender Rhodes and an arsenal of vintage synthesizers while Guiliana accompanies on drums and effects. The tour begins at The Triple Door in Seattle tonight and includes shows in San Francisco and LA, as well as stops in Illinois, Ohio, and Massachusetts. Mehldau then heads to Europe for a week of solo shows before he and Guiliana reunite for a two-week Mehliana tour of Europe and the UK. To celebrate the tour, Nonesuch is offering an early listen to "Hungry Ghost," a track off the forthcoming Mehliana album, due in early 2014. Listen here.

Bombino, whose Nonesuch Records debut album, Nomad, was released earlier this year, launches the latest leg of his world tour with a performance at Poppodium Tilburg in the Netherlands, Thursday night. The 30-day European tour continues with additional stops in the Netherlands, Belgium, Poland, Sweden, and Finland, before heading to the UK for a seven-city run there, followed by a return to the Continent for several shows in Switzerland, France, and Italy. Bombino and his band then make their way across the Atlantic for a North American tour starting in November.

The ninth annual Holiday Cheer for FUV concert will bring an evening of collaboration to the Beacon Theatre: Iron & Wine and Friends, featuring Calexico as house band for a one-time evening of song and camaraderie. The show will take place Tuesday, December 10, at 8 PM and will benefit New York public radio station 90.7 FM WFUV. Joining them will be songwriter/performer Nick Lowe, plus other artists to be announced. Tickets go on sale through Ticketmaster on Friday, October 18, at noon.

Jeremy Denk performs Bach’s Goldberg Variations at The Kennedy Center and Chicago Symphony Center ... Alarm Will Sound kicks off Metropolitan Museum of Art residency ... Sam Amidon rounds out US tour in LA ... Shawn Colvin, Mary Chapin Carpenter tour the US ... Emmylou Harris, Rodney Crowell take tour to Texas ... Gidon Kremer is in Germany ... Kronos Quartet is in Wisconsin ... Audra McDonald sings a Chicago Symphony Center ... Orquesta Buena Vista Social Club closes out US tour in NYC ... Joshua Redman tours Netherlands ... Chris Thile is in the South ... Rokia Traoré plays Paris ... and more ...

Alarm Will Sound begins two important components of its 2013–14 concert season this week: its second "St. Louis season" and its season-long residency at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. The latter comprises four concerts, starting this Friday and including the New York premiere of Steve Reich's new piece, Radio Rewrite, on an all-Reich program November 16.