Sam Amidon’s Nonesuch debut album, Bright Sunny South, released this spring to critical acclaim, will be released on vinyl on September 24 with a download of the album and a bonus vinyl 7” disc featuring two previously unreleased recordings; it is available to pre-order now in the Nonesuch Store. Amidon will tour North America throughout September including two nights at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City with Bill Frisell. 

Randy Newman will open the 2013–2014 season of free concerts from the Library of Congress in Washington, DC. His performance in the Thomas Jefferson Building's Coolidge Auditorium will take place on Saturday, October 5, followed by a conversation with the Music Division’s Mark Horowitz about the art of songwriting. Audra McDonald will spotlight songs from the Library’s American musical theater collections in her October 10 Coolidge Auditorium concert. Tickets will be available starting September 4.

Kronos Quartet joins The National and Bombino plays his own set at Outside Lands festival in San Francisco ... Sam Amidon plays Haldern Pop Fest ... Laurie Anderson brings Dirtday! to Oslo ... Carolina Chocolate Drops, Fatoumata Diawara, Sara Watkins play Edmonton Folk Fest ... Shawn Colvin, Mary Chapin Carpenter tour South, as does Dr. John ... Kremerata Baltica tours Costa Rica ... Randy Newman performs in Kentucky ... Joshua Redman, Rokia Traoré perform at Festival Au Grès du Jazz in France ... Chris Thile celebrates Elliott Smith in NYC ... Allen Toussaint closes out Lincoln Center Out of Doors ... and more ...

Pianist Jeremy Denk makes his Australian debut with a performance at Newcastle City Hall on Monday, August 12, kicking off a two-week tour of the country with the Australian Chamber Orchestra (ACO) led by conductor, artistic director, and lead violinist Richard Tognetti. The tour—featuring works by Bach, Ligeti, Ives, and Brahms—continues with performances in Adelaide and Perth, followed by several stops in Sydney, and rounds out with dates in Wollongong and Melbourne.

The life and music of Canadian singer-songwriter Kate McGarrigle will be celebrated in a number of special events held in her hometown of Montreal this week. The Outremont neighborhood where McGarrigle lived will inaugurate Place Kate-McGarrigle in her honor Wednesday afternoon. Later that evening, the feature documentary capturing the 2011 NYC McGarrigle tribute concerts will be screened at the Théâtre Outremont, where, on Thursday, Kate's children, Rufus and Martha Wainwright, and her sisters Anna and Jane will host two tribute concerts with special guests to benefit the Kate McGarrigle Foundation for sarcoma research.

Devendra Banhart closes out his five-week European summer tour with two performances in Portugal ... Sam Amidon plays in Poland ... Jeremy Denk is at Grand Teton Music Festival ... Kronos Quartet performs two nights at the Cabrillo Festival ... Lianne La Havas concludes North American tour at Osheaga and Lollapalooza ... Audra McDonald comes to Caramoor ... Joshua Redman returns to Newport Jazz Fest ... Allen Toussaint celebrates Satchmo in the Big Easy ... Rokia Traoré continues French festival tour ... Sara Watkins joins Garrison Keillor's A Prairie Home Companion tour ... and more ...

Bombino's US tour brought him back to Brooklyn last night for an ebullient show at Brooklyn Bowl for what the New York Times calls a "full and overjoyed" crowd. As part of the tour, which heads next to California, Bombino played at the famed Newport Folk Festival this past Sunday. NPR Music was there to capture the weekend's highlights, including his set. "There's a hypnotic kick to his music that transcends barriers of language and geography," says NPR. Watch the Newport performance of the song "Kammou Taliat" here.

Lianne La Havas kicked off a North American summer tour this past weekend with sets at Baltimore’s Soundstage and New York's SummerStage in Central Park. She also stopped by CBS This Morning: Saturday to perform two songs off her album, Is Your Love Big Enough?: "Age" and "Lost & Found." "This is a record I can't stop listening to," says CBS's Anthony Mason. "She brings a rich array of influences to her music and an expressive voice that's drawn a big following on iTunes." Watch the performances here. The tour continues with stops in Northampton, Montreal, and Chicago.

Lianne La Havas returns to the US to play Baltimore’s Soundstage, the XPoNential Fest, NYC's Central Park SummerStage, and CBS This Morning ... Devendra Banhart supports Neil Young in Rome ... Bombino plays FloydFest, Newport Folk ... Carolina Chocolate Drops are in Colorado ... Dr. John plays free Boston show ... Emmylou Harris joins Joan Baez, Jackson Browne for San Jose benefit ... Iron and Wine leads Austin benefit ... Kronos Quartet's free NYC Lincoln Center Out of Doors shows continue ... Randy Newman is at the Oregon Zoo ... Fernando Otero performs Pagina de Buenos Aires in NYC ... Rokia Traoré plays WOMAD ... Sara Watkins joins Garrison Keillor on tour ... and more ...

The 2013 Lincoln Center Out of Doors festival gets under way today, and featured among the festival's 100 free performances taking place across the plazas of New York's Lincoln Center this summer are the events of Kronos at 40, curated in collaboration with Kronos Quartet to mark its 40th anniversary. This "festival within a festival" unfolds during the first five days of the larger festival and includes 28 concerts and events with daily appearances by Kronos plus performances by other artists. Check out the complete schedule of events and watch an interview with Kronos Quartet's David Harrington here.

On September 14, Orquesta Buena Vista Social Club brings its world tour to the US for a run of dates that will hit New York, San Francisco, Austin, Atlanta, Indianapolis, and more. The 15-member lineup includes Latin Grammy Award winners Omara Portuondo and Eliades Ochoa, trumpeter Guajiro Mirabal, and laúd virtuoso Barbarito Torres, all of whom count themselves among the original members of Buena Vista Social Club. Opening a number of concerts with his quintet will be Cuban pianist Roberto Fonseca.

Fatoumata Diawara performs a free set at Central Park SummerStage in NYC ... Diawara, Emmylou Harris & Rodney Crowell play GrassRoots Fest in upsatate NY ... Sam Amidon supports Martha Wainwright in UK, Glen Hansard in Ireland ... Devendra Banhart, Rokia Traoré play Czech festival ... Björk headlines Pitchfork Fest in Chicago ... Bombino supports Robert Plant ... Carolina Chocolate Drops, Chris Thile & Michael Daves play Grey Fox Fest in upstate NY ... Dr. John performs at Minnesota Zoo ... Lianne La Havas concludes European tour in UK ... Audra McDonald is in Provincetown ... Natalie Merchant joins Hudson Valley Philharmonic ... Allen Toussaint wows Wyoming ... Sara Watkins plays Vancouver Folk Fest ... and more ...