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. 

The Arcs have confirmed eight European tour dates in November as part of their first tour in support of Yours, Dreamily, their debut album. They will be joined on stage by Mariachi Flor de Toloache. The European leg comprises concerts in Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, UK, Holland, France, and Italy.  Tickets go on sale on Friday, September 11. The Arcs make their live concert debut via NPR Music’s First Listen Live series in NYC this Wednesday and perform at Bowery Ballroom in NYC later this month.

Pat Metheny is Artist-in-Residence at the free Detroit Jazz Festival this Labor Day weekend ... Sam Amidon performs at End of the Road Festival ... Tyondai Braxton goes solo in Philadelphia ... Ken Burns's The Civil War airs anew on PBS ... Olivia Chaney plays UK's Moseley Folk Festival ... Emmylou Harris, Rodney Crowell help celebrate St. Augustine, Florida's 450th anniversary... Punch Brothers head to Pacific Northwest ... and more ...

Punch Brothers take their North American tour south, performing in Mississippi and Oklahoma, headlining Fayetteville Roots Fest in Arkansas ... Tyondai Braxton celebrates Terry Riley's 80th in Germany ... David Byrne closes out Meltdown in London ... Jeremy Denk joins San Francisco Symphony for BBC Proms ... Rhiannon Giddens plays Aarhus Fest in Denmark ... Randy Newman is in Washington state ... Orquesta Buena Vista Social Club takes "Adios" tour to Virginia and Pennsylvania ... IFC Center launches Wim Wenders retrospective ... and more ...

The Arcs will perform music from their forthcoming debut album, Yours, Dreamily, due Friday, September 4, at Housing Works Bookstore Cafe on Wednesday, September 9, in New York City as the first concert of the season in NPR Music's First Listen Live series. Tickets to this extremely intimate show will be available exclusively through a trivia contest on NPR Music's Twitter on Monday, August 31, and Tuesday, September 1. Follow @NPRMusic, @TheArcs, and @HousingWorksBKS on Twitter for details.

As the David Byrne–curated Meltdown festival continues at the Southbank Centre in London, BBC Radio 6 Music hosts a weekend-long series of programs featuring Byrne ... Timo Andres joins Gabriel Kahane at Rockwood Music Hall in NYC ... Ry Cooder, Sharon White, Ricky Skaggs take tour to Virginia, Tennessee ... Orquesta Buena Vista Social Club "Adios" tour is in Denver ... and more ...

Conor Oberst, while on tour for his Nonesuch Records debut album, Upside Down Mountain, performed at the House of Blues in Boston this past June. The WGBH program Front Row Boston was there to capture the event. You can now watch the full set, including several songs from Upside Down Mountain, Bright Eyes tunes, and more, here. Oberst tours the West Coast with M. Ward and The Felice Brothers this fall.

The David Byrne–curated Meltdown festival gets under way at the Southbank Centre in London tonight, continuing through Sunday, August 30. Among Meltdown's many special events, Byrne and band celebrate African funk master William Onyeabor, he joins Young Jean Lee for the London debut of We’re Gonna Die, and Jonny Greenwood and LCO perform his score to There Will Be Blood at a screening of the film. BBC Radio 6 Music celebrates with a series of programs featuring Byrne, including his debut as a 6 Music presenter. "It’s a lot of fun when you do these kind of things you can introduce music," says Byrne, "and people will give you the benefit of the doubt and give it a listen which is a little bit of what’s it’s about."

Jeremy Denk performs Beethoven and Scriabin sonatas in the Northeast ... Rhiannon Giddens heads from Colorado to Canada ... Emmylou Harris, Rodney Crowell play Sweden's Way Out West fest ... Randy Newman is in Northern California ... Orquesta Buena Vista Social Club takes "Adios" tour to California ... Punch Brothers play Hot August Music Fest in Maryland ... and more ...