Chris Thile, the host of A Prairie Home Companion, welcomed label mate Brad Mehldau to the show as a special guest this past weekend. They performed two songs from their debut duo album: Mehldau's tune "The Watcher" and the David Rawlings / Gillian Welch song "Scarlet Town." You can watch their performance of the latter here. Mehldau also contributes a solo improvisation to the episode, which you can hear at prairiehome.org. 

Chris Thile and Brad Mehldau were the guests on NPR's World Cafe. They spoke with host David Dye and performed three songs from their just-released debut duo album together: Bob Dylan's "Don't Think Twice, It's Alright," David Rawling and Gillian Welch's "Scarlet Town," and Elliott Smith's "Independence Day." "It is extraordinary," says host Dye of the new album. "Two players from different genres, bluegrass and jazz, further the thinking that genres are just not that important to improvisers." Find out what they had to say and hear the performances here.

Conor Oberst stopped by WFUV in NYC last month to perform three songs from his new album, Ruminations—"A Little Uncanny," "Mamah Borthwick (A Sketch)," and "Gossamer Thin"—and talk with host Carmel Holt for an FUV Live session. You can watch the performances here and hear the interview on the air tonight on 90.7 FM. Oberst takes his US tour to the one and only Carnegie Hall in NYC this Wednesday night, followed by two nights of sold-out shows both in Chicago and LA.

Devendra Banhart took the Marketplace Quiz, answering the public radio show's questions and offering insight in his own inimitable way. "It's okay not to know, and it's okay to ask for help," Banhart says when asked what advice he wished someone had given him before he started his career, advice he doesn't feel he took at the time. "I feel like it was all about 'No, I know, I know, I know, and I don't need anyone's help. I need to prove I can be independent.' But that isn't really how it works and you definitely don't know everything, and not only that, but it's okay not to know everything, and asking for help doesn't suddenly make you intrinsically dependent or co-dependent. It's a dance." You can hear the Quiz here.

Portuguese singer Mariza, who is currently touring North America with songs from her Nonesuch debut album, Mundo, was the guest on NPR's World Cafe yesterday. She spoke with host David Dye about Mundo and performed two songs from the album, "Rio de Mágoa" and "Saudade Solta," from what Dye calls a "triumphant" concert in Lisbon. Find out what Mariza has to say about her music and hear the performances here.

Conor Oberst performed his new album, Ruminations, in its entirety at NYC's Housing Works Bookstore Cafe last Friday; the performance was webcast live via NPR Music's Facebook page. You can now watch three songs from the set: "Tachycardia," "Gossamer Thin," and "A Little Uncanny." "Ruminations is one of Conor Oberst's most personal records," says NPR Music's Bob Boilen, "a collection of brave, dark songs ... that are unmistakably moving and contain some of Oberst's best lyrics and imagery." NPR Music will soon post the full concert, but these three tracks "establish the sound of the record, spare and lyric-based. These are the sounds of hard moments, elevated through beautiful music and a true poetic touch." Boilen includes "A Little Uncanny" on the latest episode of All Songs Considered. Ruminations is BBC Radio 6 Music's Album of the Day today.

Devendra Banhart spoke with NPR's All Things Considered on Saturday about his songwriting, from his new album, Ape in Pink Marble, all the way back to the first song he wrote and performed for his family at nine years old. "Banhart has made a name for himself as something of a musical sponge, drawing on traditions from blues to salsa to psychedelic folk," says host Lakshmi Singh. "But he'll be the first to tell you that his work is as much about writing, acting and storytelling as it is about the music itself." Hear the conversation here.

Rhiannon Giddens was a guest on NPR's Mountain Stage, returning to the show to perform from the Augusta Heritage Festival in Elkins, WV, earlier this year. "T Bone Burnett mentions her with some very serious company—Nina Simone, Odetta, and others—and I think that she deserves that mention," says Mountain Stage host Larry Groce. "She's at home with many different kinds of music: traditional, non-traditional, blues, jazz, whatever she wants to sing." You can hear why here.

Steve Reich turned 80 years old last week, an occasion that is being celebrated in concerts across the globe. NPR marked the milestone with a feature on Weekend Edition Sunday yesterday, in which Anastasia Tsioulcas spoke with the composer and examines works that span his career. "When he began, Reich was an outsider," Tsioulcas concludes. "Now his work is embraced by temples of high culture around the world." You can hear the piece here.

Conor Oberst will mark the release of his new album, Ruminations, by performing the record in its entirety for an audience of contest winners at NYC's Housing Works Bookstore Cafe on release day, Friday, October 14. NPR Music will webcast the show live on its site and Facebook page as part of the First Listen Live series. Ruminations will be available to stream in full beginning this Friday, September 30, as part of NPR Music's First Listen series. Conor Oberst will be the musical guest on ABC's Jimmy Kimmel Live! on October 24 and begins a tour of intimate solo shows this week.

Lake Street Dive was a guest on NPR's Mountain Stage, performing four songs from its Nonesuch Records debut album, Side Pony—"Godawful Things," "I Don't Care About You," "Side Pony," and "Call Off Your Dogs—and more. "The deal with Lake Street Dive is pretty simple: The band's four members can all flat-out play, sing and write," says the show. "Lake Street Dive is jazz-schooled and DIY-motivated, taking its penchant for Beatles-inspired pop and stretching the boundaries to a sophisticated style of acoustic, groove-driven soul." The band is touring the US and will join Chris Thile for his season-opening show as the new host of A Prairie Home Companion on October 15.

Chris Thile was on NPR's quiz show Wait Wait ... Don't Tell Me! last weekend. He discussed his new role as host of A Prairie Home Companion, which begins October 15 with special guests Lake Street Dive and Jack White. Thile, a co-founder of the band Nickel Creek, also answers questions about the similarly named band Nickelback in the segment "Not My Job," which host Peter Sagal describes as "the game where people who are geniuses at what they do prove how good they can be doing something else entirely." You can hear how well Thile did here.