Rhiannon Giddens was recently a guest on NPR's Mountain Stage. Giddens performs several songs from her debut solo album, Tomorrow Is My Turn: "Don't Let It Trouble Your Mind," "She's Got You," "Waterboy," "O Love Is Teasin'," "Black Is the Color," and "Up Above My Head." "The broad mix of material from which Giddens draws inspiration plays a big part in defining her personality as a performer," says the show. "Her Mountain Stage set is no exception, as she weaves together traditional music with songs by trailblazers Sister Rosetta Tharpe and Dolly Parton." Hear it here.

Laurie Anderson was the guest on WNYC's New Sounds last night. She spoke with host John Schaefer about her new film, Heart of a Dog, and shared several excerpts from its soundtrack. The show also touches on her recent Park Avenue Armory piece Habeas Corpus. "Similar themes run through both works," says WNYC, "in that Anderson ponders how stories are spun, and how language is used, along with ideas about what time ('Living Life Backwards'), identity ('How to Feel Sad Without Being Sad'), and freedom might mean in a surveillance and algorithmic culture." Hear the conversation here.

Punch Brothers were the guests on an encore broadcast of NPR's World Cafe yesterday. The show first aired in February, following the release of the group's T Bone Burnett–produced album The Phosphorescent Blues. The band spoke with host David Dye about the album, which Dye says "sounds great," and performs three tracks: "I Blew It Off," "Magnet," and "Boll Weevil." You can hear the session here.

The Arcs were the guests on NPR's World Cafe on Friday. Dan Auerbach spoke with host David Dye about the band's debut album, Yours, Dreamily, and the group was joined by Mariachi Flor de Toloache to perform four songs off the album: "Outta My Mind," "Put a Flower in My Pocket," "Pistol Made of Bones," and "Stay in My Corner." You can hear the session here. The Arcs kick off a two-week tour of Europe in November 5 and begin a US tour on December 1.

Lianne La Havas was the guest on KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic earlier this week. She spoke with host Jason Bentley and performed six songs from her new album, Blood, and one from her debut album, Is Your Love Big Enough?. You can watch the complete 40-minute session here. La Havas's US tour concludes with shows in Dallas, Austin, Atlanta, and Nashville.

Laurie Anderson is featured in the New York Times and the New Yorker, which both look at her new film and album, Heart of a Dog, and her piece Habeas Corpus, which recently premiered at the Park Avenue Armory. "They’re both about how you tell stories, and what they mean," she tells the Times, "and how you create a world with them." In London for the BFI London Film Festival debut of Heart of a Dog, Anderson was the guest on BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour and BBC Radio 3's In Tune. She will be the guest on BBC Radio 6 Music's Stuart Maconie's Freak Zone this Sunday and can be heard on this week's Dinner Party Download.

St Germain's new, self-titled album was featured on today's episode of NPR's All Things Considered. "This isn't your typical globe-trotting cut-and-paste," says reviewer Tom Moon. "Where most DJs organize their work around static loops, St Germain seeks a less scripted, more improvisational atmosphere." He later concludes: "There's a lot of musical conversation going on here. St Germain went deep into West African music and discovered that to capture its nuances, he had to ditch some of his DJ tricks and open things way up. The result: a timeless African sound reconfigured ever so slightly for the electronic age."

Lianne La Havas, who is currently touring the US, recently stopped by NPR's World Cafe to talk with host David Dye about her new album, Blood, and perform three tracks from it—"Green and Gold," "What You Don't Do," and "Unstoppable"—as well as "Forget," from her debut album. "In 2012, Is Your Love Big Enough? came out, and it was a real breath of fresh air," says Dye. "It's really unusual to find any artist, but particularly one so young, who doesn't feel the need to be genre-defined in any way. What a great record ... Blood is here now, the new album, and as you will hear, it's a pretty spectacular record." Listen to the performance and interview here.

Brad Mehldau's 10 Years Solo Live eight-LP vinyl box set, due October 16, was featured on WNYC's New Sounds look at this month's new releases. The show opens with Massive Attack's "Teardrop" transitioning to Mehldau's own take on the song from the box set. It's a version "that I think is really brilliant," says host John Schaefer. "We begin with a new release that's due in two weeks, and it is so ambitious that we may well still be listening to it when we do next month's new releases program." Hear the show here.

Rhiannon Giddens, currently touring the US, recently participated in the NPR Music panel discussion Songs We Love: Americana Fest Edition. The event was led by NPR music critic Ann Powers, who assembled what she called her "dream team"— Giddens, Patty Griffin, Shakey Graves—for a conversation and performances of some of their favorite songs. Giddens is "one of the great song interpreters of our time," says Powers. "She has an exquisite voice. But just as important is her sensibility, her sense of history, her innate feminism, womanism, and a brilliant originality." You can hear it all here.

The Arcs, whose debut album, Yours, Dreamily, was released on September 4, made their live concert debut performing at NYC’s Housing Works Bookstore Café on September 9 as part of NPR Music’s First Listen Live series. Mariachi Flor de Toloache, who are also on the album, joined for the concert as well. NPR captured it all, and you can now watch it here via npr.org/music.

The Arcs have unveiled the video for "Outta My Mind," off Yours, Dreamily, their recently released debut album. The video premiered on The Huffington Post, which says: "A dreamy gift of garage blues wrapped in fuzzy, soulful guitar, the album is a refreshing shift from [Dan] Auerbach that you'll want to keep on repeat all weekend long." Watch the video here. Yours, Dreamily, is WFUV's New Dig and Album of the Week from The Current, which says "this album is chock full of memorable, hooky jams ... [Auerbach] can't help but write songs that get stuck in your brain."