Emmylou Harris, Rodney Crowell, Shawn Colvin, and Billy Bragg are among the artists who will perform at the 15th annual Americana Honors & Awards ceremony, taking place at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville on Wednesday, September 21, 2016. NPR.org will present a live video stream from the ceremony. A live audio simulcast of the Honors & Awards show will also be available via SiriusXM's Outlaw Country. The PBS series Austin City Limits will broadcast a special featuring performance highlights from the event on November 19. Shawn Colvin and Billy Bragg will receive Lifetime Achievement Awards; Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell are up for Duo/Group of the Year, as are Lake Street Dive.

Chris Thile, who will take over for Garrison Keillor as the new host of the beloved public radio program A Prairie Home Companion this fall, has announced a few of the musicians who will join him as the show's house band, along with pianist Rich Dworsky. Among them are two of Thile's fellow Punch Brothers: Chris Eldridge on guitar and Paul Kowert on bass. You can watch Thile give a snapshot of the house band in the video from the show here. Thile will host the new season of A Prairie Home Companion beginning on October 15.

Lake Street Dive was on the Today show this morning, performing "Mistakes" from the band's Nonesuch debut album, Side Pony. You can watch the performance here. Another Side Pony song, "Call Off Your Dogs," was included on Public Radio's Top 10 Songs Of 2016 (So Far). "What a phenomenon Lake Street Dive is," writes World Cafe's David Dye. "It's the cohesion of all four band members that makes Lake Street Dive's newest album, Side Pony, unique." The band resumes its North American tour on August 3.

Allen Toussaint's final recording, American Tunes, released to critical acclaim earlier this month, continues to earn rave reviews. Paste calls it "a beautiful colleciton of tracks that showcase his love of music no matter the genre." NPR's Fresh Air says it's "a fond last look at a composer and pianist who helped refine classic New Orleans pop and rhythm & blues and then brought them into the modern world. We miss him already." You can hear the complete review here.

The Staves are the guests on this week's episode of Acoustic Café, discussing and performing from their new EP, Sleeping In A Car, and their 2015 Nonesuch debut album, If I Was. The trio performs the title track and "Roses" from the new EP, and "Sadness Don't Own Me" and "Damn It All" from If I Was. The Staves, who just completed a headlining tour of North America, will perform at the Winnipeg Folk Festival, Newport Folk Festival, and Justin Vernon's Eaux Claires Festival this summer.

Allen Toussaint's final recording, American Tunes, was released last week to critical acclaim, with three new and noteworthy reviews just in. American Tunes adds "an elegant new perspective on Toussaint's legacy," says NPR's All Things Considered. "He sings the same way he plays piano: gracefully, using understatement to devastating effect, says reviewer Tom Moon. "That kind of poise is easy to overlook, but it's crucial to just about everything on this delightful survey of American tunes. And it's one of the qualities that made Allen Toussaint an American treasure." Listen to the review here. The album is "an elegant and fitting adieu from the New Orleans master," says the AP. "Toussaint makes a fine final impression on American Tunes, a repertoire as rich as his own contributions to music over a nearly 60-year career."Stereophile names American Tunes its Recording of the Month, calling it "a fantastic and esoteric tour through the Great American Songbook, as selected by the old master himself."

The new album Cuong Vu Trio Meets Pat Metheny has been reviewed on NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross. "The album lets you hear why the headliners get along," explains Fresh Air reviewer Kevin Whitehead: "the guitarist's approach to sound and melody and streaking long tones spoke to the trumpeter from the first." You can hear the complete review here. The Guardian gives the album four stars. "Metheny enters completely into the exploratory spirit," says Guardian's John Fordham, "and gives Vu's intriguing music a fresh dimension and creative support."

Laurie Anderson spoke with BBC Radio 6 Music's Lauren Laverne, BBC Radio 4's Front Row, and BBC Radio 2's The Arts Show with Jonathan Ross about her new film, Heart of a Dog, and the Brighton Festival, of which she is Guest Director. She gave the UK premiere of her Music for Dogs concert at the festival this week and will perform there again next week. Heart of a Dog opens in the UK, Ireland, and Denmark, where she performs her piece Language of the Future this Saturday.

Rokia Traoré was the guest on NPR's World Cafe. She spoke with host David Dye about her new album, Né So, and performed three songs from the album: "Obiké," "Ilé," and "Strange Fruit." Find out what she has to say and hear the performances here. Traoré takes her Né So tour to the Festival Mawazine in Morocco later this month, followed by shows throughout France and the UK, including a set at the Glastonbury Festival in June.

Olivia Chaney stopped by two BBC radio programs today, ahead of performances at Birmingham Symphony Hall for a multi-artist tribute to Nick Drake on Thursday and at St John's Smith Square in London for the London Festival of Baroque Music on Sunday. She spoke of her connection to Purcell and shared some illustrative songs live on BBC Radio 3's In Tune and spoke with BBC Radio 4's Front Row and wrote an article on the subject for the Guardian. Chaney will perform with Joe Boyd in Cardiff next month and tour the UK as special guest of Ben Folds and yMusic.

Sam Amidon and guitarist Bill Frisell are the guests on the eTown radio show. Following Frisell's set, Amidon makes his eTown debut performing three songs from his latest album, Lily-O—"Down the Line," "Walkin' Boss," and "Your Lone Journey"—as well as "Another Man Done Gone," from an earlier album, and joins host Nick Forster for a conversation about his life and music. The show closes with a group performance of "I'll Fly Away." You can listen to the complete show and watch the performances here.

Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil closed out their US tour with two sold-out nights at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, celebrating the release of what the New York Times calls their "gemlike" new live double album Dois Amigos, Um Século de Música: Multishow Live. While on tour, they spoke with NPR's alt.latino about the new album, their friendship, and their legendary careers. They also spoke with Rolling Stone, which says: "The two continue to record exquisite, playful, even noisy music belying their septuagenarian status." And Veloso is the guest on this week's New York Times Popcast.