Audra McDonald will be the guest on today's episode of NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross. She talks about her performance as Bess in the Broadway production of The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess, for which she has been nominated for a Tony Award and a Drama Desk Award and has won the Outer Critics Circle Award. She is also the subject of a feature article in the New York Times. McDonald is the winner of four Tonys has recorded four solo albums for Nonesuch.

Billy Bragg has been featured across the BBC airwaves to celebrate the release of Mermaid Avenue: The Complete Sessions, on which Bragg and Wilco set Woody Guthrie's words to music. The Sunday Times and Details both dub it a "must-have." BBC Music says that "nobody has picked up on Woody as effectively—or unexpectedly—as this transatlantic get-together." The Mermaid Avenue project "was always an interesting idea," says a four-star Q review. "That it produced such a wealth of quality material is remarkable." Pitchfork too says: "What's remarkable is the wealth of material available to these artists and the number of gems these sessions produced." Drowned in Sound rates this "wonderful reissue" a nine out of ten. "Even for those who already have both of the previous volumes," says DiS, "Mermaid Avenue: The Complete Sessions is a fascinating look at one of America’s greatest writers."

Punch Brothers make their headlining debut at NYC's Town Hall in a sold-out show tonight. "They are an all-star bluegrass band, five virtuosos led by Chris Thile, the mercurial mandolin player, but their songs smash the three-chord harmonies and blazing march rhythm of bluegrass," says the New York Times. "It is restless music, by musicians so preternaturally talented they get bored easily with fiddle tunes." The New York Daily News says they "have not only turned a rural sound urban, they’ve achieved that most rare of musical feats—to create something genuinely new." Listen to their complete performance on WNYC's Soundcheck here and watch them perform three songs from the show.

Punch Brothers are guests on today's episode of Soundcheck from WNYC. Today's special edition of the show will take place before a sold-out audience in the Greene Space in downtown Manhattan and broadcast live on 93.9 FM and online at wnyc.org, where you can also watch a live webcast, all starting at 2 PM ET. Also on today's show is guitarist/composer Kaki King. Punch Brothers perform at New York's Town Hall tomorrow night as part of their US headlining tour.

Randy Newman will join Larry Mantle, host of KPCC's AirTalk, for a live broadcast event from The Crawford Family Forum in Pasadena, California, this evening at 6:30 PM PST. The event is an in-depth discussion about the state of contemporary film music and how the business is changing. Joining the discussion are fellow composers Michael Giacchino, David Newman, and Trevor Rabin. Watch it streaming live at scpr.org. Randy Newman's film work has garnered two Academy Awards and 20 Oscar nominations.

Dr. John is the guest on this week's Jamie Cullum show from BBC Radio 2. Dr. John, whom Cullum calls one of his "true musical heroes" and “the coolest guy in the universe,” discusses his life and career and his new album, Locked Down, which the Boston Herald names Album of the Week. "It’s voodoo rock, dense, strange, tangled, beautiful in its darkness," says the Herald. "It also adds wild, welcome new flavors to the gumbo. West African highlife grooves Fela would flip for are everywhere. ’60s Stax soul sneak in during select choruses and bridges. Shaft-style funk drops in for a few druggy intros and outros." The A.V. Club calls it "an inspired collaboration ... at once classic and modern."

James Farm—a collaborative band featuring Joshua Redman, Aaron Parks, Matt Penman, and Eric Harland—released its self-titled debut album on Nonesuch almost exactly one year ago, on April 26, 2011. Last September, the band performed in the Opening Night concert of the BeanTown Jazz Festival at Boston's Berklee Performance Center. Now, on this week's episode of NPR's JazzSet, host Dee Dee Bridgewater broadcasts that performance, recorded by NPR member station WGBH in Boston.

Timothy Andres is featured in Q2 Music's "Composer Portals" series, which aims to capture "the insights and wisdom of today's composers" through exclusive audio introductions to their own pieces. In "The Witty and Reverent Musical World of Timothy Andres," the composer introduces several pieces from his debut album, Shy and Mighty. "Andres is doing contemporary classical music a service by forswearing the old-school composer’s aura—that of a tortured mystic laboring at his work," says Q2 Music. "He’s witty, conversational and seemingly secure enough in his talents to trust that we won’t mistake his good humor for a lack of seriousness."

Folila, Amadou & Mariam's first studio album since 2009's acclaimed Welcome to Mali, is due out in the US next week, and is streaming in full all this week as an NPR First Listen. The album features contributions by Santigold, TV on the Radio, Nick Zinner, Theophilus London, Bassekou Kouyate, and others. "The result is richly textured," says NPR. The Daily Telegraph gives the album five stars. The Independent says the album shows "how adeptly Amadou & Mariam straddle both local and global, with a truly 'world' music." The Sunday Times of London says the collaborations "all serve the song and all are there only to enhance the unfathomably brilliant guitar work of Amadou and the effortlessly beautiful voice of Mariam."

Mac Rebennack, a.k.a Dr. John, whose new album, Locked Down, is due out next week, was the guest on today's episode of WNYC's Soundcheck. He performs a live solo piano version of "Big Shot," a song off the new album, and talks about working with producer Dan Auerbach on the album. He also gives preview of his three-week residency at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), which launches this week with a tribute to Louis Armstrong, followed by the premiere of new music from Locked Down with Auerbach (April 5–7), and a celebration of New Orleans music (April 12–15). Listen to the show here.

Following yesterday's video featuring the title track to Dr. John's forthcoming album, Locked Down, comes a second teaser video with a clip from the track "Revolution" and more footage from inside producer Dan Auerbach's Nashville studio. Watch it here. A third album track, "Big Shot," has been named NPR's Song of the Day. "Auerbach makes 71-year-old Mac Rebennack sound fresh and intimate by connecting him to his vital musical past," says NPR. Dr. John "proves that now, as always, he's the ruler of American roots music."

Today marks the start of the South by Southwest (SXSW) Music Conference in Austin, Texas, when thousands of bands and music lovers from all over the world descend on the live-music capital for several days of non-stop music making. Nonesuch artists will be well represented among them, with several performances throughout the week from Punch Brothers, Dr. John, and The Low Anthem. The Warner Sound showcase, featuring Punch Brothers and Dr. John, will stream live via YouTube Wednesday night.