Offa Rex, the new project from Olivia Chaney and The Decemberists, released its debut album, The Queen of Hearts, on Friday. Chaney was on NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday yesterday to discuss the project, the origins of which can be traced to a tweet from The Decemberists' Colin Meloy. You can listen to the interview and even hear Chaney give an impromptu a cappella performance of an old Jewish hymn here. Chaney and Meloy will be on BBC Radio 2's The Folk Show with Mark Radcliffe on Wednesday.

Fleet Foxes were the guests on NPR's World Cafe on Friday. Host Talia Schlanger says the band's new album, Crack-Up, is "a lush and dense album with the harmonies and folky feel you expect from Fleet Foxes and a structure that's pretty unexpected." She spoke with Robin Pecknold about the album, and the band performed several songs from the album live. Find out what Pecknold had to say and hear the performances here.

k.d. lang spoke with Laura Veirs about her groundbreaking album Ingénue , celebrating its 25th anniversary, for NPR Music's All Songs Considered. "Back in 1992, singer k.d. lang released a record unlike any other," says NPR's Robin Hilton. "Ingénue slithered against the popular music grain with songs that drew slow, deep breaths and sighed seductively ... And lang's monumental voice, both powerful and restrained, was simply unforgettable as she sang languorous songs of love and desire." You can hear lang and Veirs' conversation here.

Saxophonist Joshua Redman’s Still Dreaming, a quartet with trumpeter Ron Miles, bassist Scott Colley, and drummer Brian Blade—a tribute to the late Dewey Redman and his role in the classic Ornette Coleman alumni quartet Old and New Dreams—performed at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City earlier this year. You can now watch a full performance, as well as interviews with Redman and the band, for NPR’s Jazz Night In America, here.

Randy Newman was the guest on BBC Radio 6 Music's Lauren Laverne show. He spoke with Laverne about his forthcoming album, Dark Matter, and much more. You can listen to their conversation here.

Rhiannon Giddens was on NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross today. She discusses her new album, Freedom Highway, and performs "At the Purchaser's Option" and "Julie," two of nine original songs she wrote or co-wrote for the album, which also includes a traditional tune and two civil rights–era songs. You can hear the episode here. Giddens performs at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall in NYC and World Café Live in Philadelphia this weekend; the tour resumes in June and continues through the summer.

Yo-Yo Ma, Chris Thile, and Edgar Meyer were on NPR's Here and Now, discussing and performing from their new album, Bach Trios. "What happens when you put a world-renowned cellist, a MacArthur fellow bassist, and another MacArthur winner and mandolin player together?" asks host Meghna Chakrabarti. "Well, if they're Yo-Yo Ma, Edgar Meyer, and Chris Thile, you get beautiful music." You can watch their performance of Bach's Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme, BWV 645, on the show here.

Steve Reich spoke with WNYC's New Sounds and shared music from his season-long Carnegie Hall residency, which resumes with a performance of his Tehillim tonight and the upcoming Three Generations, a four-concert, Reich-curated exploration of the changing direction of concert music from the mid-20th century to the present. You can hear the episode and get concert details here.

Stephin Merritt is a guest on the latest episode of the public radio show Studio 360 from PRI and WNYC. He talks with host Kurt Andersen about the making of the new Magnetic Fields album, 50 Song Memoir, which chronicles the 50 years of songwriter his life with one song per year, and performs solo takes on two songs from the album: "'71 I Think I'll Make Another World" and "'91 The Day I Finally ..." You can hear the interview and performance here and on public radio stations across the US.

Rhiannon Giddens's new album, Freedom Highway, was released on Friday to great critical acclaim. Giddens spent the day at Sing Sing prison, working with and performing for inmates as a part of Carnegie Hall's Musical Connections program. "Giddens is an immensely talented singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist with the instincts of a musical historian," says WFUV, which named Freedom Highway its New Dig of the week. "On this new collection, she expertly and powerfully tells the stories of those who could not and bears witness to their struggle ... Freedom Highway is welcome, relevant and important." The Los Angeles Times says: "It’s a powerful collection made all the more visceral by the stripped-down instrumental accompaniment around full-force-gale vocals in big moments, and delicate pleadings when songs are at their most intimate."

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.