Timo Andres, whose new album, Home Stretch, was released yesterday, performed music from and discussed the new album on WNYC's Soundcheck. "Brian Eno and Mozart are two names one may not expect to be paired up," says Soundcheck. "Yet pianist and composer Timo Andres counts Eno and Mozart among his influences, and has found a way to couple them. On his new album, Home Stretch, Andres plays off of works by both of those composers, matching his reinventions of those pieces with a composition of his own. The result is a buoyant and fascinating record." Listen to the Soundcheck episode here.

Bombino, currently on tour in the US, was the guest on NPR's World Cafe yesterday, performing two tracks off his Dan Auerbach-produced Nonesuch debut album, Nomad. "Bombino's explosively exciting desert-guitar sound somehow fit perfectly with Auerbach's rock/funk/kitchen-sink aesthetic," says the show of Nomad, "making for an album that's both thrilling and hypnotic." Rolling Stone has named Bombino an Artist to Watch, calling him "electrifying." The magazine includes Nomad on its Best Albums of 2013 Mid-Year Report, exclaiming: "Meet your new guitar hero." Los Angeles Times does too, declaring it "perfect."

Shawn Colvin and Mary Chapin Carpenter’s ongoing duo tour of North America brought them to the Mountain Stage in West Virginia earlier this year. Their performance airs on the latest episode of the Mountain Stage radio show on NPR and is streaming online at npr.org. The episode's other special guests include Marti Jones & Don Dixon and Aoife O’Donovan. Colvin and Carpenter's tour continues through the summer and fall.

Bombino, who is currently touring the US with his "electrifying" show (A.V. Club), has made NPR Music's list of its 25 Favorite Albums of the Year (So Far) for his Nonesuch debut album, Nomad. "Full of undeniably hypnotic trance-guitar music, and produced by The Black Keys' Dan Auerbach, Nomad rocks like no other record this year," writes NPR Music's Bob Boilen. "Hearing Bombino in any American nightclub, the reaction is ecstasy and complete connection ... It's blues, it's trance and it's psychedelic in its repetition. Oh, and did I mention it rocks?" Bombino tells New York magazine: "There are two kinds of music in the desert. If it makes you want to listen to it, it’s the blues. If it makes you want to move, it’s rock.”

Devendra Banhart, who is currently touring North America performing songs from his recently released Nonesuch Records debut album, Mala, was featured on Morning Becomes Eclectic out of KCRW in Santa Monica, CA, last Friday. The session, which was recording during the California leg of the tour earlier in May, includes intimate in-studio performances by Banhart and his band of a number of songs from the new album. Watch the set here. The tour continues into Montreal, Toronto, Boston, DC, and Philadelphia, before concluding at The Town Hall in New York City on June 12.

While touring the US East Coast last month, Iron and Wine's Sam Beam stopped by the Boston Public Library to discuss his songwriting with WBUR's Off the Record and perform a couple of songs off the new album Ghost on Ghost. Watch the solo, acoustic performances of the album tracks "Caught in the Briars" and "Grace for Saints and Ramblers" and listen to the interview here. The Guardian gave four stars to last week's London show, saying "Beam writes with an artist’s eye, his songs alive with place and time ... [His] easy charm dazzles."

Pat Metheny’s recording of John Zorn’s Tap: The Book of Angels, Vol. 20 from Zorn’s Masada Book Two was released yesterday on Nonesuch Records and Tzadik. The album was featured on NPR's All Things Considered last night. "Metheny takes what's on the page and goes to work conjuring," says NPR's Tom Moon. "The result is an ornate, stunningly vivid sound world that neither artist would have found on his own." Listen to the complete All Things Considered review here.

Sam Amidon, who is currently touring Europe in support of his new album, Bright Sunny South, has performed the album track "As I Roved Out," for The Line of Best Fit. On the new album, Amidon delves "further in compelling expressions that draw jazz and folk influences together to an entirely unique place," says the site. Watch that performance and his recent set for ABC Radio in Australia, which has named Bright Sunny South its Album of the Week. The Daily Telegraph and Irish Times give the album four stars.

Audra McDonald, whose new album, Go Back Home, is out tomorrow, was featured on NPR's Weekend Edition Saturday. She spoke with NPR's Jeff Lunden about her personal connection to the songs on the album, which is noted as well in an Associated Press feature. Both the new album and this Friday's broadcast of her concert on PBS's Live From Lincoln Center "pull back the curtain on one of the most decorated women on Broadway," says the AP. "The CD's title taken from the stunning Kander and Ebb song from The Scottsboro Boys musical is a hint that this is McDonald's most personal album to date." New York recommends both, exclaiming: "It's entirely possible that Audra McDonald is the greatest singer alive."

Sam Amidon celebrated the release of his new album, Bright Sunny South, with a performance at (Le) Poisson Rouge in New York City last night. This morning, he was featured on NPR's Morning Edition, discussing what host Steve Inskeep calls "a new spin on very traditional American folk music," including the album track "Weeping Mary," which his parents had recorded with the Word of Mouth Chorus for Nonesuch in 1977. Amidon also spoke with NBC 4 New York about two sides of folk music that can be heard in his music. Listen to the Morning Edition segment and watch the NBC piece here.

Bombino, who closes out the current leg of his European tour in Portugal this weekend before heading to the States on tour, is the subject of a piece on BBC Africa. "What I like about rock and blues music is that I can transmit emotions through this type of music to my fans, and that's really important to me," he tells the BBC. "Rock music is similar to the traditional Tende music; it is very popular in Niger. Nomads enjoy rock because they love dancing like crazy to it." 

Randy Newman, who was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last month, was a guest on NPR's Talk of the Nation yesterday. He spoke with host Neal Conan about his career in music, his songwriting process, writing for film scores, and more. Listeners of the show wrote in to pick their favorite Randy Newman tune. Their choice: "Political Science." The 28th Annual Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony will be presented on HBO on Saturday, May 18, at 9 PM ET/PT. Newman has a number of live shows scheduled later this spring and summer.