Natalie Merchant was a guest on WNYC's Leonard Lopate show today. She spoke with Lopate about her 35-year career in music, her social activism, and her new album, Paradise Is There: The New Tigerlily Recordings. Hear their conversation here. Merchant will join Rolling Stone's Anthony DeCurtis in a conversation at the 92nd Street Y in NYC tonight and heads out on tour in March.

Sam Amidon has been performing songs from his latest album, Lily-O, on the road, making stops across the US and Europe. One such stop was at the Pickathon festival in Happy Valley, Oregon, last summer, where he performed "Down the Line," from Lily-O, for Seattle public radio station KEXP's Pickathon Logging Road Series. You can watch the just-released performance here.

The ECHO Jazz 2016 Award nominations have been announced, including three for Joshua Redman projects: International Saxophone Instrumentalist of the Year for his work with James Farm on their latest album, City Folk and International Ensemble of the Year to both James Farm and The Bad Plus Joshua Redman and their self-titled debut album. Tigran Hamasyan has been nominated for International Piano Instrumentalist of the Year for his Nonesuch debut, Mockroot. The ECHO Jazz Awards ceremony will take place in Hamburg on May 26.

Steve Reich and Stephen Sondheim, as part of Lincoln Center's American Songbook series, took part in an evening of conversation, moderated by WNYC's John Schaefer, on January 31, 2015. This special occasion marked the first the time the two appeared together on stage. The evening, which also included performances of several of their seminal works by Paul Gemignani, George Lee Andrews, Kate Baldwin, Michael Cerveris, Ensemble Signal, Alexander Gemignani, and Derek Johnson, was filmed by Lincoln Center. Watch it here.

Lianne La Havas will release Blood Solo, a collection of five tracks and an interlude from her Grammy-nominated album Blood plus a new song, "Fairytale," performed solo, on February 12. In celebration of the EP's release, La Havas performs two of the solo songs on Conan and The Late Late Show with James Corden in the coming week. Additionally, Leon Bridges has announced that La Havas will open for him during his autumn US tour. Tickets go on sale this Friday. "I'm so excited to go on the road with Leon because I am a fan," says La Havas. "It will also be a great chance to see many parts of the USA that I've not yet had the pleasure of visiting."

Kronos Quartet presents its second-annual hometown festival in San Francisco all weekend … Sam Amidon plays three shows in Belgium … Jeremy Denk performs Bach's Goldberg Variations in Europe … Rhiannon Giddens concludes UK tour with Transatlantic Sessions … Richard Goode performs Beethoven in Michigan … Lianne La Havas plays Brooklyn and Philadelphia … Chris Thile guest hosts A Prairie Home Companion … Rokia Traoré kicks off 2016 tour in London … and more ...

Rokia Traoré's new album, Né So, is out February 12. But you don't need to wait till then to hear it: the album is streaming in full till then as an NPR First Listen. NPR's Anastasia Tsioulcas, who calls Traoré "fantastically gifted," notes that "the idea of refuge ... serves as a central catalyst to Traoré's gorgeous new album." She concludes: "Né So is a sonically beautiful project, for sure, and it's easy to get lost in the lilting rhythms and Traoré's smoky voice. But if you're simply sitting back with this album, you may have missed her point." Hear Né So in full here. Traoré kicks off a tour in London on Saturday, followed by stops throughout Europe in the weeks ahead. She heads to the US in late March for performances in NYC, DC, and Savannah.

Punch Brothers have announced a US tour in May. The two-week headline tour kicks off with a concert at Schermerhorn Symphony Center in Nashville and makes stops in Birmingham, Athens, Cambridge, and Milwaukee, culminating in two nights at Chicago's Thalia Hall on May 13 and 14. Those dates follow a concert with Dave Rawlings Machine in Charleston on April 29 and a set at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival on May 1. The band will also take part in the MusicNOW, Huck Finn Jubilee, Telluride Bluegrass, Oregon Bach, and RockyGrass festivals in the months ahead.

Lianne La Havas kicks off a fully sold-out US tour at The McKittrick Hotel in New York City tonight. It's the first in a series of intimate solo club dates stopping in Boston, DC, Brooklyn, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Oakland, and culminating with a show at Largo at the Coronet in Los Angeles on February 11. The tour features music from La Havas's second album, Blood, which has been nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Urban Contemporary Album.

Olivia Chaney will tour the United Kingdom this spring, including six shows as special guest of Ben Folds on his tour of England with yMusic. Chaney will perform in two UK festivals—ATP Festival in North Wales in April and the London Festival of Baroque Music in May—before joining Folds and the ensemble for concerts in Manchester, Gateshead, Brighton, and Cambridge, as well as two nights at the London Palladium. Before then, she heads to the United States to perform at the Big Ears Festival in Knoxville in March.

Lake Street Dive has unveiled a new track, "I Don't Care About You," from the band's forthcoming Nonesuch Records debut album, Side Pony, due February 19. You can hear the song here and download it now when you pre-order the album on iTunes and in the Nonesuch Store, along with the previously released album track "Call Off Your Dogs."

Michael Daves has released two versions of the Ralph Stanley–penned tune "Pretty Polly," off his forthcoming album, Orchids and Violence, due February 26. As with the whole double album's repertoire, Daves offers both a more straightforward bluegrass interpretation, featuring a band of roots-music innovators, and a second, more raw, experimental rock take on those tunes mostly played by Daves. You can hear both versions here and download them, along with the album tracks "The Dirt That You Throw," when you pre-order the album.