Rhiannon Giddens has announced her first solo tour for the spring. The shows begin March 28 at the Big Ears Festival and continue through June, with stops in cities and at festivals along the way, including NYC, Chicago, LA, and the Bonnaroo Music Festival. Giddens makes her solo television debut performing “Waterboy” from her new album, Tomorrow Is My Turn, on CBS’s Late Show with David Letterman on the album's release day, February 10.

Punch Brothers, the Evening Standard noted in a four-star review of their recent London show, "sounded as sharp as they looked." All the rarer then to find the band dressed casually in a new video that goes behind the scenes of the writing of their new album, The Phosphorescent Blues, which you can watch here. The band previews their forthcoming tour as musical guests on A Prairie Home Companion this weekend, guest-hosted by none other than Chris Thile. Following Rolling Stone's recent exclamation that "Punch Brothers are astoundingly skilled, non-show-offy, and pretty much pushing at the vanguard of really great music you need to listen to right now," PopMatters calls their new album "another triumph for the quintet." No Depression calls it "tremendous," explaining: "These are, after all, five of the most dexterous, creative, imaginative musicians working in any area of music today."

Buena Vista Social Club’s Lost and Found is due March 23 from World Circuit Records. Coming almost two decades after the release of the original Grammy-winning, self-titled LP, the new album is a collection of previously unreleased tracks—some of which were recorded during the original album’s sessions in Havana and others from the years that followed. The studio tracks on Lost and Found were recorded at the 1996 Egrem studio sessions in Havana and during a period of rich and prolific creativity stretching into the early 2000s. Lost and Found also features live recordings from the world tours of Buena Vista’s legendary veterans. The album is available to pre-order with an instant download of the album track "Macusa."

Nonesuch Records releases The Staves' Justin Vernon–produced label debut, If I Was, in the US on March 31, 2015 (vinyl follows April 21). The Staves are three sisters originally from Watford, England: Emily (vocals), Jessica (vocals, guitar), and Camilla (vocals, ukulele) Staveley-Taylor. The album was recorded at Vernon's Eau Claire, Wisconsin, studio where he also recorded his 2012 self-titled Bon Iver album. Watch a short film about the making of the album here. If I Was is available to pre-order on iTunes and in the Nonesuch Store, with an instant download of the album tracks "Blood I Bled" and "Black & White." Plans for a North American tour will be announced shortly. 

Rhiannon Giddens' debut solo album, Tomorrow Is My Turn, due out next Tuesday, is streaming in full all this week as an NPR First Listen. "It's a scrupulously selected, richly realized collection of songs," writes NPR's Ann Powers. "Though she didn't write most of these songs, Giddens owns them on Tomorrow Is My Turn ... Her voice—mobile, intelligent, ready to talk back to anyone's presumptions—is always at the center here, guiding the story. Let me be the first to say it: Today is Rhiannon Giddens' turn."

Steve Reich, Stephen Sondheim take part in an evening of conversation and performance for Lincoln Center's American Songbook ... The Black Keys are on PBS's Austin City Limits ... Jeremy Denk takes a winter trip from Goldberg Variations in Florida to Winterreise in NYC ... Richard Goode joins LA Phil for Mozart ... Gidon Kremer, Kremerata Baltica play La Folle Journée in France ... Audra McDonald makes her Spanish debut at Madrid's Teatro Real ... Brad Mehldau tours France ... Conor Oberst plays Mexico City ... Sara Watkins, Rodney Crowell join Patty Griffin for Celtic Connections' Transatlantic Sessions in Glasgow ...

The Black Keys' latest performance on Austin City Limits (ACL) premieres this Saturday on PBS stations across the US. The band's set includes songs from their latest album, Turn Blue, and more. You can watch their ACL performances of "Fever" and "Little Black Submarines" here plus web-exclusive videos of "Too Afraid to Love" and "Howling for You." This is the band's second appearance on ACL.

Olivia Chaney has unveiled a second track, "The King's Horses," from her forthcoming Nonesuch Records debut album. "As the clock inevitably hurls itself into the future," says The Bluegrass Situation, which premiered the track, "this moment right here is a nice respite from the craziness of modern life." You can hear the song here. Chaney performs in select North American cities starting next week.

Singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Rhiannon Giddens joined Iron & Wine singer, songwriter, and guitarist Sam Beam on NBC tonight for a performance of Bob Dylan's "Forever Young" on the series finale of Parenthood. Dylan's recording, from the 1974 album Planet Waves, has been the show's theme song since it first aired. The new version by Giddens and Iron & Wine, which they played during the episode, is available digitally from Nonesuch Records on iTunes and in the Nonesuch Store. You can hear it here.

The Kronos Quartet/Kronos Performing Arts Association has announced a new commissioning initiative—Fifty for the Future: The Kronos Learning Repertoire. Beginning in the 2015/16 season, it will commission a collection of 50 new works—ten per year for five years—devoted to the most recent approaches to the string quartet, designed expressly for the training of students and emerging professionals. The works will be commissioned from an eclectic group of composers—25 men and 25 women, including label mate Rhiannon Giddens. Carnegie Hall, lead partner in the project, has named Kronos Quartet holder of the Richard and Barbara Debs Creative Chair for the 2015/16 season; Kronos will perform at Zankel Hall and lead a week-long workshop with three young quartets in April 2016.

Punch Brothers’ T Bone Burnett–produced new album, The Phosphorescent Blues. The album "shows off their eclectic sound," says NPR's Morning Edition. "The album mixes chamber-music intricacy, improvisational flash, lump-in-throat balladry, and a puckish Debussy cover," says the Boston Globe. The Minneapolis Star-Tribune says the new album features "some choral harmonies that are somewhere between the Beach Boys and heaven." The CBC calls the album "triumphant." "Listening to the Punch Brothers is an exercise in wonder," says the Irish Times. "The playing and harmonies are breathtaking. Enjoy." The Herald Scotland calls it "a quite masterly collection from a quintet of virtuosi."

New York Live Arts has announced the schedule of its 2015 Live Ideas festival, S K Y - Force and Wisdom in America Today, taking place April 15–19. Curated by Laurie Anderson in conjunction with New York Live Arts' Artistic Director Bill T. Jones, the 2015 Live Ideas festival combines the arts and social issues to creatively question the direction of modern culture. The festival presents more than 25 events via an array of music, dance, poetry, film, discussion, and a late-night lounge, featuring Anderson among others, as well as the work of artists including Lou Reed, Julian Schnabel, John Cage, and Arvo Pärt.