Vagabon (aka Laetitia Tamko) is a guest on the new Talkhouse podcast series Listening. On the show, curated by Elia Einhorn, artists are invited to share their perspective on how they listen to the world and how that informs the music they make. They also create a new composition for the episode and discuss the creative process behind it. In this episode, Tamko shares, says Einhorn, “the sounds she cherishes from growing up in Cameroon and how weaving together motion and our stream of consciousness can open us up to big ideas.” You can hear their conversation and the composition she wrote for the show here. Vagabon will perform at Venus Fest in Toronto and with Jason Isbell at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville in October.

The Magnetic Fields’ Stephin Merritt is on the new Talkhouse podcast series Listening. On the show, curated by Elia Einhorn, artists are invited to share their perspective on how they listen to the world and how that informs the music they make. They also create a new composition for the episode and discuss the creative process behind it. “Witty, guarded, cynical, loving, heartsick, and tender—this is Stephin Merritt, or at least what we hear in the songs he pens for his acclaimed band The Magnetic Fields,” says Einhorn. You can hear their conversation and the song Merritt wrote for the show here. The Magnetic Fields kick off the next leg of their UK and European tour on August 31.

Rhiannon Giddens is on Southern Living's Biscuits & Jam podcast. She talks with Southern Living Editor-in-Chief Sid Evans about her childhood in North Carolina, learning from her mentor Joe Thompson, making music with Carolina Chocolate Drops and in her own solo work, her new opera, Omar, and more, not least her efforts to bake the perfect biscuit. “I feel like I represent what the South is, which is a mixture of things,” Giddens says. “And I think that’s where our strength is.” You can hear their conversation here.

Cécile McLorin Salvant is at Tanglewood  ... Emmylou Harris returns to Blackberry Farm in TN ... Hurray for the Riff Raff plays Pitchfork concert in Queens ... Lake Street Dive, Rachael & Vilray perform in Portland, ME ... Punch Brothers are at Philadelphia Folk Festival and Green Mountain Bluegrass & Roots Festival ... Joshua Redman plays Ellington, Monk, and Shorter in Houston ... Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway are in Oak Ridge, TN ... Wilco plays Montreal and Cooperstown ...

Rhiannon Giddens was on CBS Sunday Morning to discuss Omar, the opera she wrote with Michael Abels, based on the life and autobiography of enslaved Muslim scholar Omar Ibn Said, who was forcefully brought to Charleston, SC from Africa in 1807. “We need to know their stories,” says Giddens, “and then we know more about who we are now.” You can watch their conversation here.

After spending nearly 30 years showcasing their music across the globe, Wilco will make its Iceland debut April 6–8, 2023, at Reykjavík’s Eldborg Hall at Harpa. Tickets go on sale August 16. A new, previously unreleased track from the upcoming Yankee Hotel Foxtrot super deluxe and deluxe editions—a live, in-the-studio version of “Ashes of American Flags” from a 2001 session on WXRT Radio’s Sound Opinions—is out today.

Longtime Warner Bros. Records Chairman Mo Ostin died at his home in Los Angeles at the age of 95 last week. In his tribute to Ostin, Nonesuch Records President David Bither writes: "without him, Nonesuch would not be the same company that it is today."

Punch Brothers, who conclude their American Acoustic tour of the United States with Watchhouse and Sarah Jarosz on the East Coast next week, have announced a tour with Béla Fleck in December. The tour kicks off with three stops in Texas—Dallas, Austin, and Houston—followed by shows in Birmingham, Greensboro, Indianapolis, Ann Arbor, and Buffalo.

The Blue Hour, a song cycle born of a collaboration among five composers—Rachel Grimes, Angélica Negrón, Shara Nova, Caroline Shaw, and Sarah Kirkland Snider—will be released October 14 on New Amsterdam / Nonesuch Records. The piece was commissioned and performed by the chamber orchestra A Far Cry, who are joined by singer Shara Nova. Set to excerpts from Carolyn Forché’s epic poem On Earth, the music follows one woman’s journey through the liminal space between life and death via thousands of hallucinatory and non-linear images. Exploring memories of childhood, war, love, and loss, The Blue Hour amplifies the beauty, pain, and fragility of human life from a collective female perspective.

The first recording of Steve Reich’s Reich/Richter, performed by Ensemble intercontemporain and conducted by George Jackson, released in June on CD/digital, is now available on vinyl. The composition was originally written to be performed with German visual artist Gerhard Richter and Corinna Belz’s film Moving Picture (946-3). "Reminiscent of his earliest work," says the Financial Times, "it is very beautiful." You can take a look inside the vinyl in an unboxing video here.

Natalie Merchant was a guest on the Sheroes podcast hosted by Carmel Holt. They spoke at the Newport Folk Festival in July, where Merchant took part in a number of special collaborative performances. They discuss her career, some of what she’s been focused on for the past few years, and what’s ahead. They also spoke for Mixtape Memoir on Sonos, looking back at Merchant’s life through songs. You can hear both here.

Hurray for the Riff Raff kicks off a tour of the Pacific Northwest with two sets at Pickathon in Oregon this weekend. There's more great live music ahead around the world from John Adams, Lake Street Dive, Punch Brothers, and Molly Tuttle.