Chris Thile was on NPR's Here & Now, from WBUR in Boston, to talk with host Robin Young about his new solo album, Laysongs—six original songs and three covers that contextualize and banter with his ideas about spirituality. "If I have a religion now, it's trying to keep my ears wide open to the human beings that I encounter," Thile tells Young. "I worry that we as human beings have a tendency to find people who think and act and look like we do and we pod up ... I don't think that we're ever going to change someone's mind if we're not willing to be changed." You can hear their conversation here.

Chris Thile celebrates last week's Nonesuch release of Laysongs, his first truly solo album, with a US tour that includes a handful dates this summer—at Telluride Bluegrass Festival this week and along the East Coast in the coming months—and many more in the fall, starting in the Midwest, heading next to New England and New York, then down to the Southeast. 

Carnegie Hall has announced its 2021–22 concert season, sharing plans to reopen its landmark concert venue to the general public in October, and among the performers taking the esteemed hall's stages are Sō Percussion with Dawn Upshaw and Gilbert Kalish, and Kronos Quartet; as well as Youssou N'Dour. The season also features works by composers including Caroline Shaw, John Adams, Nico Muhly, Sarah Kirkland Snider, and Michael Gordon.

Laurie Anderson is the host of Awaken, a new podcast from the Rubin Museum of Art in NYC about the path to enlightenment and what it means to "wake up." The series' ten episodes dive into the personal stories of guests who share how they’ve experienced a shift in their awareness, and as a result, their perspective on life. You can hear the first two episodes here.

Chris Thile was on WNYC's All of It with Alison Stewart on Friday, the release day for his new solo album, Laysongs, to share some songs from the album and the stories behind them for an All of It Listening Party. You can hear their conversation here. Laysongs is Thile's first truly solo album: just Thile, his voice, and his mandolin, on new recordings of six original songs and three covers, all of which contextualize and banter with his ideas about spirituality.

Emmylou Harris and Mary Chapin Carpenter came together to pay tribute to Kennedy Center Honoree Joan Baez, performing a medley of "Diamonds & Rust," "God Is God," and "We Shall Overcome," at the 43rd annual Kennedy Center Honors, which aired on CBS last night. You can watch their performance here. You can watch Rhiannon Giddens perform "Silver Dagger" with Dirk Powell as part of the complete Kennedy Center Honors special on CBS.com and Paramount+.

Chris Thile’s Laysongs, out now, is his first truly solo album: just Thile, his voice, and his mandolin, on new recordings of six original songs and three covers, all of which contextualize and banter with his ideas about spirituality. Recorded in a converted upstate New York church during the pandemic, Laysongs features the three-part Salt (in the Wounds) of the Earth, which was inspired by C.S. Lewis’s The Screwtape Letters (you can watch a performance of the first part here); a song Thile wrote about Dionysus; a selection from Béla Bartók’s Sonata for Solo Violin; “God Is Alive, Magic Is Afoot” based on Buffy Sainte-Marie’s adaptation of a Leonard Cohen poem; and a Hazel Dickens cover. 

Congratulations to Tigran Hamasyan, who has been awarded the Deutscher Jazzpreis 2021 for Piano/Keyboards and has been named International Artist of the Year. The Jazzpreis is a new jazz award launched by the German government's Commissioner for Culture and Media. 

"When Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney first teamed up two decades ago, it was their love of the Mississippi blues that brought them together," says CBS This Morning's Anthony Mason, who spoke with The Black Keys on the show. "Their latest album, Delta Kream ... is a tribute to those blues artists that they have long studied. Auerbach and Carney say The Black Keys would not exist without them." You can watch their conversation here.

Chris Thile is a "virtuoso mandolinist ... a truly consummate musician," says Evan Shinners, host of The WTF Bach Podcast, about his guest. "He also plays Bach extremely well." After ruminating on something Thile had told him during the interview, Shinners concludes: "I think that that is the sign of a great musician, really, to be able to say something even off the cuff and have it stick with another musician and influence them and allow them to chew on that little tidbit. Maybe that's just the sign of a great mind altogether." You can hear their conversation here.

In celebration of Pride Month, Nonesuch Records releases k.d. lang’s makeover, a new collection of classic dance remixes of some of her best-loved songs, today, including on translucent turquoise vinyl. The album brings these remixes, made between 1992 and 2000, together for the first time, and includes “Sexuality,” “Miss Chatelaine,” “Theme from The Valley of the Dolls,” “Summerfling,” and the #1 dance chart hits “Lifted By Love” and “If I Were You.” makeover’s cover art features a previously unseen 1995 portrait of lang by David LaChapelle. Also today, lang has released a video for "Sexuality (Tony Maserati Final Radio Remix)," edited by Robert Edridge-Waks from Marcus Nispel's original "Sexuality" video; you can watch it here.

The Black Keys are on NPR's World Cafe to discuss their new album, Delta Kream, and share some tracks from it. "One of the really fun things about The Black Keys is that they themselves are huge music fans," says host Raina Douris. "Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney get excited talking about the artists who've influenced them, and today you will hear that excitement as we dive into the new Black Keys album, Delta Kream." You can hear their conversation here.