Last week, the staff at NPR Music announced their 25 Favorite Albums of 2012 (So Far), including Dr. John's Locked Down and Jeremy Denk's Ligeti/Beethoven. NPR listeners have now weighed in. Their list of the year's best albums (so far) includes those two albums and adds Amadou & Mariam's Folila, Sara Watkins' Sun Midnight Sun, and the new album of works by Krzysztof Penderecki and Jonny Greenwood. Says NPR: "The poll results reconfirmed that we've got another great year of music on our hands."

Carolina Chocolate Drops' tour brought the band to the Mystic Theater in Petaluma, California, this spring. While there, the band sat down backstage with PBS's Sound Tracks: Quick Hits to discuss their new album, Leaving Eden, the history of the band, and the music they champion. Band mates Dom Flemons and Rhiannon Giddens gave an exclusive backstage performance. Watch both videos plus two songs from the stage here. Says Quick Hits: "It's hard to imagine a quartet being more in sync than the Drops are during this virtuoso, rowdy romp."

British singer/guitarist Lianne La Havas's song "Tease Me" has been selected as Today's Top Tune by KCRW in LA. Download the track today at kcrw.com. The station, which says La Havas "has captured our hearts," chose the title track to her forthcoming album, Is Your Love Big Enough?, for NPR Music’s list of “5 Songs Public Radio Can't Stop Playing.” That song will be released as the album's first single this Tuesday on iTunes, paired with the album track “Lost & Found.”

Pianist Jeremy Denk invited NPR into his NYC apartment as he sat down to practice the Ligeti Piano Etudes featured on his new album, Ligeti/Beethoven. Watch the resulting video here. NPR Music recently named Ligeti/Beethoven one of its 25 Favorite Albums of 2012 (So Far), saying Denk's "technical prowess, insight, wit and ardor have resulted in an album that people are going to be talking about for years to come."

Here Lies Love, the new David Byrne and Fatboy Slim musical on the life of Imelda Marcos, begins a five-night, sold-out run at MASS MoCA tonight. The performances offer an early look at the musical, which will receive its official world premiere at NYC's Public Theater in April 2013. The Boston Globe calls the 2010 Nonesuch recording of the song cycle "superb" and "sumptuous." Director Alex Timbers, in an interview with the Globe, calls Byrne "one of the most important artists of the last several decades."

Ry Cooder joined TIME's Joe Klein on the columnist's road trip across the US. Klein is crossing the country, talking to Americans about the state of the nation as the fall election season approaches. It's something to which Cooder is particularly attuned, given the subject of his new album, Election Special, out August 21. "Ry Cooder has provided much of the sound track of my life," writes Klein. "He’s been writing political songs in recent years, and unlike most in that often-too-obvious genre, each is musically exquisite." Watch a video of the pair meeting up with fiddler Dan Gellert in Dayton, Ohio, here.

Punch Brothers have announced the first leg of their Who's Feeling Young Now? fall tour. The band has added a number of new East Coast dates in addition to the previously announced appearance at the Austin City Limits Music Festival on October 13. Punch Brothers kick things off north of the border with two Canadian dates—Montreal on September 27 and Toronto on September 28—followed by shows in New York, North Carolina, New Orleans, Georgia, and more. A limited pre-sale for most dates is underway.

Sara Watkins, who brought her spring tour to a close with three performances over the weekend, has now added a string of new fall dates as special guest of Jackson Browne on his US Acoustic Tour. The tour, which begins this summer on July 14 in Charlotte, North Carolina, runs through mid-August, before picking up again mid-October and ending on November 15 in Colorado Springs. Browne makes a special guest appearance on Watkins' new album, Sun Midnight Sun.

The title track to Lianne La Havas' forthcoming debut album, Is Your Love Big Enough?, is in NPR's Heavy Rotation: Five Songs Public Radio Can't Stop Playing. "Our song for the summer, 'Is Your Love Big Enough?' is laid-back, dusty soul from a 22-year-old U.K. singer-songwriter," says LA's KCRW, which selected the song. "La Havas' optimism and ability to write a song that sticks in your head in all the best ways—with handclaps to boot—makes her a perfect fit for summer in Southern California." Download the track for free now at npr.org.

Punch Brothers, Sara Watkins perform at the Pete Seeger-inspired Clearwater Festival in upstate NY ... Björk brings Biophilia to Fes Festival ... Carolina Chocolate Drops play Colorado's Palisade Fest ... Dr. John takes Treme to Oakland ... Philip Glass, Laurie Anderson duet in Brooklyn ... The Low Anthem do Dublin ... Emmylou Harris and others celebrate Kate McGarrigle at Luminato ... Joshua Redman launches four-show Paris residency, including duo set with Brad Mehldau ... and more ...

Shawn Colvin was the guest on the Tavis Smiley show last night on PBS. She talks with Smiley about her new album, All Fall Down, and her new memoir, Diamond in the Rough, both released last week. The in-depth conversation touches on the highs and lows of Colvin's life and covers a breadth of topics, not least her storied career in music. Watch the episode here.

Carolina Chocolate Drops recently stopped by USA Today's StudioA to perform a three-song set featuring music from their new album, Leaving Eden, and their Grammy-winning Nonesuch debut, Genuine Negro Jig. The set opens with "Your Baby Ain't Sweet Like Mine," off the earlier album, followed by "Country Girl" and "Riro's House," both from the new album. Watch the set and the follow-up interview with the band here.