Fatoumata Diawara performs an all-ages, free set at Central Park SummerStage in New York City on Sunday afternoon, closing out the US leg of her North American summer tour in support of her debut album, Fatou, released last summer on World Circuit / Nonesuch Records. Taking place at the open-air Rumsey Playfield, rain or shine, Diawara shares a bill with the Zimbabwean band Oliver Mtukudzi and The Black Spirits and the Ethiopian trio Krar Collective. She heads to Canada in August to round out her tour with sets at the Edmonton Folk Music Festival and the Salmon Arm Roots & Blues Festival.

Before heading to the city, Diawara offers two sets at the 2013 Finger Lakes GrassRoots Festival of Music and Dance, which got underway last night at the Trumansburg Fairgrounds in upstate New York and continues through the weekend. She performs on the Infield Stage tonight and the Grandstand Stage on Saturday afternoon.

Directly following Diawara tonight, Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell perform a set on the same GrassRoots Infield Stage, continuing their North American tour featuring music from their duo album, Old Yellow Moon. They travel across the state to play at the Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center in Westhampton Beach on Saturday.

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Sam Amidon continues his European tour with two supporting sets this weekend, opening for Martha Wainwright at the Sage Gateshead in Gateshead, UK, on Saturday, as part of the SummerTyne Americana Festival, and for Glen Hansard at Iveagh Gardens in Dublin on Sunday. Amidon’s tour features songs from his recently released Nonesuch debut album, Bright Sunny South.

The Line of Best Fit recently posted the second of Amidon’s sessions with the site, in which he performs the song “Short Life” off the new album. You can watch the video here. 

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Devendra Banhart, whose sold-out show at the Barbican in London last night earned four stars in the Evening Standard and The Arts Desk, continues his five-week European tour in support of his recently released Nonesuch debut album, Mala, with a headline set at Plaine de la machine à feu in Dour, Belgium, on Saturday, as part of the Dour Festival.

Banhart and his band—Noah Georgeson on guitar, Fabrizio Moretti on drums, Todd Dahlhoff on bass, and Joe Steinbrick and Rodrigo Amarante on guitars—head next to the Czech Republic to help close out the Colours of Ostrava Festival on the ArcelorMittal Stage at Dolní Vítkovice in Ostrava on Sunday.

Directly before Banhart’s performance, Rokia Traoré plays a set on the same Ostrava stage. Also continuing a European summer tour, celebrating the European release of her new album, Beautiful Africa (due for US release this fall), Traoré performs two sets in France this weekend: at Les Vieilles Charrues in Carhaix-Plouguer tonight and a free show at Hôtel de Ville in Paris on Saturday, as part of Festival Fnac Live.

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Björk closes out her North American tour with a headline set at Union Park in Chicago tonight, as part of the eighth-annual Pitchfork Festival. Her culminating performance features songs from her latest album, Biophilia, and favorites from throughout her career.

"There are artists and then there are artists completely in command of their art," writes the Toronto Star in a review of Björk's set at Echo Beach there earlier this week. "Icelandic iconoclast Björk Gudmundsdóttir falls in the latter camp." The show "was truly a transporting, tingle-inducing thing to behold."

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Bombino joins Robert Plant Presents The Sensational Space Shifters as special guest at two outdoor performances this weekend: at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre at Encore Park in Alpharetta, Georgia, tonight, and a late set at Koka Booth Amphitheatre at Regency Park in Cary, North Carolina, on Saturday. It’s an apt assembling of musicians, given that Plant’s new band combines African beats and synthesizer funk with rock ’n’ roll and blues, playing new tunes and Led Zeppelin favorites in never-before-heard arrangements.

Bombino and his band head up to Massachusetts on their own to perform at the Green River Festival in Greenfield on Sunday before joining Plant and company for two more shows next week.

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Carolina Chocolate Drops offer sets at two music festivals in New York this weekend: at Walsh Farm upstate in Oak Hill on Saturday, as part of the Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival, and at Shorefront Park in Patchogue, Long Island, on Sunday, as part of the Great South Bay Music Festival. They head next to Colorado to perform in four different cities through the end of July.

Mandolin virtuoso Chris Thile and guitar maven Michael Daves reunite for an early evening set at the same Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival on Saturday. Their 2011 debut duo album, Sleep with One Eye Open, features traditional tunes by bluegrass legends like The Monroe Brothers, The Louvin Brothers, Jimmy Martin, and Flatt & Scruggs.

Following the Chocolate Drops’ set, Thile returns to the Grey Fox stage for a Magnificent Late-Night Supersonic All-Stars set with Tim O’Brien, Jerry Douglas, Punch Brothers’ band mate Noam Pikelny, and others.. Thile’s solo album Bach: Sonatas and Partitas, Vol. 1 is set for release on August 6 and is available for pre-order in the Nonesuch Store.

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Ry Cooder is the focus of the latest episode of All the Traditions, the weekly folk music show from Vermont Public Radio, airing Sunday evening from 7 to 10 PM ET. The show's host, Robert Resnik, in an episode preview titled "Ry Cooder for President!," describes it as "an appreciation of some the wide-ranging and musically incredible contributions that Ry Cooder has made." Tune in online at vpr.net.

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Dr. John performs an all-ages outdoor show at the Minnesota Zoo’s Weesner Family Amphitheater in Apple Valley, Minnesota, tonight, as part of the Music in the Zoo concert series.

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Lianne La Havas concludes the current leg of her European tour with two festival sets in the UK this weekend: at Royal Hall in Harrogate tonight, as part of Harrogate International Festivals, and at Devonshire Green in Sheffield on Saturday as part of the Tramlines Festival. La Havas launches her North American tour next weekend.

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Audra McDonald and pianist Seth Rudetsky perform the first two sets in a two-night run at The Art House in Provincetown, Massachusetts, on Sunday. McDonald released her new album, Go Back Home, her first in seven years, in May.

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Natalie Merchant joins the Hudson Valley Philharmonic, led by conductor Randall Craig Fleischer, to give two performances this weekend: at Bethel Woods Center for the Arts in Bethel, New York, on Saturday, and the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, on Sunday. On the program are selections from her Nonesuch debut album, Leave Your Sleep, as well as favorite songs from throughout her career.

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Allen Toussaint performs a headline set at the Grand Targhee Resort in Alta, Wyoming, on Saturday for the ninth-annual Targhee Fest. After earning an honorary degree from Tulane University in his hometown of New Orleans in May, Toussaint was honored as a recipient of a National Medal of Arts at The White House last week. In presenting Toussaint with the award, the New York Times reports, President Obama explained: “After his hometown was battered by Katrina and Allen was forced to evacuate, he did something more important for his city—he went back. And since then, Allen has devoted his musical talent to lifting up and building up the city.” 

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Sara Watkins offers a set at Jericho Beach Park in Vancouver, British Columbia, on Saturday for the Vancouver Folk Festival. She performs selections from her latest album, Sun Midnight Sun, and her self-titled Nonesuch debut album.