Randy Newman performs at Boarding House Park in Lowell, Massachusetts, tonight, as part of the Lowell Summer Music Series, followed by a show at Tarrytown Music Hall in Tarrytown, New York, on Sunday. BBC Radio 2 aired the first part of their Randy Newman documentary, Randy Newman’s America, featuring a new, in-depth interview and selections from the songwriter’s catalog, earlier this week, with the second hour to air next week. You can listen to part one here.

Newman, whom the Guardian calls “a great American songbook unto himself,” releases Dark Matter, his first album of new material in nine years, on Nonesuch on August 4. The album is available to pre-order now at iTunes and the Nonesuch Store, where the album track "Putin" may be downloaded immediately.

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Sam Amidon joins Crash Ensemble at St. Mary's Church Irishtown in Tipperary, Ireland, on Saturday, as part of the Clonmel Junction Festival. Amidon and the group perform traditional folk songs arranged by American composer and Nonesuch label mate Nico Muhly.

Amidon’s newest album, The Following Mountain, was released in May via Nonesuch Records. The London Evening Standard gives the album four stars, praising its “captivating arrangements and elegiac charm.” The Irish Times gives it four stars as well, calling it “breathtaking … a fascinating signpost to the future.”

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Laurie Anderson joins pioneering choreographer Wayne McGregor, video game designer Nina Freeman, poet/activist Birgitta Jónsdóttir, and more, in conversation for We Need to Talk About Technology, at Stoller Hall in Manchester on Saturday. The talk, part of the Interdependence: We Need to Talk series at the 2017 Manchester International Festival, is hosted by technology writer and social psychologist Aleks Krotoski and is co-presented with the Guardian. Anderson spoke to BBC Radio 6 Music's Radcliffe & Maconie ahead of her appearance; you can listen to the interview here.  

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Devendra Banhart continues his European summer tour, featuring music from his new album, Ape in Pink Marble, with sets at the Green Room in Belfort, France, tonight, as part of Les Eurockéennes, and Anfiteatro del Vittoriale in Brescia, Italy, on Sunday, as part of Tener-a-Mente Festival. The Washington Post says the new album "feels as mysterious and inviting as a strange dream. The tempo dips to a reggae lull midway through while guitar solos delicately fill in spaces with carefully chosen notes."

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Pianist Jeremy Denk joins the Bellingham Festival Orchestra, directed by Michael Palmer, in performing Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 at Western Washington University Performing Arts Center on Saturday, as part of the Bellingham Festival. The New York Times says Denk “is a pianist you want to hear no matter what he performs, in whatever combination—both for his penetrating intellectual engagement with the music and for the generosity of his playing.”

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Fleet Foxes continue their European tour, in support of their new album, Crack-Up, with two festival appearances this weekend: playing Kobetamendi in Bilbao, Italy, tonight, as part of Bilbao BBK Live 2017, followed by a set at the sold-out NOS Alive Festival in Lisbon on Saturday.

Crack-Up, the band’s long-awaited and highly anticipated third album, was released last month and has been met with great critical acclaim. "Likely to be the most remarkable album you will hear this year," exclaims the Times of London. "The return of one of the most original bands of this century." The New York Times calls it "a defiant artistic statement, an album that dares to feel important," while Pitchfork says it's the band's "most complex and compelling album to date." Uncut calls Crack-Up “astonishing.” “Ambitious, mature, meticulous … A recipe for total entertainment forever.”

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Tigran Hamasyan begins a short run of European dates in support of his latest album, An Ancient Observer, with a performance on the Darling Stage at the North Sea Jazz Festival in Rotterdam tonight. DownBeat calls An Ancient Observer "simply breathtaking," while NPR writes, "As a pianist and composer, [Hamasyan] draws inspiration from jazz, folkloric and classical sources, in ways that feel both hypermodern and practically ageless."

Hamasyan’s continues this current run through the end of the month, with stops in Italy, Lithuania and Norway. The pianist hits the road again in October, with dates in Sweden, France, Switzerland, Germany, and the Netherlands. The Sydney Morning Herald, which gave Hamasyan’s recent Sydney performance four stars, calls his show “spellbinding,” explaining: “The experience of hearing Hamasyan play live is also akin to travelling through time—not just because of the vast array of influences his music has absorbed, but because the magic of his artistry beckons you into another realm.”

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Emmylou Harris rounds out her tour of the US as special guest of John Mellencamp with two performances in upstate New York this weekend: at the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts tonight and CMAC in Canandaigua on Saturday. The tour concludes with a performance at Forest Hills Stadium in Queens on Tuesday.

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Shye Ben Tzur & the Rajasthan Express conclude their European Junun tour with a performance at Beykoz Kundura tonight as part of the Istanbul Jazz Festival.

Ben Tzur, Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood, and the Rajasthan Express, a group of Indian musicians, recorded Junun in a makeshift studio inside the 15th-century Mehrangarh Fort in Jodhpur, India. The Sunday Times of London called it "one of the most inspired releases of the year … intriguing, sinuous, and essential listening."

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Lake Street Dive continues its extensive US summer tour with a performance at the Chautauqua Institution Amphitheater in Chautauqua, New York, tonight, followed by sold-out shows at Lincoln Theatre in Washington, DC, on Saturday, and Marshfield Fair Grounds in Marshfield, Massachusetts, on Sunday, as part of Levitate Music & Arts Festival.

Lake Street Dive made its Nonesuch debut last year, with the critically acclaimed Side Pony. The Boston Globe calls the album an "exuberant, harmony-rich blend of pop, soul, and jazz.”

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Natalie Merchant continuers her career retrospective tour of the United States—Natalie Merchant: 3 Decades of Song—with performances at Connor Palace in Cleveland on Saturday and the Chicago Theatre on Sunday. The Daily Telegraph says “Merchant is a rare breed: an artist who has never compromised, but instead evolved with integrity, thought, and meaning.”

Nonesuch Records releases The Natalie Merchant Collection—a deluxe ten-CD box set compiled by Merchant—next week. The Times of London gives it four stars, while Uncut writes that “Merchant merges as a subtle vocalist and an imaginative storyteller who approaches big ideas about gender, class race, social justice through character and metaphor.”

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Saxophonist Joshua Redman joins the Trondheim Jazz Orchestra at Sani Resort in Thessaloniki, Greece, on Saturday, as part of Sani Jazz Festival. The Los Angeles Times has called Redman “one of the most vital figures in jazz of the new century.”