Pat Metheny begins a six-city run of the United States with drummer Antonio Sánchez, pianist Gwilym Simcock, and bassist Linda Oh this weekend, performing at Infinity Hall in Hartford tonight and Beacon Theatre in New York City on Saturday, followed by a sold-out show at The Wilbur in Boston on Sunday. The tour continues into next week with stops at The Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, Cain Park in Cleveland Heights, and Ravinia outside of Chicago.

Metheny first toured with this group last summer, for dates in Europe and the UK. It was met with rave reviews, with the Guardian giving this "tour de force from an improv king" four stars. "The rapport within this newly minted band was unmistakable."

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Rhiannon Giddens’ US tour, which picked up again earlier this week, continues with performances at Charleston Gaillard Center in Charleston, South Carolina, tonight, as part of the Spoleto Festival; KCD Theater in Louisville on Saturday; and Millennium Park in Chicago on Sunday, as part of the free Chicago Blues Festival.

Giddens released her new album, Freedom Highway, earlier this year to critical acclaim and a nomination for Album of the Year at the upcoming Americana Honors & Awards. "The subject matter is kind of eternal when it comes to this country,” Giddens tells the Charleston City Paper in an interview ahead of tonight’s show. You can read what else she had to say here.

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Tigran Hamasyan concludes his world tour, featuring music from his new album, An Ancient Observer, in Germany, with concerts at Kölner Philharmonie on Saturday and Schloss Elmau on Tuesday. The Sydney Morning Herald, which had given his 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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Composer Shye Ben Tzur and the Rajasthan Express, currently touring Europe with music from their 2015 album, Junun, play a sold-out show at Ericsson Globe in Stockholm, opening for Radiohead, tonight, followed by a performance of their own at Rich Mix in London on Sunday.

Ben Tzur, Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood, and the group of Indian musicians known as the Rajasthan Express first reunited to play Junun at Barbican Hall in London last year. The Financial Times gave the show four stars, praising the music’s “uncomplicated exuberance … this was music that transported the listener, not just to the state of Rajasthan but to a state of mesmeric bliss.”

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Kronos Quartet performs at Z Space in its hometown of San Francisco on Saturday, as part of Switchboard Music Festival, and at Kanbar Center for the Performing Arts in San Rafael on Sunday afternoon. On the weekend’s programs are works by Rhiannon Giddens, Laurie Anderson, Pete Townshend, Omar Souleyman, Aleksandra Vrebalov, and others, including two world premieres from the quartet’s commissioning project, Fifty for the Future.

Kronos joins forces with Nonesuch label mates Sam Amidon, Olivia Chaney, Rhiannon Giddens, and Natalie Merchant for Folk Songs, an album of mostly traditional songs with contemporary arrangements, out today.

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Lake Street Dive continues its extensive US summer tour with three opening sets for Jack Johnson this weekend: at Xfinity Center in Mansfield, Massachusetts, tonight; BB&T Pavilion in Camden, New Jersey, on Saturday; and Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Maryland, on Sunday.

“As a listener, I really love going to live shows where the performances are different from the record,” songwriter/bassist Bridget Kearney tells the Worcester Telegram in an interview ahead of tonight’s show. “So that’s one thing that touring as a quartet allows us to do is differentiate it from the studio versions of the songs.” You can read what else she had to say here.

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Randy Newman performs on the RedGuard Stage in Wichita, Kansas, tonight, as part of Riverfest. It’s the first of a number of shows Newman will play in the US in the coming months.

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. (You can watch the video for the song here.) Pre-orders from Nonesuch also come with an exclusive print, a limited number of which will be signed by Newman.

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Punch Brothers, who are touring the US for the rest of the month, perform on the Main Stage of the Blue Ox Music Festival in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, on Saturday and at Crossroads in Kansas City, Missouri, on Sunday.

"With enthusiasm and experimentation, Punch Brothers take bluegrass to its next evolutionary stage," says the Washington Post, "drawing equal inspiration from the brain and the heart. The word 'eclectic' only scratches the surface when describing the quintet's deep well of influences, which include roots rock, jazz and even classical."

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Saxophonist Joshua Redman’s trio—Reuben Rogers on bass and Gregory Hutchinson on drums—concludes its tour of Europe with two performances in Germany this weekend. The trio plays Domicil in Dortmund tonight and a free show at Bachfest in Leipzig on Saturday.

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The Staves conclude their nine-city tour in the UK this weekend, playing a sold-out show at The Old Market in Brighton tonight, followed by a set at Shepherd’s Bush in London on Saturday, as part of Bushstock Festival. DIY Magazine praises the trio’s “power to reach out and entrance with their tumbling harmonies, leaving the crowd hanging on every word … There’s no showy stagecraft on show, yet the whole room is smitten.”