David Byrne takes his American Utopia tour down South … Sam Amidon performs in the UK … Fleet Foxes play Shaky Knees in Atlanta … Lake Street Dive launches Free Yourself Up tour in Boston … Audra McDonald is in Missouri … Nico Muhly, Teitur perform Confessions in Germany … Joshua Redman leads DC residency … Chris Thile hosts Live From Here from the Ryman in Nashville … and more …
David Byrne continues the US leg of his American Utopia world tour down South this weekend, playing a set at Central Park in Atlanta tonight, as part of the Shaky Knees Festival. He and his 12-piece band head to Tennessee for a set at Tom Lee Park in Memphis on Saturday, as part of Beale Street Music Festival, and play a sold-out headlining concert at the historic Ryman Auditorium in Nashville on Sunday.
The Los Angeles Times recently joined Byrne on the road in California; you can read what ensued in the feature at latimes.com. Billboard, reviewing his set at New Orleans Jazz Fest last weekend, calls the show “a strikingly minimalist concert experience unlike anything else.”
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Sam Amidon brings music from his 2017 album, The Following Mountain, to More Music in Morecambe, United Kingdom, on Saturday. The London Evening Standard gives the album four stars, praising its “captivating arrangements and elegiac charm.”
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Devendra Banhart will inaugurate a new series of workshops he has curated for Fondazione Prada's Accademia dei bambini in Milan, titled Imaginary Universes, by personally leading a workshop called "The Astonishing Adventures of a Celestial Archaeologist" there all day Saturday. Workshops are open to all children aged 4-10; places are assigned on a first-come first-served basis.
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Fleet Foxes resume the current leg of their US Crack-Up tour in Atlanta this weekend, playing a set at Central Park for the Shaky Knees Festival tonight and a Shaky Knees side show at Variety Playhouse on Saturday.
A limited number of the band’s new vinyl 7" single, "Crack-Up" (Choral Version) b/w "In the Morning" (Live in Switzerland), first released for Record Store Day, is now available in the Nonesuch Store, where it is also available digitally.
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Lake Street Dive, whose new album, Free Yourself Up, is out now on Nonesuch Records, launches a North American tour in Massachusetts this weekend, with sold-out shows at The Sinclair in the band’s original hometown of Boston tonight and at Shea Theater in Turner Falls on Saturday. The band heads to upstate New York for a concert at Ulster Performing Arts Center in Kingston on Sunday.
WFUV, naming Free Yourself Up its “New Dig” (aka Album of the Week), calls it “a confident collection of songs that reflects the quartet’s nearly decade-and-a-half of music making.”
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Audra McDonald, a guest judge on last night's RuPaul's Drag Race, is in Missouri this weekend, joining the Kansas City Symphony at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts on Saturday, followed by a solo performance at Touhill Performing Arts Center in St. Louis on Sunday. McDonald spoke with St. Louis Public Radio's Evie Hemphill ahead of Sunday's show; you can listen to the interview here.
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American composer Nico Muhly and Faroese singer/songwriter Teitur perform music from their album, Confessions, released on Nonesuch in 2016, at Scala Theater in Ludwigsburg, Germany, on Saturday. The duo is joined for the occasion by the Holland Baroque ensemble, which is featured on the recording.
Gramophone calls Confessions "brilliantly witty, strangely compelling ... subtly affecting." The Line of Best Fit calls it “bright, lively and youthful … a record of bottomless charm.”
Three new songs by Teitur can be heard on Mandy Patinkin’s just-released recording with producer/pianist Thomas Bartlett, Diary: January 27, 2018. Muhly and Bartlett release their own album, Peter Pears: Balinese Ceremonial Music, on Nonesuch later this month.
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Joshua Redman and his Quartet—pianist Aaron Goldberg, bassist Reuben Rogers, and drummer Gregory Hutchinson—began a four night residency at Blues Alley in Washington, DC, last night, and continue with two sets a night this weekend, tonight, Saturday, and Sunday.
Nonesuch releases Still Dreaming, an album by Redman, drummer Brian Blade, bassist Scott Colley, and trumpeter Ron Miles, on May 25. The album, inspired by the band Old and New Dreams, of which Redman’s father Dewey was a member, is available to pre-order from the Nonesuch Store and iTunes with an instant download of the track "Unanimity."
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Chris Thile hosts his public radio show Live From Here at the historic Ryman Auditorium in Nashville on Saturday, with special guests Courtney Barnett, David Rawlings, and comedian Neal Brennan. Madison Cunningham joins Thile as his duet partner. Folks in the US can tune in on their favorite public radio station this weekend, and fans around the world can watch live online at livefromhere.org starting at 4:45 PM CT.
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