Vagabon (aka Lætitia Tamko) began a tour of the United States as special guest of Angel Olsen earlier this week, continuing with shows at Lincoln Theatre in Washington, DC, tonight and Saturday.

Vagabon’s self-titled sophomore album was released last month via Nonesuch to widespread critical acclaim. NPR Music includes it among the month's best albums, saying it's made of "luminous songs that showcase Tamko's growth and versatility as a singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer, poet and all-around icon-in-the-making." “Vagabon chronicles a life enriched, and made complicated, by stepping into new contexts,” says the New Yorker. “Her singing offers structure to textures that are ethereal, moody, and ever-shifting... Each song on Vagabon feels like a small world.” 

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Sam Amidon performs at St Mary’s Music Hall in London on Saturday, headlining Walthamstow Folk Festival. Folk Radio UK's preview of the event notes his “adventurous reworkings of traditional American ballads, hymns and work songs.”

Amidon’s Fatal Flower Garden EP (A Tribute to Harry Smith) is due November 15 and is available to preorder from the Nonesuch Store with an instant download of his take on Mississippi John Hurt's “Spike Driver Blues.”

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Laurie Anderson gives Brooklyn Public Library’s free Message from the Library lecture on Sunday. Her message, “The Size of the Con,” which will be available as a hand-printed chapbook promptly after her lecture, addresses how to prepare for the 2020 US election cycle and the tumultuous year ahead.

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Devendra Banhart continues his tour in support of his new album, Ma, in the Midwest this weekend: at The Slowdown in Omaha tonight, Varsity Theater in Minneapolis on Saturday, and Thalia Hall in Chicago on Sunday.

“There’s no such thing as killing your fear,” Banhart tells Office Magazine in a recent interview. “For me there’s just getting to know it and there’s just learning how to dance with it and have a conversation with it.” You can read what else he had to say here.

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Portuguese fado singer Carminho begins a two-week, seven-city tour of North America, featuring music from her new album, Maria, at Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall in NYC on Sunday. The tour continues with performances in Boston, Toronto, Montreal, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, culminating at The Birchmere in Alexandria, VA, outside DC.

London Jazz News calls Maria "a beautifully realized, remarkably varied yet uniformly gorgeous album." PopMatters calls it “a testament to the power of fado as well as a stunning examination of her musical prowess.”

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Pianist Jeremy Denk joins the Tapiola Sinfonietta, led by Jeffrey Means, and feature harpsichordist Irina Zahharenkova for a concert at Tapiola Hall in Espoo, Finland, tonight. They perform Bach’s Concerto in E Major, Elliott Carter’s Double Concerto, and Mozart’s Piano Concerto in F Major.

Denk performs works by Bach, Mozart, and many other composers on his new double album, c. 1300–c. 2000, which BBC Radio 3 calls “a thoughtfully curated, beautifully played, brilliantly annotated recital.”

He spoke with his friend André Aciman, the author of the novel Call Me by Your Name and its just-released sequel, Find Me, for the latest issue of Interview magazine. "Music—I think more than literature—is a form of transcendence," Aciman says. "Music is how we lift off when we want to reach the highest spheres of beauty. I think that’s why I keep going back to classical music."

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Rhiannon Giddens and multi-instrumentalist Francesco Turrisi conclude their 2019 US tour in support of her new album, there is no Other, with sold-out shows at The Dakota in Minneapolis tonight and Stoughton Opera House in Stoughton, Wisconsin, on Saturday and Sunday. They tour the UK and Europe later this fall and winter and return to perform in the States in February.

Variety, in a recent feature with Giddens, Turrisi, and producer Joe Henry, calls there is no Other “the year's most ambitious and mending musical experiment.” You can read the piece at variety.com.

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Gaby Moreno closes out her European tour at La Cochera Cabaret in Malaga, Spain, tonight. ¡Spangled!, her new album with Van Dyke Parks, is “a luscious, string-laden collection of songs,” writes the Guardian, “celebrating the music of the Americas from Panamanian bolero to Brazilian bossa nova. Accompanied by storied producer Van Dyke Parks, Moreno presents a beguiling argument for the power of musical migration.” Moreno begins the Roots Rising! tour with Liz Vice and Matt Andersen next week.

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Mandy Patinkin brings his just-launched Diaries tour to Veterans Memorial Auditorium in Providence, Rhode Island, tonight, and 1932 Criterion Theatre in Bar Harbor, Maine, on Sunday. Accompanied by pianist Adam Ben David, Patinkin performs music from his new album, Children and Art, released last week on Nonesuch Records. "I love everything about it," Patinkin tells the Providence Journal of making music. "I love the effect music has on human beings—the lyrics and the story the song is telling. One of my greatest joys is sharing it ... You’re not alone in the experience.”

Children and Art, recorded in New York with pianist/producer Thomas Bartlett (aka Doveman), includes songs by Randy Newman, Laurie Anderson, Lyle Lovett, Stephen Sondheim, Patinkin himself, and more.

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Rachael & Vilray—the duo of Lake Street Dive singer-songwriter Rachael Price and composer, singer, and guitarist Vilray—begin a US tour in support of their self-titled debut album at Old Town School of Folk in Chicago tonight, followed by shows at Majestic Theatre in Madison on Saturday and The Cedar in Minneapolis on Sunday.

“The voices of acoustic duo Rachael & Vilray are magical enough on their own,” writes Chronogram, “but when they blend in song the results are utterly sublime.” The New York Times says the album is “as cozy as it is sophisticated.”

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Chris Thile hosts his public radio show, Live From Here, from The Town Hall in New York City on Saturday, with special guests Common, Gregory Alan Isakov, Aoife O'Donovan, Serena Brook, and comedian Tom Papa. Folks in the US can tune in on their favorite public radio station this weekend and around the world via livefromhere.org, starting at 5:45 PM ET.

Thile recently stopped by the WNYC studios to chat with All of It host Alison Stewart about Live From Here and perform two songs; you can listen to the session here.

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Yola begins a two-week sold-out European tour performing songs from her debut album, Walk Through Fire, as special guest of Greta Van Fleet at Leeds O2 Academy in England on Sunday.

Elton John ends his latest Beats1 show, Rocket Hour, chatting with his guest Brandi Carlile in praise of Yola. "She's unbelievable. She’s got a thunderous voice. She's a total game-changer," says Carlile. "I'm a massive fan." John concurs: "You'll be delighted by what you hear."