Olivia Chaney joins Joan Osborne, Martha Wainwright, Marshall Crenshaw, and Leo Nocentelli of The Meters for the sixth-annual Guitar Mash at City Winery in New York City on Sunday afternoon. The audience is invited to bring a guitar and play and sing along at this full afternoon of music, food, and community to support outreach and programming for underserved teens. Guitarist Mark Stewart is the artistic director of the event, which will be hosted by Alex Brightman and Drew Gasparini.

“Live, Chaney has a casual yet commanding presence,” says the New Yorker. “It’s as if a mystical spirit has entered the room. With an earthiness to her expressive soprano, Chaney is bringing the grand tradition of British folk music into the twenty-first century.”

Offa Rex, a project pairing Olivia Chaney and The Decemberists, released its debut album, The Queen of Hearts, this year; it has just been nominated for Album of the Year in the fRoots Critics Poll.

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Fleet Foxes continue their European Crack-Up tour with two sold-out shows at Ancienne Belgique in Brussels, tonight and Saturday. The Times of London says Crack-Up is “likely to be the most remarkable album you will hear this year … the return of one of the most original bands of this century." Uncut calls the album “astonishing … a recipe for total entertainment forever.”

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Rhiannon Giddens begins an autumn tour of the UK and Ireland, featuring music from her new album, Freedom Highway, with a concert at O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire in London tonight. She plays Colston Hall in Bristol on Saturday and Town Hall in Birmingham on Sunday. Her live show is “magnificent,” says the Guardian, “a virtuoso slice of Americana."

Back in the States, Giddens can be seen performing “Julie” from her new album on a special episode of PBS’s Austin City Limits on Saturday, featuring highlights from the 2017 Americana Honors & Awards. The ceremony, in which Freedom Highway was nominated for Album of the Year, was held at the historic Ryman Auditorium in Nashville in September, and includes performances from John Prine, The Lumineers, Margo Price, Jason Isbell, Van Morrison, and others.

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Tigran Hamasyan heads to Rome, with music from his new album, An Ancient Observer, for a set at Chiesa di San Nicola da Tolentino tonight, as part of Roma Jazz Festival. The Huffington Post calls the pianist "one of jazz's most dynamic artists ... [T]he influences of the music are manifold ... though the Armenian influence, which makes his music so uniquely outstanding, is prominent."

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Kronos Quartet is in South Korea this weekend, performing at Tongyeong Concert Hall on Sunday afternoon. The program includes works by Aleksandra Vrebalov, Pete Townshend, Terry Riley, and George Crumb’s Black Angels, the piece that inspired David Harrington to create Kronos in 1973. The Evening Standard includes the group’s 1990 Nonesuch recording of the piece among the 100 Definitive Classical CDs of the 20th Century.

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Lake Street Dive shares a double-bill with Bruce Hornsby at Mesa Amphitheatre in Arizona on Saturday. Billboard, reviewing one of the band’s concerts earlier this year, says “Lake Street Dive electrifies.”

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Pat Metheny concludes his European tour with drummer Antonio Sánchez, pianist Gwilym Simcock, and bassist Linda Oh with a performance at Harpa in Reykjavik, Iceland, tonight.

The Financial Times gives the quartet’s performance at EFG London Jazz Fest last weekend four stars, calling it “thrilling” and “captivating.” The Arts Desk gives the set four stars as well, writing, “The humungous quantities of energy, stamina and joy that Pat Metheny can generate over almost three hours conquer everything.”

“As far back as I remember, it was all about practice,” Metheny told the Irish Times for a recent feature which you can read here.

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Randy Newman brings music from his new album, Dark Matter, to the US Southeast this weekend, performing at Atlanta Symphony Hall tonight and Capitol Theatre in Clearwater, Florida, on Sunday. The AP says Newman "is still at the top of his game." He "just gets better," says ABC News. "Dark Matter is the work of a master craftsman ... frankly brilliant."

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Robert Plant began a month-long, sold-out tour of the United Kingdom, with music from his new album, Carry Fire, last night, continuing with a show at Colston Hall in Bristol tonight. The Evening Standard exclaims in a four-star review: "Inventive and exotic, Carry Fire proves Plant’s creative spark is still burning bright."

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Saxophonist Joshua Redman concludes a week-long Norwegian run with violinist Ola Kvernberg at Nasjonal Jazzscene in Oslo tonight and Spor 5 in Stavanger on Saturday. The Los Angeles Times has called Redman “one of the most vital figures in jazz of the new century.”

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Chris Thile and Brad Mehldau conclude a European tour of songs from their self-titled debut duo album with concerts at Kirche Neumünster in Zürich tonight and Wiener Konzerthaus in Vienna on Saturday. The Guardian, reviewing Chris Thile & Brad Mehldau, exclaims: "Two very different musicians hit a remarkable rapport on this double album."

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Rokia Traoré brings her project, The Dream Mandé – Djata, to Abbaye de Fontevraud in Fontevraud, France, on Saturday.

Traoré has created a narrative for the piece in the form of a Mandingo epic, reported, played, and sung throughout the show against a backdrop of Mandingo classics performed with Mamah Diabaté on n’goni and Mamadyba Camara on kora.

“The Dream Mandé project concerns traditional Malian music,” says Traoré, “but it is also proof that modernity is bringing us to inevitable changes, sometimes giving the possibility to offer a vigor and a sense to the past through contemporary concepts that go against established customs.”