Fleet Foxes have announced a special 10" EP available exclusively at independent record stores starting on Record Store Day's Black Friday, November 24, 2017. The EP features four Crack-Up songs, selected from a WFUV session recorded at the historic Electric Lady Studio in NYC in June: Side A is "Cassius, -" and "- Naiads, Cassadies," and Side B is "Mearcstapa" and "On Another Ocean (January / June)." Fleet Foxes have also released a Classic Album Sunday Q&A which premiered via Record Store Day and can be seen below.

Randy Newman stopped by NPR in Washington, DC, to perform a Tiny Desk Concert for Bob Boilen and the staff at NPR and NPR Music. The set included four songs from his new album, Dark Matter: "Putin," "She Chose Me," "It's A Jungle Out There," and "Wandering Boy." "I think Randy Newman is a national treasure," says Boilen. "Randy Newman paints lasting portraits of places and people, all the while poking fun and highlighting injustice, stupidity, power and humanity and he's been doing it for half a century." You can watch the set here.

Chris Thile spoke with writer Michael Hill about his forthcoming album, Thanks for Listening—new studio recordings of songs originally written as Songs of the Week on A Prairie Home Companion—and how it came to be. "We're in a place where listening is a precious commodity," he says. "That's the theme that I noticed rising up, greater than 'here is what was happening last week' or 'here is the place we were.' It's a celebration of people who haven't switched off, despite being given every reason to do so."

Chris Thile's new album, Thanks for Listening, will be released on Nonesuch Records on December 8, 2017; vinyl on December 15. The album is a collection of new studio recordings, produced by Thomas Bartlett, of ten songs originally written as Songs of the Week on A Prairie Home Companion. Thile manned almost all of the stringed instruments on the album and is joined by guest singers Sarah Jarosz, Gaby Moreno, and Aoife O'Donovan. Pre-order to download the track "Thank You, New York," the lyric video for which you can watch here, and get a limited-edition, signed print.

Conor Oberst, Emmylou Harris, Randy Newman, Dan Auerbach play free Hardly Strictly Bluegrass fest in San Francisco … Sam Amidon takes The Following Mountain tour to the Northeast … Laurie Anderson performs at Philip Glass fest in California … Jeremy Denk joins New Jersey Symphony … Tigran Hamasysan launches tour in Greece … Kronos Quartet is in San Francisco … Chris Thile begins new season of A Prairie Home Companion in Saint Paul … and more …

Robert Plant's new album, Carry Fire, due next Friday, October 13, is streaming in full below as an NPR First Listen. The new album is "transfixing," exclaims NPR's Tom Moon. "Plant and his collaborators create music that overflows with irrepressible life force ... Carry Fire is rivetingly intimate."

Camille has unveiled the video for "Lasso," a new song from her new album, OUÏ. The video, co-directed by Camille and Olivier Montoro, the team behind her recent "Seeds" video, was also made at L'Axe Majeur, just outside of Paris. Camille calls the video "an uneven merry-go-round that captures and frees at the same time." You can watch it here.

Robert Finley, whose new album, Goin' Platinum!, is due December 8 on Dan Auerbach's label Easy Eye Sound, has shared the video for the album track "Medicine Woman." The video, which was directed by Alysse Gafkjen, premiered via Bilboard and can be seen here.

Rhiannon Giddens delivered the keynote address at the 2017 International Bluegrass Music Association business conference held in downtown Raleigh, North Carolina, on Tuesday, September 26. Here are her remarks, titled "Community and Connection."

Tigran Hamasyan launches a European tour, with music from his new album, An Ancient Observer, in Athens, Greece, on Saturday, making stops in France, Sweden, the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Luxembourg, and Armenia. Hamasyan has released a video giving an inside look at the first leg of his tour earlier this year. Watch the video, made by Elena Hamasyan, here.

Fleet Foxes' performance on Live from the Artists Den, taped live at The Knockdown Center in Queens, NY, will premiere on PBS stations across the US starting this weekend, airing in LA, Chicago, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Spokane, and more. The roll-out of the episode, with songs from the band's new album, Crack-Up, and more, continues in the coming weeks with more than three dozen air dates scheduled already, including in Atlanta, San Francisco, NYC, and Nashville.

Louis Andriessen's stagework Theatre of the World—recorded live during the Los Angeles Philharmonic's 2016 world premiere performances with conductor Reinbert de Leeuw and director Pierre Audi—is out now on Nonesuch Records. The Los Angeles Times says: "Brilliant and deep, Andriessen's music compels from start to finish." "There are no limits to where Louis Andriessen’s imagination will take him," says the Financial Times; "a wild mix of opera, jazz, modernism and minimalism, all captured vividly in this live recording." The Guardian gives four stars to "the exemplary Nonesuch recording" and its "superb performances."