Chris Thile gave a thirty-minute solo set at the Fine Line in Minneapolis in August as part of the MicroShow series from MPR's The Current that can now be seen here. The set includes solo takes on music by Punch Brothers, Radiohead, and Bach, a Song of the Week from his public radio show Live From Here, and the traditional tune "Rabbit in the Log."

Mountain Man—the trio of Amelia Meath, Alexandra Sauser-Monnig, and Molly Sarlé—follows up its 2018 Nonesuch debut album, Magic Ship, and its Sings John Denver EP with the second in its Sings cover series: the 1942 Irving Berlin holiday classic, "White Christmas," available now. "We wanted to record a song that could be played in people's homes throughout the holidays, like a gentle push of light," says the band. "We thought 'White Christmas' might do the trick!" Mountain Man will present a three-night COSMIC PROM of songs from the trio's collective catalog in Durham, NC, January 17–19.

Carminho tours Boston, Toronto, and Montreal … Sam Amidon performs in Ireland and UK … The Black Keys, Emmylou Harris are in North Carolina and Atlanta … Richard Goode performs in Boston … Tigran Hamasyan is in the Netherlands … Kronos Quartet performs Riley’s Sun Rings in Ontario … Gaby Moreno tours Pacific Northwest … Mandy Patinkin visits Newark, St. Louis … Rachael & Vilray tour New England … Joshua Redman is in LA … Caroline Shaw is in Latvia … Vagabon tours US with Angel Olsen … Yola tours UK with Greta Van Fleet …

David Byrne has co-created a new immersive production with writer Mala Gaonkar called Theater of the Mind, which will premiere via the Denver Center for the Performing Arts (DCPA) Off-Center in August 2020. Audience members will be led through a journey of self-reflection, discovery, and imagination, grounded in neuroscience, using stories inspired from the creators' lives. "I have long had an interest in creating something that incorporated the sensory experiments we often read about in a way that was entertaining and engaging," says Byrne, "but still gave people an experience that was visceral and profound."

Gaby Moreno begins a two-week US Roots Rising! tour with Liz Vice and Matt Andersen. The tour begins in the Pacific Northwest this weekend, followed by stops in California, New Mexico, Arizona, and Colorado. Moreno then heads East to perform from ¡Spangled!, her album with Van Dyke Parks, at NYC's Kaufman Music Center, join Ben Folds and the NSO at The Kennedy Center in DC, and headline a show in Miami.

Caroline Shaw performs her song "And So" with Attacca Quartet in a new video for Lincoln Center, which you can watch here. The artists perform an all-Shaw program, including works from their album Orange, in a free concert for Lincoln Center’s White Light Festival on November 14. "It's Shaw the singer and composer who shines in this video," says NPR Music's Tom Huizenga. "Shaw's voice, at turns ferocious and tender, emits a purity of purpose." He had named Orange to NPR's list of the Best New Albums of April: "An arresting tribute to the enduring art of the string quartet."

Laurie Anderson is a guest curator of the 2020 New Zealand Festival. She joins fellow guest curators Lemi Ponifasio and Bret McKenzie in selecting works for the event, which takes place in Wellington from February 21 to March 15. Anderson has programmed a symphonic concert, a virtual-reality experience, an improvisational ensemble, an interactive soundscape, a film screening, and a concert for dogs. Also at the festival are Rhiannon Giddens and Francesco Turrisi, performing from their album there is no Other.

Rhiannon Giddens is a guest on Dolly Parton's America, the new WNYC podcast that explores why Parton and her music bring people together in a divided world. In the episode, which you can hear here, host Jad Abumrad looks to Giddens's performance of the Appalachian ballad "Little Margaret," on her new album, there is no Other, with Francesco Turrisi on the Iranian frame drum, the daf, to find connections across cultures. "There are these moments that remind us that we all come from the same source," Giddens says. "The human story is about migration, it is about movement, it is about one group moves from A to B and in that, they affect and are themselves affected."

The Black Keys are heading back out on the road this week to start their second leg of their tour of North America, supported by Modest Mouse and Shannon and the Clams. This leg of the tour begins in Sunrise, Florida, and makes stops in Orlando, Raleigh, Atlanta, Houston, Austin, Fort Worth, Phoenix, San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, Tacoma, and Vancouver. "It’s all about the groove and being able to lock in to all those guitars,” Dan Auerbach tells Rolling Stone about putting together the setlist for the tour. “It’s just fun."

Alarm Will Sound has released a new video for "Keening," from its recording of Donnacha Dennehy's The Hunger. Dennehy's piece explores the emotional, political, and socioeconomic devastation of Ireland’s Great Famine. The video was made by visual designer Deborah Johnson, who was inspired by the piece to connect her own explorations of inherited trauma with the libretto's documentation of the Great Famine. You can watch it here.

Congratulations to Yola, who has been nominated for two UK Americana Awards: UK Artist of the Year and UK Album of the Year for her solo debut album, Walk Through Fire. Yola also performs on the self-titled album from the supergroup Highwomen, which was nominated for International Album of the Year. Another nominee in that category is Songs of Our Native Daughters, featuring Rhiannon Giddens. The fifth-annual UK Americana Awards ceremony will take place at Troxy in London on January 30.

Vagabon plays two nights in DC as special guest of Angel Olsen … Sam Amidon headlines Walthamstow Folk Fest in London … Laurie Anderson gives Brooklyn Public Library lecture … Devendra Banhart, Rhiannon Giddens, Rachael & Vilray tour Midwest … Carminho comes to Carnegie Hall … Jeremy Denk joins Tapiola Sinfonietta in Finland … Gaby Moreno concludes European tour … Mandy Patinkin takes tour to New England … Chris Thile hosts Live From Here from NYC … Yola plays Leeds with Greta Van Fleet …