David Byrne brings the American Utopia tour back to the UK and to Ireland for eight arena shows starting at the First Direct Arena in Leeds this Sunday and including concerts at the O2 Arena in London, Manchester Arena, Hydro in Glasgow, 3Arena in Dublin, and more. Benjamin Clementine will be Byrne’s special guest for the UK and Irish dates. The tour will then make stops in Amsterdam and Paris before heading to Hong Kong, New Zealand (where Kimbra will be special guest), and Australia. "If you only go to one gig this autumn [or spring, depending]," says the Independent's i, "make it this: David Byrne’s imaginative, breathtaking show is a work of art."

In honor of Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch puppeteer Caroll Spinney's retirement from Sesame Street after nearly 50 years, we revisit Kronos Quartet's trip to that beloved street in 1987 to talk with Big Bird about the string quartet and making music. "His open and kind-hearted view of the world and how we should treat each other is something we should forever aspire to," Kronos says of Spinney, and we concur.

In conjunction with The Criterion Collection’s special-edition DVD and Blu-ray release of David Byrne’s 1986 film True Stories, Nonesuch and Todomundo Records release a comprehensive soundtrack, collected for the first time in one package and in film sequence: True Stories, A Film by David Byrne: The Complete Soundtrack is due on vinyl LP, CD, and digital formats on November 23, 2018. Nonesuch Store pre-orders include an exclusive, limited-edition 12” print of a production photo taken by Byrne. "I always imagined that the music written for True Stories should be heard as it is in the film," says Byrne. "It makes the most sense this way. Me singing the song that was written for John Goodman’s character, Louis Fine, always felt weird to me. It was written for that character, not for me.”

Sam Amidon begins an autumn tour of the UK, featuring music from his new album, The Following Mountain, and more, in Birmingham this Saturday, following a concert in Cologne on Friday. The UK tour includes performances in Brighton, Bristol, Manchester, Leeds, Edinburgh, Sheffield, and Newcastle, culminating with a show at Cadogan Hall in London as part of the EFG London Jazz Festival on November 19.

Gaby Moreno is the guest on the latest episode of NPR's What's Good with Stretch & Bobbito. "A versatile musician and vocalist," says the show, "Moreno's style is a combination of blues, soul, Latin rock and folk that she sings in both English and Spanish." She discusses her life and career, including her interpretation of David Rudder's song "The Immigrants," which she recorded with Van Dyke Parks and released for July 4, with proceeds going to support CARECEN and its efforts to empower immigrants. You can hear the conversation here.

Lake Street Dive has announced a tour of Europe and the UK next April. The two-week tour starts in Vienna on April 13, followed by shows in Munich, Berlin, Cologne, Paris, Bristol, Edinburgh, Leuven, Heidelberg, Copenhagen, Hamburg, and Amsterdam. Tickets go on sale this Wednesday, October 17. The band, while in London to perform at O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire last week, performed "Shame Shame Shame" from their album Free Yourself Up, on BBC Radio 4's Loose Ends and BBC London's Robert Elms show.

Olivia Chaney stopped by The Current in St. Paul, MN, during her US tour this summer, to perform songs from her new album, Shelter, on Radio Heartland. She spoke with host Mike Pengra about the album and performed three songs: "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn," "Arches," and "Roman Holiday." Watch "Arches" here.

David Byrne brings American Utopia to Austin City Limits Fest … Rhiannon Giddens joins Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra … Tigran Hamasyan plays Seattle, LA … Emmylou Harris tours Midwest … James Farm tours France … Kronos Quartet concludes ballet residency in San Francisco … Mandy Patinkin performs Diaries 2018 in NYC … Chris Thile hosts Live From Here from St. Paul … and more ...

Rokia Traoré has been named Guest Director for the 2019 Brighton Festival, May 4–26, following in the footsteps of Laurie Anderson, Brian Eno, and others. "She is a remarkable artist who deserves to be recognized for the great breadth and range of her output," says Brighton Festival Chief Executive Andrew Comben. "She also has a great preparedness to think beyond her personal practice and engage with and comment upon the world around her—qualities which ideally suit her to the role of Guest Director."

Gabriel Kahane was on KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic. He spoke with host Jason Bentley about his new album, Book of Travelers, and was joined by the Lyris Quartet to perform several songs from it—"Baedeker," "Baltimore," "8980," "Little Love"—and more. Listen to the session here. Kahane performs in La Jolla tonight and will be a guest on Live From Here with Chris Thile from St. Paul on October 20.

Congratulations to Laurie Anderson and Nonesuch Records Chairman Emeritus Bob Hurwitz, who will be honored as Friends of the Arts by The Town Hall in New York City, along with TheaterWorksUSA Co-Founder Charles Hull, at the historic venue's 97th Gala Celebration at the Princeton Club in Manhattan on Sunday, October 21. The Town Hall honors as its Friends of the Arts individuals or organizations whose contributions to the arts enrich New York City's cultural life and help make it a rich and artistically diverse city.

Mandy Patinkin begins his Diaries 2018 tour with a sold-out, ten-performance residency presented by New York Theatre Workshop at The Connelly Theater in NYC, starting Wednesday and continuing through October 28. (A limited number of tickets are available via a daily TodayTix lottery.) He will bring the tour to California, Hawaii, and Australia in November.