The Staves celebrated the release of their new album, If I Was, with a performance at Wilton's Music Hall in London last month. The concert included, among other songs from the album, the tune "Teeth White." You can watch the performance of that song here. The trio is currently touring Europe and has just announced a tour of the United Kingdom for this autumn. The Staves also perform at the Eaux Claries Music Festival in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, where they recorded the album with producer Justin Vernon.

The Big Ears Festival 2015, which took place in Knoxville, Tennessee, late last month, was the subject of a feature profile on PBS NewsHour on Friday. The piece looks at how the festival "breaks barriers for open-minded music lovers," not least from performers like this year's artists in residence, Kronos Quartet, and their fellow Nonesuch artists to perform at Big Ears, Rhiannon Giddens, Laurie Anderson, Sam Amidon, and Tyondai Braxton. Kronos's David Harrington and Giddens talk with NewsHour about this idea and how it manifest itself in their own music. You can watch the piece here.

Rhiannon Giddens, Emmylou Harris, and Rodney Crowell will perform in "The Gospel Tradition," at The White House on Tuesday, April 14, as part of the series In Performance at the White House. They will join President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama and an esteemed group of performers, including Aretha Franklin, Darlene Love, and Lyle Lovett, to pay tribute to the fundamental role gospel music has played in the American musical tradition. The President’s remarks and the entire event will be streamed live at whitehouse.gov/live at 7 PM ET. The Gospel Tradition: In Performance at the White House will air on PBS on Friday, June 26.

Alarm Will Sound performs Adams, Reich, and Braxton, and Timo Andres performs his Shy and Mighty at Seoul's Right Now Music Festival ... Laurie Anderson performs in upstate NY ... Fatoumata Diawara starts US tour ... Rhiannon Giddens takes tour to mid-Atlantic ... Audra McDonald sings at SUNY Potsdam ... Brad Mehldau plays three sold-out shows in Paris, including a set with Tigran Hamasyan ... Punch Brothers tour Texas ... Joshua Redman Trio tours Europe ... and more ...

Brad Mehldau Trio kicks off a two-week tour of Europe with a performance at the Opéra de Rouen in Rouen, France. It's the first of several performances in the country, followed by stops in Switzerland, Norway, Sweden, and Italy. The Trio's set at the Philarmonie in Paris this Saturday is one of three nights Mehldau plays there this weekend, also including a solo set and a special duo concert with Tigran Hamasyan. Following the European tour, the Trio returns to the States for six-night residency at the Village Vanguard in NYC in early May. 

In 2011, The Bad Plus invited saxophonist Joshua Redman to join them for a week of performances at the Blue Note in NYC. They then played a handful of dates before heading into the studio in 2014 to record their debut album, The Bad Plus Joshua Redman, due May 26 on Nonesuch (June 8 outside North America). Pre-order to download the track "Dirty Blonde," written by bassist Reid Anderson, now. Seven of the nine tracks on the album are new compositions by the quartet members who, in addition to Anderson and Redman, include The Bad Plus pianist Ethan Iverson and drummer David King; the other two songs on the album are new arrangements of Bad Plus favorites. The Bad Plus Joshua Redman begins a world tour in NYC June 10.

Rhiannon Giddens takes her tour to Atlanta and makes her Grand Ole Opry solo debut ... Laurie Anderson speaks with Neil Gaiman at Bard College ... Jeremy Denk performs Bach's Goldberg Variations in his German debut ... Natalie Merchant tours Colorado ... Punch Brothers play two nights in San Francisco ... and more ...

Rhiannon Giddens recently stopped by the Last.fm studios to discuss her new solo debut album, Tomorrow Is My Turn, and perform three tracks off the album. You can watch the interview and hear her discuss and perform the songs—"Don't Let It Trouble Your Mind," written by Dolly Parton; Hank Cochran's "She's Got You," famously recorded by Patsy Cline; and "Shake Sugaree," by Libba Cotton—here.

The Staves' new Justin Vernon–produced album, If I Was, is out now on CD and digitally in the US on Nonesuch Records, with vinyl due April 21. The trio brings "angelic harmonies" to the "consistently daring" album, writes the New York Times' Jon Pareles. "[T]he songs are illuminated from within." "This entire record is essential listening," raves Stereogum. "The Staveley-Taylor sisters possess the kind of voices that make able-bodied writers lose control of their capacity to avoid terms like ethereal, angelic, and otherworldly." The album earns four stars from the Guardian, Sun, MusicOMH, and Daily Mirror, which calls it "ravishing and inspired ... with astonishing vocals ... an unfailingly tender touch, freshness and natural warmth."

Pat Metheny will be the 2015 Detroit Jazz Festival Artist-in-Residence, including different music incarnations at this year's festival Labor Day Weekend—sets from the Pat Metheny Trio with Antonio Sánchez and Scott Colley and special guest Detroiter Kenny Garrett; an intimate acoustic duo with Detroiter Ron Carter; a reunion with the Gary Burton in a special quartet put together just for this festival; and a large ensemble with the Detroit Jazz Festival Orchestra—as well as education and mentorship activities throughout the year.

Big Ears Festival takes place in Knoxville with Kronos Quartet, Rhiannon Giddens, Sam Amidon, Laurie Anderson, Tyondai Braxton ... NY Phil performs new John Adams ... Jeremy Denk tours Northeast ... Emmylou Harris, Rodney Crowell perform at Tennessee benefit ... James Farm tours Brazil ... Audra McDonald sings outside DC ... Natalie Merchant performs in Connecticut ... Robert Plant and the Sensational Space Shifters finish Latin American tour at Lollapalooza Brazil ... Punch Brothers perform in Portland ... and more ...

Rhiannon Giddens kicks off her spring tour, featuring music from her new debut solo album Tomorrow Is My Turn, with two performances at the Big Ears Festival in Knoxville, Tennessee, this weekend. The tour continues through June, with stops in cities and at festivals along the way, including New York City (April 9 at The Town Hall), Chicago (April 23 at The Vic), Los Angeles (May 9 at El Rey Theatre), and the Bonnaroo and Telluride Bluegrass festivals in June. Giddens’ bandmates from Carolina Chocolate Drops—multi-instrumentalist Hubby Jenkins, cellist Malcolm Parson, and multi-instrumentalist Rowan Corbett—are part of the touring band.