The line-up for the 2019 Big Ears Festival has been announced, including several Nonesuch artists: Rhiannon Giddens, Punch Brothers, Gabriel Kahane, and Mountain Man. Big Ears will be held at venues throughout downtown Knoxville, Tennessee, March 21–24, 2019. Weekend passes are on sale now.

For the vinyl aficionado and Nonesuch fan in everyone comes the latest addition to the Nonesuch Store line of merchandise: a slipmat bedecked in the classic Nonesuch logo in minimalist white on black. Now you can show your love of great music and treat your turntable right where form and function meet. To order yours, head to the Nonesuch Store merch section now, where you can take home a matching hat, t-shirt, hoodie, mug, tote bag, and button pack as well.

Punch Brothers have announced a tour of the United States in March 2019 with label mate Gabriel Kahane as special guest. The two-week tour begins at the State Theatre in Ithaca, New York, on March 14, and includes shows all along the East Coast and into the Midwest.

Congratulations to Olivia Chaney, whose new album, Shelter, has been nominated as Album of the Year in the 2018 fRoots Critics Poll! Winners will be announced on BBC Radio 3's Music Planet on Friday, December 7.

Fleet Foxes' special limited-edition collection marking the tenth anniversary of their debut album, First Collection 2006–2009, is out now. The package features content spanning the early days of Fleet Foxes' career, including the self-titled full-length debut album on 12" vinyl, as well as the Sun Giant EP on 10" vinyl and the first vinyl releases of both the very limited-edition, previously only self-released The Fleet Foxes EP on 10" and B-Sides & Rarities on 10". The Sunday Times calls it a Must-Have Reissue, and Mojo names it Vinyl Package of the Month. Take a look inside in an unboxing video here.

Gabriel Kahane was on PBS NewsHour last night to discuss his Nonesuch debut album, Book of Travelers. The album is a musical travelogue about the looping railway journey across the US he embarked upon the day after the 2016 US election and the people he met along the way. For the show's "Brief But Spectacular" segment, he offers his own take on "why trains in America are the road to radical empathy." You can see what he has to say in the piece here.

Rhiannon Giddens is at Cucalorus Festival in North Carolina … Devendra Banhart curates, performs at Le Guess Who? in Netherlands … Tyondai Braxton plays in Ithaca … David Byrne brings American Utopia to Hong Kong … Gabriel Kahane curates Lincoln Center concert with Timo Andres … Kronos Quartet live-scores documentary in Houston … Lake Street Dive tours US East Coast … Brad Mehldau is in Barcelona … Natalie Merchant gives benefit concert in upstate NY ... Mountain Man plays Los Angeles … Mandy Patinkin performs in Australia … Punch Brothers tour Europe … Joshua Redman launches Still Dreaming tour …

Joshua Redman, Brian Blade, Scott Colley, and Ron Miles tour select North American cities with songs from their new album, Still Dreaming, starting at Koerner Hall in Toronto on Saturday. The brief tour then heads west for concerts in Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver. The group will be in the UK and Europe in February.

Congratulations to Robert Plant, who has been nominated as UK Artist of the Year in the 2019 UK Americana Awards. The awards will be presented at a ceremony held at Hackney Empire in East London on January 31, 2019. Plant was given the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2018 UK Americana Awards ceremony.

Rhiannon Giddens has announced a duo tour of Ireland with Italian percussionist / accordionist Francesco Turrisi for March 2019. The duo discovered a shared creative ground after their paths crossed a few years back, spanning gospel, jazz, blues, country and folk, and this is their first nationwide tour of Ireland. The eleven-city tour begins at The Sugar Club in Dublin on March 5 and runs through March 16.

To mark last week's return of Steve Reich's Different Trains / Electric Counterpoint on vinyl for the first time in more than twenty-five years, we asked Reich to share a few of his favorite songs and compositions in a new playlist. The eclectic set includes works from across the centuries and genres, by John Coltrane, Jr. Walker & the All Stars, Miles Davis, Stravinsky, Charlie Parker, Pérotin, Radiohead, Bob Dylan, and Bach. You can hear it here.

Sam Amidon will tour the UK as special guest of singer-songwriter Laura Veirs in February 2019. The tour begins in Milton Keynes on February 3 and includes stops in Norwich, Nottingham, York, Liverpool, Birmingham, Winchester, and Oxford. Amidon will perform at the EFG London Jazz Festival later this month and at Celtic Connections in Glasgow in January.