This year's Newport Folk Festival in July includes sets from Punch Brothers and Sara Watkins. A new short documentary from sö pa productions and Ryan Mastro revisits last year's festival and looks into what makes Newport so special. The video features interviews and performances from artists at last year's festival, including Carolina Chocolate Drops, The Low Anthem, Chris Thile, Michael Daves, Wanda Jackson, and Emmylou Harris. "In the story of my life, folk music brought me to music," says Harris. Newport "was where these people that I just kind of worshiped gathered." Watch the documentary here.

The Low Anthem will support Feist on her US tour this spring, the Canadian singer-songwriter announced today. The band will join Feist for four shows in the Midwest in June, making stops in Minneapolis, Madison, Ann Arbor, and Columbus. Ticket on-sale dates and details are still to come. Today's news follows an unforgettable week of collaborations for The Low Anthem with The Chieftains and a SXSW set with Bruce Springsteen.

The film The Hunger Games is due out this week and with it a companion album, The Hunger Games: Songs from District 12 and Beyond, out today. The album, produced by T Bone Burnett, features songs inspired by the film by artists like Arcade Fire, Neko Case, Taylor Swift, The Decemberists, and three Nonesuch artists: Carolina Chocolate Drops, Punch Brothers, and The Low Anthem. "Burnett has managed to create a deftly meditative soundtrack to the movie adaption of the best-selling book," says The Huffington Post, "bringing together big names and indie darlings of all stripes."

The Low Anthem, having performed on The Late Show with David Letterman with The Chieftains earlier this week, continued a week of stellar collaborations when it joined Bruce Springsteen, members of Arcade Fire, Tom Morello, Alejandro Escovedo, and others on stage for SXSW at The Moody Theater in Austin, Texas, last night for a powerful and moving rendition of Woody Guthrie's classic tune "This Land Is Your Land." Backstreets was there and captured the unforgettable finale; watch it here.

The Low Anthem joined The Chieftains in a performance of "School Days Over" on The Late Show with David Letterman Tuesday night, in celebration of the legendary Irish band's 50th anniversary. "The perfect way to celebrate their anniversary," says VH1, "the performance was filled with soul and reverence, and if you close your eyes, will take you back to a rolling, misty, fantastical landscape filled with magic." Watch the performance here. The groups perform in concert on NPR Music on Friday and at Carnegie Hall on Saturday, St. Patrick's Day. The Low Anthem plays its own set at SXSW tonight.

Today marks the start of the South by Southwest (SXSW) Music Conference in Austin, Texas, when thousands of bands and music lovers from all over the world descend on the live-music capital for several days of non-stop music making. Nonesuch artists will be well represented among them, with several performances throughout the week from Punch Brothers, Dr. John, and The Low Anthem. The Warner Sound showcase, featuring Punch Brothers and Dr. John, will stream live via YouTube Wednesday night.

The Low Anthem is set to join The Chieftains this week as the legendary Irish band marks its 50th anniversary, performing on The Late Show with David Letterman tonight on CBS; in concert from WGBH radio, streaming this Friday on NPR Music; and, on Saturday, St. Patrick's Day, live at Carnegie Hall. The Low Anthem will play its own set for SXSW at Austin's ACL Live at the Moody Theater on Thursday. Next week, the band can be heard on The Hunger Games soundtrack.

Carolina Chocolate Drops, Punch Brothers, and The Low Anthem have joined celebrated Irish band The Chieftains to mark that group's 50th anniversary with a new album, Voice of Ages. The album, produced by T Bone Burnett, finds The Chieftains performing with these three Nonesuch artists as well as Bon Iver, The Civil Wars, The Decemberists, and others. The New York Times calls it "an album of collaborations with some of the hottest young folk, country, bluegrass, rockabilly and indie-rock talents on both sides of the Atlantic." The Low Anthem will be The Chieftains' special guests on stage at Carnegie Hall on St. Patrick's Day.

The Low Anthem is set to launch its six-week tour supporting City and Colour on his tour of Canada and the northern US starting this Monday, January 16, at Wonder Ballroom in Portland, Oregon. The Low Anthem will also be performing a few select headlining shows. The band recently performed a couple of songs for Sleepover Shows, including "Ghost Woman Blues" off their latest album, Smart Flesh. Watch them here. "If you have not been to a Low Anthem show," says the site, "you owe it to yourself to go."

There's still more than a month to go before 2011 comes to a close, but already the music magazines have begun to weigh in on the year's best music. American Songwriter, Paste, Uncut, Q, and Mojo have all published their lists of the Top 50 Albums of the Year, and included among them are a number of Nonesuch releases: the latest albums from Björk, Ry Cooder, Jessica Lea Mayfield, and The Low Anthem, as well as the soon-to-be-released album from The Black Keys, due out next week.

The Low Anthem, which is currently on a headlining tour of the United States with music from its latest Nonesuch release, Smart Flesh, will support City and Colour on tour of Canada and the northern US in January and February 2012. The tour starts in Portland, Oregon, on January 16 and ends in St. John, New Brunswick, on February 24. The Low Anthem's current tour makes stops this week in Minneapolis, Denver, and Salt Lake City, before hitting San Francisco's Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival this weekend.

The Low Anthem launches its fall headlining tour of North America with a concert at Philadelphia's World Cafe Live tonight. After over 400 shows since the initial release of their album Oh My God, Charlie Darwin, the band is going to take a break from the road to create some new sounds following the tour, so this is the last run of shows in support of their latest album, Smart Flesh. In celebration of these songs and shows, Nonesuch and the band have teamed up with Paste magazine to give away a pair of tickets, a signed poster, and a Smart Flesh CD to one lucky winner for every upcoming concert listed here.