Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, the free annual outdoor music festival held in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, returns for its 11th run this September 30 through October 2. The line-up has now been announced and include four Nonesuch artists: perennial favorite Emmylou Harris, returning performers Punch Brothers and Jessica Lea Mayfield, and, making their Hardly Strictly debut, The Low Anthem.

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, the free annual outdoor music festival held in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, returns for its 11th run this September 30 through October 2. The festival's organizers are announcing the line-up through a series of music medleys. Among the already-announced performers are Punch Brothers, who performed last year, and Emmylou Harris, who will have performed at each of the festival's 11 years. Just added to the festival roster: The Low Anthem.

The Low Anthem was featured on NPR's World Cafe yesterday. The show, now available at npr.org, features concert performances of songs from the band's new album, Smart Flesh, and an interview with the band. "The Low Anthem's markedly pleasant tunes contain some of the sweetest sounds in modern Americana," says World Cafe. "The band's music features husky vocals, poetic lyrics, rich harmonies, even some heavy blues guitar." The Low Anthem announced its US fall headlining tour yesterday.

The Low Anthem announces new US headlining dates for September and October 2011 in support of their latest album, Smart Flesh. The band will also rejoin Iron & Wine on October 13 to open their show at NY's Terminal 5. Tickets for the fall headline shows are available for pre-sale beginning today at 10 AM ET and include a free download of two versions of the Smart Flesh outtake “Glitter." Hear those tracks here.

The Low Anthem is featured on the cover of the inaugural issue of Paste magazine's new weekly digital, multimedia mPlayer, which includes a cover story on the band, exclusive photos, a download of "Boeing 737" off the band's new album, Smart Flesh, and a short documentary video shot at the band's album release concert at the Rhode Island pasta sauce factory in which the album was recorded. The Independent says the band was "kicking up a storm" at Glastonbury this weekend, "enjoying themselves to an almost fevered extent ... Playing to this audience seems to be as special as being in it."

The Low Anthem recently performed a session for Crawdaddy! featuring songs from their latest Nonesuch release, Smart Flesh. You can watch the performances here. "There’s a reason why Low Anthem is getting a lot of buzz these days," says Crawdaddy! The band's "vintage sensibility is lifted by pristine vocals and a collaborative energy among them that draws from their respective strengths." The band performs in Brooklyn tonight, followed by shows in Connecticut and at the Clearwater festival in upstate New York.

Among the more memorable moments of this weekend's Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival were sets from The Black Keys, Jessica Lea Mayfield, Wanda Jackson, and The Low Anthem. Whether performing on the festival’s largest What Stage, or in one of three intimate festival tents, Nonesuch artists conquered the infamous Bonnaroo dust and heat to deliver noteworthy performances. Among the highlights was what Rolling Stone called a "supersized and stunning" main-stage debut from The Black Keys, "the perfect soundtrack as the sun was setting.”

The 10th Annual Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival gets under way in Manchester, Tennessee, tomorrow and runs through the weekend, with performances from a number of artists familiar to readers of the Nonesuch Journal: Jessica Lea Mayfield, The Low Anthem, Wanda Jackson, Sara Watkins, The Black Keys, Dan Auerbach, and Allen Toussaint. In addition, Nonesuch has teamed up with Relix magazine and the Bonnaroo Beacon, the official daily newspaper of the festival, to offer two very special contests to Bonnaroo attendees.

The Low Anthem, Carolina Chocolate Drops, and Punch Brothers are all included in the new SPIN magazine article inviting readers to "Meet the New Stars of Americana." As distinct as their music is, "the idea uniting these bands is their joint pursuit of Americana 'feeling' a warm-and-friendly guilelessness that's been largely absent from the pop landscape for years," says SPIN. "They may borrow from ancient strains of folk music, but their sepia-toned approximation of those sounds is almost incidental: It's all about the heart."

The Low Anthem performs Phosphorescent's "The Mermaid Parade" in the latest episode of The Voice Project, a non-profit organization that supports women of war-torn Northern Uganda. Watch it here. The band was recorded moments before they played a concert at Boston's Old South Church at which they hit "a high note," said the Boston Globe, with "a galvanizing 90-minute performance that was masterful and even magical at times."

The Low Anthem perform songs from their new album, Smart Flesh, on KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic in LA this morning, in advance of their show at The Autry tonight. The LA Times calls the album "a gorgeous, inventively arranged set of reverb-rich roots ballads in which the music's frayed edges add emotional weight." LA Weekly says "These four aim for timelessness with a brand of Americana that nods as much to high-energy gospel and gritty blues as it does to rustic, autumnal hues." The split 12" vinyl of The Low Anthem's Daytrotter Sessions, with Iron and Wine on the flip side, is now available for pre-order.