Today marks the long-awaited release of Randy Newman's Harps and Angels, and the reviews continue to come in, with the Associate Press saying that Randy "has produced a record to rival his best work, and it may be the best album of 2008." At noon ET, NPR will broadcast a recent concert Randy gave in which he and his band performed the new record in its entirety. Also from NPR, All Songs Considered host Bob Boilen invited Randy to guest DJ this week's show. "I really liked his older stuff," says Boilen of Randy. "I like him better when he's older."

The critical response on Randy Newman's latest release, Harps and Angels, has already started pouring in from both sides of the Atlantic. The Times (UK) gives the album five stars, concluding: "The man's a master." The Los Angeles Times has a feature profile of Randy, whom it says "has plumbed the depths and shallows of the American psyche with greater consistency than perhaps any of his contemporaries." Also, Huffington Post contributor David Wild proclaims as the Greatest Song of All Time Randy's much-covered tune "I Think It's Going to Rain Today," calling Newman's 2003 version "probably the most powerful and shaded piece of music I could ever imagine," and adding that Harps and Angels "is one of the best ever albums from the modern musical master who gave us all the greatest song of all-time."

On Friday, Nonesuch.com featured a video of Randy performing "A Few Words in Defense of Our Country," from his latest release, Harps and Angels, out this week. To mark the album's release, all this week we'll be adding new videos of interviews with Randy in which he talks about that and other songs on the album, as well as more videos of Randy at the piano performing some of those songs. Today at nonesuch.com/media, you'll find a video of Randy discussing and playing "Potholes," which he calls "the most absolutely honest song I've ever written."

The Los Angeles Times called "A Few Words in Defense of Our Country" "so funny it hurt," and Rolling Stone named it among the Best Singles of 2007. It's now featured on Harps and Angels, Randy's latest Nonesuch release. You can watch a video performance of the song from last year on the Nonesuch Media page, and check back next week for all-new video features celebrating the release of the new album.

Ry Cooder's new album, I, Flathead, releases today and follows Chavez Ravine (2005) and My Name Is Buddy (2007) as the third and final album in Cooder's California trilogy. Two versions of the new record are available: the standard CD as well as a deluxe package with both the CD and the accompanying 95-page novella that Ry wrote in conjunction with the album songs, told from the perspective of the fictitious musician Kash Buk and featuring an oddball cast of characters and car obsessives from California's drag-racing salt flats in the 1960s.

Congratulations to Emmylou Harris, who, the same week she entered the Top 40 on the UK pop charts, with her latest release, All I Intended to Be, debuted at No. 22 on the US pop charts, a career high. The new album simultaneously reached No. 4 on this week's country charts.

In celebration of this week's release of Emmylou Harris's new album, All I Intended to Be, Epiphone guitars and Nonesuch Records are teaming up to offer fans the chance to win a new Epiphone EJ-200 acoustic guitar and a copy of the new CD.

Emmylou Harris's new album, All I Intended to Be, hits stores today. "Like cool water on a hot day," writes the Boston Globe's Sarah Rodman, "Emmylou Harris's bruised-angel voice remains a welcome balm." After visiting the Today show this morning, Emmylou spends a few more days in New York City to perform on the Late Show with David Letterman Thursday night and, earlier that evening, at the flagship Barnes & Noble store in Union Square, beginning at 7 PM.

Emmylou Harris will celebrate tomorrow's release of All I Intended to Be, her first solo album since 2003's Stumble into Grace, with a performance on the Today show on NBC. The show airs from 7-11 AM ET. Visit msnbc.com for more information.

The new album receives four stars in The Times (UK). Reviewer Victoria Segal praises Emmylou as being "not about musical bling or showbiz flash, just the softly burnished magic of a voice rich in experience and empathy."

Sam Phillips's new album, Don't Do Anything, is out Tuesday, and she'll celebrate by kicking off a two-week tour of in-store performances at Borders from coast to coast, starting with her hometown store in LA. Rolling Stone picks "Little Plastic Life" as a standout track off the record, including the song in its "Single Minded" list. "The magnificent Sam Phillips returns with a song that demonstrates her knack for blending curious vocals with a big parched strum," writes Rolling Stone. "To put it another way: she was Feist before there was Feist." Beliefnet says of the new album: "This underrated singer's unique vocal stylings are at their finest here, and the musical arrangements are masterful." The site lauds Sam's "prowess as an artist of true distinction," one who "still has the courage to encapsulate her emotions and experiences in her music in a way few artists ever do."

Many a fan of the TV series Gilmore Girls, which ran from 2000 to 2007 on the WB network, got to know the music of the show's composer, Sam Phillips. Sam wrote original music throughout the series' seven-season run; the show also featured songs from her Nonesuch debut, Fan Dance, and its follow-up, A Boot and Shoe. And Sam herself even joined Lorelei and Rory Gilmore in fictional Stars Hollow, Connecticut, as a troubadour of sorts. Now, with Sam's third Nonesuch album, Don't Do Anything, set for release this Tuesday and available for pre-order now, fans of the show can enter to win a free, signed and personalized copy of the CD at GilmoreGirlsNews.com. The contest is on now and runs through June 5.