Ry Cooder's new album, Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down, was released yesterday, prompting David Dye, host of NPR's World Cafe, to tweet that the album "just shot to my best of list. Ry got pissed off enough to make another masterpiece." Cooder performs two sold-out shows at San Francisco's Great American Music Hall, tonight and tomorrow, and is today's guest on NPR's Here & Now. The BBC calls the album "a powerful state of the nation address" that "is about as good and sustained a riposte to the grubby, grabbing times we live in as any artist has mustered, which makes it essential listening."

Composer Steve Reich comments on his forthcoming Nonesuch Records release, featuring his piece WTC 9/11, performed by Kronos Quartet, and the album cover.

John Adams received an honorary Doctor of Music degree from the Juilliard School at the conservatory's 106th Commencement Ceremony and delivered the commencement address at the ceremony, held at Alice Tully Hally in New York City on Friday, May 20, 2011. Also receiving honorary doctoral degrees from Juilliard President Joseph W. Polisi were pianist and producer Herbie Hancock, actor Derek Jacobi, and choreographer Twyla Tharp. The full text of Adams's commencement address is posted here.

Jessica Lea Mayfield, whose debut Nonesuch album, Tell Me, is due out February 8, has just announced several new US tour dates in February with Justin Townes Earle. In fact, the tour will bring her back to her hometown of Kent, Ohio, on the record's release date. The tour kicks off in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and includes stops in Burlington, Buffalo, Detroit, Chicago, Bloomington, Madison, and Minneapolis. The two will play previously scheduled shows in Philadelphia, Boston, New York, and DC next month.

"The three string quartets Henryk Górecki wrote for Kronos are a totally unique body of work," writes Kronos Quartet Artistic Director David Harrington of the composer, who passed away earlier today. "With Already it is Dusk, Quasi una fantasia, and ...songs are sung, Górecki extended a tradition that includes Bach and Beethoven, among many others." Read Harrington's personal remembrances here and see photos of Kronos and the composer.

Brad Mehldau is set to launch his Highway Rider tour with the world premiere of the piece due at the Walker Arts Center in Minneapolis on November 5 and 6, followed by the New York premiere at Carnegie Hall on November 9. The latter is the first event of Mehldau's tenure as holder of the Debs Composer's Chair at Carnegie Hall. As such, he has published the first in a series of blog posts on the Carnegie Hall website, offering insight on composition and improvisation.

The Low Anthem's Nonesuch debut, Oh My God, Charlie Darwin, has been named to the No. 4 spot on Paste's 25 Best Albums of 2009, with label mates Wilco on the list at No. 21. The album is "gorgeous chamber folk," says Paste. "[T]hese 12 songs are exquisite." Baeble names the video for "Charlie Darwin" the year's best. In a year that's brought such acclaim, the band's Ben Knox Miller reflects on all that's happened and looks forward to what's ahead.

Ry Cooder and Nick Lowe's tour of Japan, New Zealand, and Australia begins in Nagoya, Japan, tonight. Joachim Cooder will join on drums, and singer Juliette Commagere as special guest vocalist. In the Japanese concert programs, Ry offers a short text giving a little taste of what to expect at the shows as only Cooder could. The Nonesuch Journal has an exclusive first-look at that here.

Last Sunday, k.d. lang was featured among the performers celebrating and being celebrated as Women in the Arts at the Kennedy Center's 2009 Spring Gala. This past Sunday, k.d. contributed an article to The Guardian and Observer Guides to Performing. "My voice and the styles and genres I sing all express my appreciation for what I hear," k.d. writes. "I've learned very slowly and very experientially. I find something and I just listen and experience it and eventually it starts coming out of me ... There needn't be a distinction between your life and your music."

In an in-depth article for Wired magazine, David Byrne examines the history of music, recorded and performed, and looks ahead, offering six possibilities for what the future might hold for creators, distributors, and consumers of music in its many forms. Included with the article are a number of audio clips from his conversations on the subject with Brian Eno, label execs, and artist managers. In a separate article, Byrne and Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke chat about the interplay of business and art in music.

Three weeks before There Will Be Blood first hits select screens in the US, the Paul Thomas Anderson film is already one of the most talked-about films of the year, not least for its haunting score by Jonny Greenwood. Today the Nonesuch Journal brings you an exclusive interview with the composer, in which he discusses everything from his musical influences—from Penderecki to the Pixies—to his use of the ondes martenot, an early electronic instrument found in such seminal 20th-century works as Messiaen's Turangalîla-Symphonie. Nonesuch will release the complete There Will Be Blood soundtrack December 18.

David Byrne was on hand last week for Caetano Veloso's first show at the Nokia Theatre in New York, and he's written about the experience in his blog. In this excerpt, he describes how Caetano and his band allayed any concerns about the mix of styles in pairing the new songs in a set with the familiar older favorites. Riding home on his bike after the show, Byrne passed the brand-new home of the New York Times—a towering skyscraper designed by starchitect Renzo Piano—and took the occasion to muse on the state of journalism.