Nonesuch celebrates Kronos Quartet, long known as interpreters of music from around the world, in its 40th anniversary year with two releases: Kronos Explorer Series, a box set of five classic albums from five different parts of the world, and A Thousand Thoughts, a new album that looks at Kronos’s geographically wide-ranging sources, featuring music from 14 different countries. Both are out today in North America (international release April 21). Kronos continues its anniversary celebration at the Switchboard Music Festival in its hometown of San Francisco this Saturday.

Nickel Creek's new album, A Dotted Line, debuted at #7 on the Billboard 200, the band's highest chart position to date! It's been a busy week for the group, with performances on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, WNYC's Soundcheck, CBS This Morning Saturday, and A Prairie Home Companion. Nickel Creek, which begins its first US tour in seven years next week, has announced a new batch of tour dates for this summer. A limited pre-sale for most of the newly announced dates begins Wednesday, April 9, at 10 AM local time.

Toumani Diabaté, widely recognized as the greatest living kora player, and his eldest son Sidiki, release the recording Toumani & Sidiki on World Circuit on May 19. The Guardian has called it "the finest Toumani collaboration since his classic work with Ali Farka Touré." The album, produced by World Circuit’s Nick Gold with engineer Jerry Boys, is a set of unaccompanied kora duets, featuring both obscure, almost forgotten kora pieces and a new look at some Mandé classics from Mali. With this album, Toumani aims "to show the positive side of Mali," to reassert the legacy of a country with access to untold musical riches. 

Bombino kicks off the latest leg of his world tour with two sets at the Savannah Music Festival in Georgia, tonight, alongside Fatoumata Diawara. His month-long North American tour heads next to the TransAtlantic Festival in Miami, out West and back down South, including festival sets at Coachella, New Orleans JazzFest, and more. Bombino also plays a number of European and North American festivals this summer.

Emmylou Harris’s groundbreaking album Wrecking Ball will be reissued on Tuesday, April 8. In celebration, Harris and producer Daniel Lanois, along with Jim Wilson on guitar and Steven Nistor on drums, kick off an international tour at The Wiltern in LA tonight. The Los Angeles Times says: "Wrecking Ball provided an ambitious and richly textured template for the coalescing Americana music movement before it took on that name." The tour continues with stops in San Francisco, Detroit, Chicago, DC, Brooklyn, Boston, and Toronto, followed by European shows in the Netherlands, Belgium, and UK.

Nickel Creek performed "Destination," off the new album A Dotted Line, on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on NBC last night and gathered for a web-exclusive video to discuss how they wrote their earlier tune "Helena." Watch both videos here. The band performs live on WNYC's Soundcheck today at 2 PM ET. The Los Angeles Times says: "Fresh energy—and fresh ideas—course through A Dotted Line ... They’ve never blended their voices more thrillingly."

Conor Oberst visited the BBC studios yesterday to discuss his forthcoming album, Upside Down Mountain, on BBC Radio 6Music's Lauren Laverne program in the morning, also performing "You Are Your Mother's Child" and "Hundreds of Ways" off the new album, and the Jo Whiley show on BBC Radio 2 at night, offering another take on "Hundreds of Ways" and the beloved Bright Eyes song " First Day of My Life," one of Whiley's favorite tunes. 

Nonesuch Records will release the cast recording of David Byrne’s Here Lies Love on May 6. The recording features music by David Byrne and Fatboy Slim as performed by the original 2013 Public Theater cast of the Here Lies Love musical starring Ruthie Ann Miles and Jose Llana as Imelda and Ferdinand Marcos. Pre-order in the Nonesuch Store for an instant download of the track “Child of the Philippines” (heard here). Here Lies Love returns to New York’s Public Theater this spring with performances beginning April 14; opening night set for May 1. 

Today marks the release of A Dotted Line, the new album from Nickel Creek—Chris Thile, Sara Watkins, and Sean Watkins—reuniting for the first time since its 2007 "indefinite hiatus" for the album and a US tour, which begins April 16. The band performs on The Tonight Show this Wednesday and on A Prairie Home Companion on Saturday. The Boston Globe exclaims: "Nickel Creek picks up the thread in glorious fashion on A Dotted Line ... a vibrant reminder of Nickel Creek’s youthful promise and proof that it has plenty left to say." The Evening Standard calls it "fearless and excellent." Pop Matters calls it "a work of supreme songcraft." BBC Radio 2's Bob Harris says: "Nickel Creek are back together; all is well with the world."

Singer-songwriter Conor Oberst has revealed the cover art for his new solo album Upside Down Mountain, which is out on May 19 via Nonesuch Records, and unveiled a new track from the album, "Governor’s Ball," which you can hear here. The album is now available to pre-order in the Nonesuch Store with an exclusive print featuring the album art, or via iTunes, both with an instant download of the tracks "Hundreds of Ways" and "Governor’s Ball." Oberst kicks off the first leg of a world tour in support of the new album on May 8 with special guests Dawes.

Kronos Quartet's new album, A Thousand Thoughts, is due out next Tuesday, April 8. But you don't need to wait till then to hear it: the new album is streaming in full all this week as Q2 Music Album of the Week. "The album would be worth checking out just for the spectacular roster of guest stars the quartet has brought into the studio over the years," says Q2. "But just as impressive as these stellar cameos is the chameleonic playing of the quartet themselves, who manage to blend themselves into musics from Afghanistan, Vietnam and Austin, Texas, even while the core of their sound remains as warm and steady as ever."

The Pat Metheny Unity Group—Chris Potter, Antonio Sanchez, Ben Williams, and Giulio Carmassi—concluded the North American leg of its world tour, performing music from the debut album, Kin (←→), and much more at New York's Town Hall on Friday. "Metheny is one of the most industrious creative engines in jazz, and his relentless breadth has become a calling card, if not a selling point, among his fans," says the New York Times. "New York was his final stop on a grueling North American tour, which meant that the structure and pace of the production had been nailed down tight." The Group begins a months-long European tour at the end of April.