Nataly Dawn's solo album How I Knew Her is set for release next month and is already garnering critical praise. Dawn "delivers a seductive and singular solo album," says BBC Music. "It’s the sound of a woman brimming with ideas as she seizes her moment ... Dawn has the intelligence to sway the cognoscenti, the wide-eyed charm to seduce the masses, and an other-worldliness that ensures that, for all those she embraces, nobody sounds quite like her." Mojo, Independent on Sunday, and Daily Telegraph all give the album four stars, with the Telegraph calling it "delightful."

Steve Reich is the Distinguished Guest Composer at the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra's 2013 New Music Festival, which gets under way today and runs to this Saturday, February 2. Reich will be in attendance for the festival, which showcases his work over several concerts, discussions, and a dance performance this week, including Vermont Counterpoint, Clapping Music, Different Trains, New York Counterpoint, Double Sextet, Tehillim, and The Desert Music.

Dr. John and Allen Toussaint, two favorite sons of New Orleans, will receive honorary degrees from Tulane University at its 2013 Commencement, the school has announced. Both will receive honorary doctor of fine arts degrees at the school's May 18 commencement ceremony, to be held at the Superdome in New Orleans. The Dalai Lama, who is set to deliver the keynote address at the event, will receive an honorary doctorate of humane letters. Natasha Trethewey, the United States poet laureate and winner of the Pulitzer Prize for poetry, also will be awarded a doctor of humane letters.

Punch Brothers launch their winter 2013 US tour at Turner Hall in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, tonight. The month-long tour makes stops in Missouri, Texas, Kentucky, Virginia, DC, Ohio, New York, Massachusetts, and Maine. (See the tour poster at left.)  Just in time for the start of the tour, CMT has premiered the video for Punch Brothers' “Movement and Location,” directed by Danny Clinch. Watch it here. Tickets are also on sale for Chris Thile's April duo dates with fellow Nonesuch artist Brad Mehldau.

Nataly Dawn kicks off a tour of the western US tonight in support of her forthcoming solo album, How I Knew Her, due out February 12. The two-week tour includes a nine-city run with Ben Folds Five, starting in Denver tonight and including shows in Nevada, California, Washington, and Oregon. In addition, Dawn makes stops at the Sundance Film Festival and in Salt Lake City and opens for Clint Black in Napa on February 1. Her song "Please Don't Scream," off How I Knew Her, is this week's Starbucks Pick of the Week and can be downloaded for free at Starbucks stores and on the Starbucks mobile app. 

Singer/songwriter/fiddle player Sara Watkins launches a tour of the UK and Ireland tonight in support of her acclaimed new album Sun Midnight Sun, which was released by Nonesuch Records in May. The two-week, 13-city tour begins in Sheffield, England, tonight and includes a show at London’s Lexington on Wednesday, January 30, as well as a set at the Celtic Connections festival in Glasgow this Saturday, January 26. 

Devendra Banhart, whose new album, Mala, is due out on Nonesuch Records on March 12, has unveiled a second track off the album. "Never Seen Such Good Things" premiered on NME earlier today and can now be heard here via Banhart's YouTube channel. "It's a gentle, dreamy, guitar-driven ballad with military-style drums," says NME. "'Love, you're a strange fella,' sings Banhart, above dreamy backing vocals and synth effects. Very pretty indeed."

Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell's forthcoming album, Old Yellow Moon, has made NPR's Heavy Rotation: 5 Songs Public Radio Can't Stop Playing. "Their new album of duets, Old Yellow Moon, sounds classic in every sense of musical accomplishment: from their gorgeous singing and inspiring studio performances to their excellent choice of material," says NPR station XPN2. "It hearkens back to classic recordings like Harris' Elite Hotel and Crowell's Diamonds and Dirt, and brings the best out of the two veterans." Harris and Crowell are currently in the UK, with appearances on BBC Breakfast, BBC Radio 4's Loose Ends, and BBC Radio 2's Simon Mayo show.

In response to the current situation in Mali, Fatoumata Diawara has gathered together over 40 of Mali’s most renowned musicians in a studio in Bamako to record a song and video calling for peace titled "Mali-ko" (Peace / La Paix). Known collectively as Voices United for Mali, the group includes Amadou & Mariam, Oumou Sangare, Toumani Diabate, Afel Bocoum, Bassekou Kouyate, Vieux Farka Toure, and others. Watch the video and read the lyrics and their translation here.

Lianne La Havas, who is currently on tour in Australia, is set to return to North America for an 18-city tour starting March 17 in Dallas. Even before then, La Havas will make a brief trip to LA to perform at the Grammy Foundation's Play It Forward concert and to be fêted by Essence magazine at its Black Women in Music event. When she was in LA last September, she performed songs from her new album, Is Your Love Big Enough?, at Amoeba Music. Watch the complete set here.

The album Old Yellow Moon, due out February 26, 2013, on Nonesuch Records, is the first official collaboration from Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell since Crowell joined Harris’ Hot Band in 1975. In this article, the two old friends and occasional band mates speak with writer Michael Hill about the long-anticipated project and how it finally came to be. Read the story that led Harris to declare: “I love the way records get born!”

The line-up for the 2013 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, aka Jazz Fest, has been announced, and among this year's performers are four artists familiar to readers of the Nonesuch Journal: The Black Keys, Joshua Redman, and New Orleans legends and hometown heroes Dr. John and Allen Toussaint. Jazz Fest runs across two weekends, April 26–28 and May 2–5. The opening weekend includes sets from the Joshua Redman Quartet, Dr. John, and Toussaint; The Black Keys help close out the entire festival on Sunday, May 5.