The music editors at iTunes in the US have made their selections of the Best of 2013, and featured among them are four critically acclaimed albums from Nonesuch Records: the Inside Llewyn Davis soundtrack among the Best Albums, Soundtrack; Rokia Traoré's latest album, Beautiful Africa, and Bombino's label debut, Nomad, among the year's Best Albums, World; and Jeremy Denk's recording of Bach's Goldberg Variations among the Best Albums, Classical.

The Black Keys have announced a number of European tour dates for June and July of 2014, starting with the INmusic Festival in Zagreb, Croatia, followed by sets at Open Air St. Gallen in Switzerland, Down the Rabbit Hole Festival in Holland, Open'er Festival in Poland, Mainsquare Festival in France, Rock Werchter in Belgium, Rock in Roma in Italy, Optimus Alive in Portugal, and Bilbao BBK Live in Spain, before closing out at the Festival de Nimes in France. 

Stephen Sondheim's latest musical, Road Show, makes its Bay Area premiere with a 15-performane run presented by Theatre Rhinoceros at the Eureka Theatre in San Francisco, January 2–19, 2014. Starting January 9, performances will be preceded by a pre-show presentation from director John Fisher. The Benicia Historical Museum in nearby Benicia is running an exhibition about the Mizner brothers who inspired Road Show and were born in Benicia. Nonesuch Records and PS Classics released the original cast recording of Road Show in 2009.

The Carolina Chocolate Drops bid farewell to founding member Dom Flemons, who is starting a solo career, with a special US tour earlier this month to commemorate his time with the band. Led by co-founder Rhiannon Giddens, the band will tour throughout 2014 with Hubby Jenkins and two new musicians, cellist Malcolm Parson and multi-instrumentalist Rowan Corbett, who will join the group in the New Year. The band has just announced a number of new US tour dates for early 2014, making stops across the Southeast through March and up into the Northeast in the spring.

Inside Llewyn Davis has landed the top spot among the Top 10 Films of 2013 per Variety's Peter Debruge: "Inside Llewyn Davis, one of Joel and Ethan Coen's finest, was also the finest film this year." Film Comment and Paper also name it the Best Film of 2013. The Associated Press places it among the Top 10 Movies of the Year, saying: "In surveying the year at the movies, the topography is rich." Oscar Isaac (Llewyn Davis) and T Bone Burnett, who produced the film's soundtrack, participated in a Reddit AMA, answering fans' questions about the film, music, and more.

A one-night-only concert was held at NYC’s Town Hall on September 29, 2013, to celebrate the music of the Golden Globe–nominated film Inside Llewyn Davis. The evening was filmed for a documentary that will be broadcast by SHOWTIME beginning this Friday, December 13, at 10 PM, and Nonesuch Records will release a live album from the concert (details to follow). The concert, documentary, and live album were produced by Inside Llewyn Davis writer / director / producers Joel and Ethan Coen and soundtrack producer T Bone Burnett. Watch a preview here.

Iron and Wine was the musical guest on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon on NBC last night, joined by Calexico and special guests Glenn Hansard and Kathleen Edwards, to perform that Christmas classic by The Pogues, "Fairytale of New York." Watch the performance here. All of the artists above, as well as Beth Orton, Nick Lowe, and Amos Lee, performed the previous night at the Holiday Cheer for FUV concert to benefit NYC public radio station 90.7 FM WFUV. Tune in to WFUV for highlights from the concert on Monday, December 23, at noon and on Christmas Day at 7:30 PM.

Inside Llewyn Davis, the new film written and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen, has been nominated for three Golden Globe Awards: Best Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy; Best Actor in a Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy, for Oscar Isaac; and Best Original Song, Motion Picture, for "Please Mr. Kennedy," written by Ed Rush, George Cromarty, T Bone Burnett, Justin Timberlake, Joel Coen, and Ethan Coen, and performed in the film by Isaac, Timberlake, and Adam Driver. The Golden Globe Awards will be presented in a ceremony hosted by Tina Fey and Amy Poehler and broadcast live on NBC on Sunday, January 12, 2014, starting at 8 PM ET.

The new Coen brothers film Inside Llewyn Davis has landed on a number of lists of the Best Movies of 2013, including those of The New Yorker, Rolling Stone, and the New York Times, whose A.O. Scott calls this "a year of superabundant quality" in film and places Inside Llewyn Davis at No. 1. "The musical performances—especially from Oscar Isaac, who plays the title character—are hauntingly lovely," he writes. Slate says: "Inside Llewyn Davis is the best film ever made about the folk revival—and one of the best ever made about music, period." 

NPR Music has published the list of its 100 Favorite Songs of 2013, and featured among them are songs from three Nonesuch Records releases: Rokia Traoré's "Mélancolie," from her new album, Beautiful Africa; Sam Amidon's "My Old Friend," from Bright Sunny South; and Timo Andres's Paraphrase on Themes of Brian Eno, from Home Stretch. "What do you have to do, as a song, to win our hearts," asks NPR. "You have to sink in. You have to stop someone dead in her tracks. You need to cause that man to act a fool." These are songs that "are stamped with memories or reliably turn the temperature up or put a smile on our face every single time."

The new Coen brothers film Inside Llewyn Davis has been named one of the Top 10 Films of the Year by the American Film Institute and is nominated for the LA Film Critics Award for Best Music Score. Watch a new featurette on the casting of the film, including behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with the Coen brothers and cast members Justin Timberlake, Carey Mulligan, John Goodman, and Garrett Hedlund here. Oscar Isaac, who plays the title role, was a guest on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon last night; watch the interview and a special performance here.

Bombino's Nonesuch debut album, Nomad, has been named among NPR Music's 50 Favorite Albums of 2013. The Tuareg guitarist, singer, and songwriter and The Black Keys' Dan Auerbach, who produced the album, "turned out to be a fabulous team," says NPR's Bob Boilen. "What you hear on Nomad is Bombino's already vigorous sound with a bit more bite." Nomad was recently named to Rolling Stone's list of the 50 Best Albums of 2013 and to Uncut's list of the Best World Music Albums.