Carolina Chocolate Drops, who resume their tour at the Rhythm & Roots Festival in Rhode Island on September 1, are featured on Concrete Country, CMT's celebration of roots music. The band hit the streets of Nashville to perform three songs for the set, opening with a traditional tune, followed by "Country Girl," off their new album, Leaving Eden, and "Your Baby Ain't Sweet Like Mine," off their Grammy Award–winning Nonesuch debut album, Genuine Negro Jig. Watch all three performances here.

Nonesuch releases Jonny Greenwood’s soundtrack to writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson’s new film The Master on September 11, 2012. The soundtrack comprises 11 compositions by Greenwood along with four recordings from the post–World War II era in which the film is set. Performers include the London Contemporary Orchestra, AUKSO Chamber Orchestra, and Ella Fitzgerald, among others. Nonesuch Store pre-orders include an instant download of Greenwood’s "Application 45 Version 1" from the album.

Amadou & Mariam bring their North American tour to a close with a free performance on the Santa Monica Pier on Thursday, as part of the Twilight Concert Series. The show follows tour stops at festivals like Lollapalooza, Central Park SummerStage, Outside Lands, Edmonton Folk, and Osheaga, in addition to headlining shows at theaters and clubs. The Los Angeles Times, in a feature previewing Thursday's show, calls their new album, Folila, "the culmination of a midlife rise to the top strata of the world music scene in Africa, Europe and North America."

London-based singer Lianne La Havas has announced details for her first North American tour promoting her highly praised debut album, Is Your Love Big Enough?. She will join nine-time Grammy Award winner John Legend on 14 dates across the US, in addition to her previously announced September headline shows: September 11 at Bowery Ballroom in New York and September 13 at Le Belmont in Montreal. The New Yorker has described her live show as "stunning."

Ry Cooder recently spoke with the Guardian about a wide range of issues, including the Republican party and Mitt Romney; corporate influence on the political system and the world at large; and the power of music, including that of his new album, Election Special, to affect change. "[W]hat I'm trying to do with these little songs I write is say: let's look at this a different way. I don't write books and give speeches but with a four-minute song you can use allegory and other means to suggest a different point of view," says Cooder. "Music is the way that I know. It's the thing I have."

Dawn Upshaw has been named one of five honorees to receive the 2012 Opera News Awards, which will be presented at a gala ceremony in New York City on April 21, 2013, to benefit the education programs of the Metropolitan Opera Guild. “Dawn Upshaw represents the highest ideals of pristine musicianship, intellectual curiosity, and artistic integrity," says Opera News. She spoke with CBC Music about the award and more, including her Nonesuch recording of Górecki's Symphony No. 3, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. 

Lianne La Havas' debut album, Is Your Love Big Enough?, was featured on NPR's All Things Considered last night. "[S]ometimes all it takes to snap me out of a late-summer heat coma," says NPR's Tom Moon, "is the sound of a new and electrifying voice—like that of Lianne La Havas." The Los Angeles Times calls the album "sublime," saying: "[W]ith Is Your Love Big Enough?, Miss La Havas vaults right to the big leagues. Repeated listenings only prove how strong and artful this collection is."

Lianne La Havas, whose debut album, Is Your Love Big Enough?, was released in the US yesterday to great critical acclaim, recently visited the NYC studio of the Associated Press to perform the album tune "No Room for Doubt," sat down for a live performance and fan Q&A on Livestream; and stopped by Rivington Guitars to talk with The Warner Sound. Watch videos of all three events here. And listen to Is Your Love Big Enough? on AOL Music and MSN, where the album is streaming in full all week.

The Black Keys, Neil Young with Crazy Horse, and Foo Fighters will headline The Global Poverty Project's Global Festival 2012, a multifaceted event culminating with a free ticketed concert on the Great Lawn of New York's Central Park on Saturday, September 29, 2012. Also performing are Band of Horses and K’Naan. The Festival celebrates achievements made towards eradicating extreme poverty. Tickets to the concert can be earned through the Global Citizen website.

Lianne La Havas' debut album, Is Your Love Big Enough?, is set for its US release tomorrow, August 7, and is already earning critical acclaim. The Associated Press calls it "outstanding ... not just one of the year’s best debuts, but one of the year’s best albums." The New York Times finds "an innate sense of confidence" in the tunes. The Globe and Mail says the album's "dozen tracks are unanimously marvelous." The San Francisco Chronicle says: "It's easy to see why so many people are taken with Lianne La Havas ... [I]t's hard not to want to shout, 'Viva La Havas!'"

After a European tour which included four Cultural Olympiad performances in the UK, Kronos Quartet has returned home to San Francisco and announced a new set of tour dates for the 2012–13 season. The group will perform across the US, Europe, and Australia, including the premiere of a new collaboration with Laurie Anderson, the conclusion of Kronos' multi-year partnership with the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, a return to the UK for the All Tomorrow’s Parties festival curated by The National, and much more.

Billy Bragg will bring his Ain't Nobody That Can Sing Like Me tour to New Zealand and Australia this October in celebration of the life and legacy of Woody Guthrie, on the 100th anniversary of the folk legend’s birth. The first half of each show on the tour features songs from the Mermaid Avenue albums, in which Bragg and Wilco's Jeff Tweedy put Guthrie's words to music; the second half of the sets features songs from throughout Bragg's career. The New Zealand and Australia shows follow a similarly focused months-long tour of Europe and North America.