Ry Cooder's new album, Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down, will be released by Nonesuch/Perro Verde Records on August 30, 2011. Pre-order the album in the Nonesuch Store on CD and vinyl to receive an instant download of the album's opening track, "No Banker Left Behind." You can listen to the song here. Cooder will perform with special guests Los Cenzontles at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco on August 31 and September 1, 2011.

Kronos Quartet will be the featured guests on CBC radio arts program Q Wednesday morning. Kronos will be joined on the program by pipa virtuoso Wu Man, who also joins the group in the fourth and final concert of its residency at the Luminato Festival in Toronto Wednesday night. The concert features the Canadian premiere of the multimedia piece A Chinese Home. The Toronto Star says of Sunday's free outdoor concert from Kronos: "This is what makes Luminato special."

As Chris Thile and Michael Daves gear up to perform live at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival this Friday, NPR has posted a Tiny Desk Concert featuring the mandolin-and-guitar duo performing songs off their debut album, Sleep with One Eye Open, recently released on Nonesuch. You can listen to the complete performance here. "What stands out between these two musicians when they play traditional music," says NPR's Bob Boilen, "is the level of extremity they achieve. This is small-town music with New York City intensity."

Pat Metheny's new album, What's It All About, is out tomorrow. To start the count down to the big day, we posted the first in a series of videos on Friday of Metheny performing songs off the new record. Now comes the second video in the series: "Garota de Ipanema" ("Girl from Ipanema") by Antonio Carlos Jobim and Vinicius de Moraes. Watch it here.

Pat Metheny's latest Nonesuch album, What's It All About, is due out this Tuesday. Earlier this week, we posted a video of Metheny introducing the album. Today, we offer the first in a series of videos to be released in the coming days of Metheny performing full-length songs off the new record. Today's video: Carly Simon's "That's the Way I've Always Heard It Should Be." Watch it here and check back on Monday and Tuesday for more videos in the series.

Randy Newman is the guest on American Public Media's Dinner Party Download this weekend, the show's 100th episode. The Christian Science Monitor says of Newman's latest album, Songbook Vol. 2: "As a gift to us and the world at large, Newman has recorded his sardonic, hilarious, and often moving repertoire in the studio, solo at the keys ... the next best thing to seeing this unique artist and American treasure live."

Kronos Quartet begins its residency at the Luminato Festival in Toronto today. The residency features four concerts reflecting the Quartet's global musical journey. Kronos is "one of the world's finest—and definitely most adventurous—chamber ensembles," says the Toronto Star. "Every one of their nearly four-dozen albums—which have earned every industry award imaginable—have introduced their growing legion of fans and audiences to a new piece of a global musical puzzle."

Kronos Quartet was awarded the prestigious Avery Fisher Prize, which recognizes outstanding achievement and excellence in music, in a ceremony held last night at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City. As the recipient of this honor, Kronos receives a monetary award of $75,000. At last night’s ceremony, Nonesuch Records President Robert Hurwitz spoke of the label’s relationship with Kronos, now three decades strong, and the group’s unique contributions to the world of music. Read the full text of his speech here.

Dawn Upshaw helps kick off the 2011 Ojai Music Festival tonight. She is the music director of this year's festival, which runs through Sunday, June 12, and marks the soprano's fourth appearance at the Southern California festival. Festival highlights include Upshaw's performance of Crumb’s The Winds of Destiny and the world premiere of Maria Schneider's Winter Morning Walks. The Los Angeles Times says "her voice is like a ray of light in a forest. Its luminous tone is proof that some things in the world can never be manufactured."

The 10th Annual Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival gets under way in Manchester, Tennessee, tomorrow and runs through the weekend, with performances from a number of artists familiar to readers of the Nonesuch Journal: Jessica Lea Mayfield, The Low Anthem, Wanda Jackson, Sara Watkins, The Black Keys, Dan Auerbach, and Allen Toussaint. In addition, Nonesuch has teamed up with Relix magazine and the Bonnaroo Beacon, the official daily newspaper of the festival, to offer two very special contests to Bonnaroo attendees.

Chris Thile and Michael Daves have announced a short run of tour dates in the Midwest in September, stopping in Ann Arbor, Urbana, and Chicago. These follow summer festival sets at Telluride, Grey Fox, and Newport and a headline set in Brooklyn. Relix calls their debut album, Sleep with One Eye Open, a "boisterous tribute to their bluegrass roots," one that "literally crackles with youthful energy." The review concludes: "If bluegrass ever needs another revival, this future classic is more than enough to keep the flame lit."

Emmylou Harris concludes her spring European tour at Admiralspalast in Berlin tonight. She heads back to the States and launches the US leg of her tour at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival in Telluride, Colorado, on June 17. Harris recently spoke with Rolling Stone about her new album, Hard Bargain, and moments from throughout her career, like her friendship with Gram Parsons, about whom she wrote "The Road" off Hard Bargain, and working with Bob Dylan.