The first recording of John Adams's Son of Chamber Symphony was released on Nonesuch earlier this year, performed by the International Contemporary Ensemble, paired with his String Quartet, performed by the St. Lawrence String Quartet. The Boston Globe says the former piece "has a madcap wit, an infectious rhythmic energy and vitality, and a beautifully wrought slow movement." The Detroit Free Press gives the album a perfect four stars, calling the latter piece "a major addition to the repertoire." The New Haven Advocate says it's "a first recording that seems likely to remain the benchmark."

Pat Metheny will be the guest on this week's episode of BBC Radio 2's Jamie Cullum show tonight. In this hour-long special, Metheny talks with Cullum about his career and its impact on the role of guitar in jazz. Metheny's new album, What's It All About, earns a perfect five stars in BBC Music magazine, which says: "Laymen and players alike will love this personal solo album from their personable hero."

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, the free annual outdoor music festival held in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, returns for its 11th run this September 30 through October 2. The festival's organizers are announcing the line-up through a series of music medleys. Among the already-announced performers are Punch Brothers, who performed last year, and Emmylou Harris, who will have performed at each of the festival's 11 years. Just added to the festival roster: The Low Anthem.

Ry Cooder's new album, Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down, is due out in just over three weeks, on August 30. The album track "El Corrido de Jesse James," which uses the Mexican corrido tradition to comment on the Wall Street bailout, was featured on NPR's All Things Considered yesterday in a look at some favorite new sounds. NPR contributor Betto Arcos says of Cooder: "He's able to discern and bring together musical styles like no one else can."

The Carolina Chocolate Drops follow last weekend's performance at the Newport Folk Festival, which NPR's Ann Powers included among her "Newport favorites," with an opening set for Bob Dylan in Ohio tonight. Says Powers: "Bridging the false divides separating blues from folk from country, this North Carolina band also doesn't hesitate to see the folk in the present day." While in Newport, the Chocolate Drops took some time to record a three-song set for Sleepover Shows. "Let’s just put it out there: The Carolina Chocolate Drops are the reason the Newport Folk Festival exists," asserts Sleepover Shows. Watch the set here.

k.d. lang and will be the guest on today's episode of NPR's World Café, talking with host David Dye about Sing it Loud, her new album with the Siss Boom Bang, and performing songs from the record. lang and the band bring their extensive North American tour back up to her homeland of Canada with performances at the Regina and Edmonton folk festivals this weekend. The Regina festival's artistic director says: "She is breathtaking."

As announced last month, Modern Music, a collaboration between pianists Brad Mehldau and Kevin Hays and composer/arranger Patrick Zimmerli, will be released by Nonesuch on September 20. Now comes the album's cover, which features American Modernist painter Charles Sheeler's Classic Landscape. The album is available for pre-order in the Nonesuch Store with an instant download of the title track included at checkout. All About Jazz, reviewing Mehldau's latest solo album, Live in Marciac, raves: "It's a stunning document that somehow manages to satisfy the most basic melodic appetites while still confounding conventional understanding of human capability."

The Carolina Chocolate Drops, who open for Bob Dylan this Friday, return to their home state of North Carolina to perform at the Museum of Art in Raleigh on August 27. In honor of the local show, the Chocolate Drops are hosting a special eBay auction, featuring an autographed banjo from the band, to benefit the Center for the Study of the American South in Chapel Hill and its music programming. The auction is open through August 13.

"Crystalline," the first single off Björk's multimedia project Biophilia, is featured on NPR's All Songs Considered. "God bless Björk," says producer Robin Hilton. "We need artists like her ... Something comes along like the iPad or the iPhone, and they just see things differently. They take us in new, completely unexpected directions. They embrace technology and turn it into a new art form. I think that's just amazing." Björk discussed the project with BBC Radio 4's Front Row. Wired features an interview with Scott Snibbe, the leader of the team behind the Biophilia App, and Spinner spoke with some of the inventors behind the unique musical instruments commissioned for the project.

Randy Newman, who performed with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra over the weekend, concludes his Australian tour with two shows with the Sydney Symphony at the Sydney Opera House this week. The Age and Sydney Morning Herald laud Newman as "one of the greatest songwriters of the past 50 years," whose "work proves yet again that on the big questions, all too often the artists can illuminate the truth better than the essayists, the journalists and, perhaps less surprisingly, the politicians." His recent appearances on ABC Radio National's The Music Show and 702 ABC Sydney Afternoons are now online.

This past weekend, the Newport Folk Festival offered the sold-out crowd two beautiful summer days of music from performers including the Carolina Chocolate Drops, Emmylou Harris, Wanda Jackson, and Chris Thile & Michael Daves. You can now listen to all of those sets online at NPR Music, from the ever "vital and contemporary" Harris to the "blazingly intense music" of Thile & Daves. The Boston Globe says that all the music proved "compelling and indebted to what preceded it."

The Flynn Center for the Performing Arts in Burlington, Vermont, has announced its 2011–12 season, and on the schedule are four Nonesuch artists: k.d. lang and the Siss Boom Bang open the venue's concert season on September 23, Laurie Anderson follows with her piece Delusion in October, Cheikh Lô joins a multi-artist celebration of James Brown in November, and the Carolina Chocolate Drops play the Flynn in January.