Emmylou Harris kicks off her North American spring and summer tour with a return to the Telluride Bluegrass Festival in Telluride, Colorado, tonight. The tour will feature songs from Harris's recent Nonesuch release, Hard Bargain, as well as favorites from throughout her career. The tour includes several festival sets like the Dave Matthew Band Caravan, Newport Folk Festival, and Canada's Harvest Picnic; an Austin City Limits Live performance; a show with the Levon Helm Band in New York's Central Park; and stops at more than a dozen indoor and outdoor venues across the US.

The Guardian and Observer have published their list of the 50 key events in the history of world and folk music, which includes four events that also have a direct link to the history of Nonesuch Records, events involving Ry Cooder and the Buena Vista Social Club, Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil, Youssou N'Dour, and Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares, and one that would later impact Kronos Quartet.

k.d. lang and the Siss Boom Bang kick off their North American tour at the Eastman Theatre in Rochester, New York, tonight for the 2011 Rochester Jazz Festival. "k.d. lang's voice hovers in the twilight somewhere between heartache and desire," says the Rochester City Newspaper, citing her voice's "elastic range, creamy tone, power, and seduction," and calling her "one of the finest crooners of this generation." Spinner spoke with lang and says her new album, Sing it Loud, "easily stands up amongst her best." Tune in to NYC's WFUV 90.7 FM tonight to hear lang and the band, and watch a video from that session here.

Pat Metheny's new album, What's It All About, includes Metheny's solo-guitar take on the Beatles classic "And I Love Her." The video, which premiered on MSN yesterday, is now available here. "The Beatles were huge for me," Metheny says. "Without them, I don't know if I even would have become a musician or a guitar player ... It is kind of impossible to imagine doing a record like this without including at least one Beatles song."

Chris Thile and Michael Daves's debut duo album, Sleep with One Eye Open, released last month on Nonesuch, is available for just $3.99 at Amazon for today only. The album track "My Little Girl in Tennessee" is also available for free as Amazon's Free Song of the Day. Thile and Daves are in Colorado this weekend to perform at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival, as is Thile's band Punch Brothers.

The Low Anthem recently performed a session for Crawdaddy! featuring songs from their latest Nonesuch release, Smart Flesh. You can watch the performances here. "There’s a reason why Low Anthem is getting a lot of buzz these days," says Crawdaddy! The band's "vintage sensibility is lifted by pristine vocals and a collaborative energy among them that draws from their respective strengths." The band performs in Brooklyn tonight, followed by shows in Connecticut and at the Clearwater festival in upstate New York.

Pat Metheny's new album, What's It All About, was released yesterday on Nonesuch. MSN Music, which continues to stream the album in full, has now premiered the video of Metheny performing the Beatles classic "And I Love Her." You can also listen to the album in full this week at AOL Music and on Spinner. The Philadelphia Daily News says: "The ever-surprising Pat Metheny does it again with What's It All About." The Seattle Post Intelligencer says Metheny's latest "provides fundamental context to his craftsmanship."

James Farm, featuring Joshua Redman, Aaron Parks, Matt Penman, and Eric Harland, is today's guest on WNYC's Soundcheck. The quartet sets up shop at the NY's Jazz Standard this week for a four-night residency. The New York Times says the band members "share a fondness for sleek convolution and introspective groove. As on their impressive new debut, self-titled and on the Nonesuch label, they’ll reach here for a cohesive and conscientiously eclectic sound."

Stephen Sondheim's Company, as performed by the New York Philharmonic and a star-studded cast including Neil Patrick Harris, Stephen Colbert, Jon Cryer, Christina Hendricks, Patti LuPone, and Martha Plimpton, will be shown in movie theaters across North America today, with encore screenings to follow. Watch a video preview here. Colbert discussed the production on NPR's Fresh Air. Nonesuch released the cast recording of the most recent Broadway revival of Company in 2007.

Donnacha Dennehy's Nonesuch debut album, Grá agus Bás, has been named one of NPR Music's 25 Favorite Albums of the 2011 (So Far). NPR's Anastasia Tsioulcas calls it "a revelation." She describes the title piece as "haunting and utterly bracing"; the second piece, That the Night Come, was set for "Upshaw and her silvery, glistening voice in bracing, rich, complex and just plain gorgeous displays." Tsioulcas will "be listening to this for a long time to come."

Pat Metheny's latest Nonesuch album, What's It All About, is out today. The Boston Herald gives it an A-, saying: "Metheny’s thoughtful, loving approach elevates every tune he tackles to a realm of beauty." To mark the release, the album is streaming in full at MSN Music, and we've posted the third in a series of videos of Metheny performing songs on the new record: The Association's "Cherish." Watch it here.

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.