Robert Plant is featured on the cover of the December issue of Relix magazine. He talks with journalist Alan Light about his band, The Sensational Space Shifters, and their new album, lullaby and... The Ceaseless Roar. And for a limited time, Relix is offering a complimentary issue of the issue delivered in the US.

Punch Brothers, in their second year of residency at the Oberlin Conservatory, have been named Affiliate Scholars at Oberlin. A rare distinction at Oberlin, Affiliate Scholars are named in recognition of significant professional achievement and with the purpose of facilitating artistic or scholarly endeavor in association with Oberlin. As part of their residency, Punch Brothers engage with students through a wide range of activities, including coaching sessions, master classes, lectures, and performances. 

The Black Keys and Nickel Creek will be featured on Austin City Limits (ACL) as the series unwraps the second half of its Season 40 in January. Nickel Creek, appearing for the third time, kicks things off when ACL returns to PBS on Saturday, January 3, on a double bill with The Avett Brothers. The Black Keys make their second appearance on the show on Saturday, January 31. Emmylou Harris appears on a special episode with performance highlights from the Austin City Limits Hall of Fame presentation, as ACL closes out its celebratory season on February 14.

Brad Mehldau Trio kicks off a ten-day, eight-city US tour at the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts in Davis, California, tonight. It's the first of three stops in the state, including Stanford and a double bill in Northridge with The Bad Plus, followed by shows in Phoenix, Durham, Philadelphia, Boston, and Albany. Mehldau's electric duo album with drummer Mark Guiliana, Mehliana: Taming the Dragon, was named to Jazzwise magazine's list of the Best Albums of the Year. 

Nonesuch releases Punch Brothers’ T Bone Burnett–produced The Phosphorescent Blues on January 27, 2015; vinyl follows on February 24 with four additional tracks not available elsewhere. In celebration, the band embarks on a 23-city North American tour on February 20. The Phosphorescent Blues is available to pre-order with instant downloads of the album tracks “I Blew It Off” and “Julep,” which you can preview here.

There's still about a month to go before 2014 comes to a close, and already the music magazines have begun to weigh in on the year's best music. Rolling Stone, American Songwriter, Uncut, Mojo, and Q have all published their lists of the Best Albums of the Year, and included among them are a number of Nonesuch releases: the latest from The Black Keys and Sam Amidon; the label debut albums from Robert Plant and Conor Oberst; and a special reissue from Emmylou Harris.

Audra McDonald launches her extensive 2014–15 concert season with a performance at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in LA tonight. The season includes shows in more than 30 cities in 18 different states across the US, among them five cities in California and five in Florida; three each in New Jersey and upstate New York; dates in Indianapolis, Charlotte, Boston, Chapel Hill, and Tucson; and a return to Carnegie Hall. McDonald won a record-breaking sixth Tony Award for her portrayal of Billie Holiday in Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill earlier this year and released her latest solo album, Go Back Home, in 2013.

Sam Amidon recently stopped by NPR with Bill Frisell and Shahzad Ismaily to give a Tiny Desk Concert. They perform two songs from Amidon's latest album, Lily-O, on which both perform and which Tiny Desk Concert host Bob Boilen calls "gorgeous"—"Blue Mountains" and "Pat Do This, Pat Do That"—as well as the song "Short Life" from his 2013 Nonesuch Records debut album, Bright Sunny South. Watch the Tiny Desk Concert here. Amidon opens for Wilco at the Riviera Theatre in Chicago this Saturday, then leads his own shows in Chicago, Ann Arbor, and Toronto.

Today is the day after Thanksgiving in the US and that means, among other things, Record Store Day Black Friday, offering unique recordings from some of your favorite artists, including Conor Oberst. He releases a special, limited-edition 7" featuring two exclusive tracks recorded during the sessions for his new album, Upside Down Mountain, that are unavailable anywhere else: "Standing on the Outside Looking In" and "Sugar Street." To pick up a copy of the 7" while supplies last, head to a record store near you.

Nonesuch Records releases pianist Tigran Hamasyan's label debut album, Mockroot, on February 17, 2015, available to pre-order now in the Nonesuch Store. Mockroot features Hamasyan on piano, voice, keyboards, synths and sound effects, Sam Minaie on electric bass, and Arthur Hnatek on drums and live electronics. The album comprises new tracks written by Hamasyan, as well as his arrangements of traditional Armenian songs. Although trained as a classical and jazz musician, Tigran Hamasyan draws on a wide range of influences, including Armenian folk music, rock, electronica, poetry, and more.

Richard Linklater's Boyhood, which the Washington Post just named the #1 Best Movie of the Year, has been nominated for five Film Independent Spirit Awards: Best Feature, Best Director for Richard Linklater, Best Supporting Female for Patricia Arquette, Best Supporting Male for Ethan Hawke, and Best Editing for Sandra Adair. Paul Thomas Anderson's Inherent Vice, which was not eligible for individual nominations this year, was selected to receive the Robert Altman Award, which is bestowed upon one film’s director, casting director and ensemble cast. Winners of the 30th Film Independent Spirit Awards will be announced on February 21 in a ceremony broadcast live on IFC. Nonesuch will have release the soundtracks to both films.

The recordings made by Abelardo Barroso with Orquesta Sensación in Havana during the 1950s represent one of the pinnacles of the golden age of Cuban music. Now, on the album Cha Cha Cha, World Circuit, the label behind Buena Vista Social Club, releases a re-mastered selection of 14 of their most irresistible recordings, in North America via Nonesuch Records. The Guardian gives Cha Cha Cha four stars, calling it both "another reminder of Cuba’s extraordinary musical history" and "almost uncannily contemporary."