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.

Ry Cooder will join a number of artists in celebrating the centenary of folk legend Woody Guthrie in This Land Is Your Land, a concert at The Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, on October 14. Cooder, whom Uncut has described as "a modern-day Woody Guthrie," has a new album, Election Special, out on August 21, and Uncut has named it Album of the Month. "In a recording career that stretches back more than four decades," says Uncut, "Cooder has never before made an album as immediate as Election Special." Mojo gives it four stars.

Sara Watkins performed at the 2012 Newport Folk Festival over the weekend, and NPR Music was there to capture the set. Watkins performed songs from her self-titled solo debut album and her latest album, Sun Midnight Sun, which NPR’s Stephen Thompson calls “a smart, surprising collection of sweetly hooky songs that rest within pop, country and folk on the Venn diagram of musical genres.” Listen to the set now at npr.org. Sara Watkins continues her tour as special guest of Jackson Browne with two shows at NYC's Beacon Theatre this weekend.

Amadou & Mariam launch their tour of North America with a performance at the 9:30 Club in Washington, DC, tonight. It's the couple's first such tour since 2009 and includes stops at festivals like Lollapalooza, Central Park SummerStage, Outside Lands, Edmonton Folk, and Osheaga, in addition to headlining shows at theaters and clubs. Amadou & Mariam will perform songs from their new album, Folila, which has been named among the Best Albums of 2012 So Far by Rolling Stone magazine and listeners of NPR.

Punch Brothers, following a month of US and European festival sets, have now announced that they will return to Europe this November, beginning with the previously announced show at Open House Festival in Belfast on November 5, followed by several headline stops in the UK including shows in Manchester, Birmingham, Edinburgh, and London, as well as festival sets in the Netherlands and Belgium for Crossing Border Festival. Tickets are on sale now. Punch Brothers head to Australia next week.

Jessica Lea Mayfield launches a month-long summer tour, including a number of headline shows as well as a ten-day tour supporting Langhorne Slim. Mayfield kicks off the tour with a headlining show at Firebird in St. Louis tonight, followed by shows in Kansas City, Wichita, Denver, and Salt Lake City. The tour with Langhorne Slim begins at the Independent in San Francisco and the Troubador in LA next week and includes additional stops in California, Arizona, Texas, Tennessee, and Kentucky.

The Nonesuch Journal is taking a bit of a break, ready to return with all the latest Nonesuch news on Monday, July 30. Till then, the summer concert season remains in full swing, of course, and with plenty of great music being made on all four corners of the globe, here's a look at some of the many events featuring Nonesuch artists this week, hopefully reaching wherever your summer travels may take you.

Punch Brothers, who close out their European tour in Dublin tonight, have announced the second leg of their fall tour. This run starts November 24 in Vancouver and takes the band to cities throughout the West Coast of North America, wrapping up with a pair of Midwest dates in Minneapolis and Chicago. A limited pre-sale for most dates is under way; the first leg of the fall tour is on sale now. Punch Brothers also have a number of festival dates on tap later this month, including Grey Fox, Master Musicians, RockyGrass, FloydFest, and Newport Folk.

Sara Watkins kicked off a months-long tour as special guest of Jackson Browne over the weekend. "Cheerful and charming, Watkins was totally at ease," says the Charleston City Paper of Sunday's show. "Watkins also handled the melodies and harmonies with cool authority, and she dazzled with several fiddle solos that demonstrated her virtuosity." Her new album, Sun Midnight Sun, on which Browne makes a guest appearance, is due out on vinyl next Tuesday, July 24, and is available to pre-order in the Nonesuch Store.

Singer/songwriter Fatoumata Diawara’s debut album, Fatou, will be released in North America on August 28, 2012, and is now available to pre-order in the Nonesuch Store. Diawara will tour the US this fall. She has been receiving rave reviews since the album’s release in the UK and Europe last year. The Telegraph says “this stylish debut doesn’t put a foot wrong"; Pitchfork calls it "beguiling." Diawara uses elements of jazz, pop, and funk along with her ancestral Wassoulou tradition in her songwriting. John Paul Jones, Toumani Diabate, and Tony Allen all make guest appearances on Fatou.

With the Olympic Games set to begin in two weeks, Kronos Quartet joins in the Cultural Olympiad's London 2012 Festival with a Glasgow performance of Terry Riley's Sun Rings ... Punch Brothers perform at three UK festivals ... Billy Bragg celebrates Woody Guthrie's centennial in NYC ... Carolina Chocolate Drops tour the South ... Shawn Colvin is on NPR's World Cafe ... Dr. John tours Europe ... k.d. lang plays Vegas ... Brad Mehldau Trio, Pat Metheny Unity Band, Joshua Redman all tour Italy ... Sara Watkins plays Praire Home Companion, kicks off tour with Jackson Browne ... and more ...