Ry Cooder joined TIME's Joe Klein on the columnist's road trip across the US. Klein is crossing the country, talking to Americans about the state of the nation as the fall election season approaches. It's something to which Cooder is particularly attuned, given the subject of his new album, Election Special, out August 21. "Ry Cooder has provided much of the sound track of my life," writes Klein. "He’s been writing political songs in recent years, and unlike most in that often-too-obvious genre, each is musically exquisite." Watch a video of the pair meeting up with fiddler Dan Gellert in Dayton, Ohio, here.

Shawn Colvin was the guest on the Tavis Smiley show last night on PBS. She talks with Smiley about her new album, All Fall Down, and her new memoir, Diamond in the Rough, both released last week. The in-depth conversation touches on the highs and lows of Colvin's life and covers a breadth of topics, not least her storied career in music. Watch the episode here.

Carolina Chocolate Drops recently stopped by USA Today's StudioA to perform a three-song set featuring music from their new album, Leaving Eden, and their Grammy-winning Nonesuch debut, Genuine Negro Jig. The set opens with "Your Baby Ain't Sweet Like Mine," off the earlier album, followed by "Country Girl" and "Riro's House," both from the new album. Watch the set and the follow-up interview with the band here.

The life and music of Kate McGarrigle will be celebrated in concert at Toronto's Luminato festival tonight featuring members of her family, including her sisters, Anna and Jane, and her children, Rufus and Martha Wainwright, and friends like Emmylou Harris. Luminato also screened a film of the 2011 NYC concert tribute to Kate, an excerpt of which you can watch here along with a CBC performance of Kate's song "(Talk to Me of) Mendocino" by Anna, Rufus, and Martha. The city of Montreal will rename a square in her honor next week.

Shawn Colvin is featured on the latest episode of eTown, her seventh time on the radio show. She performs "Change Is on the Way," from her new album, All Fall Down, and favorites "Polaroids" and "Diamond in the Rough." Watch those three performances here. She and fellow guest Mary Chapin Carpenter also perform the classic tune "That's the Way Love Goes" and close the show with a special take on The Band's "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" in tribute to the late Levon Helm.

Punch Brothers make their third appearance on NPR's Mountain Stage with a set recorded on the campus of West Virginia University and airing on NPR stations across the US this week. The band performs five songs off their new album, Who's Feeling Young Now?. Also on NPR, the band can be heard on John Wesley Harding's Cabinet of Wonders. Watch Punch Brothers' performance of "Movement and Location" from last weekend's Bonnaroo and a "Backstage at Mountain Stage" interview with Chris Thile here.

Shawn Colvin's video for the title track to her new album, All Fall Down, has premiered on YouTube; watch it here. Colvin performs from the album and reads from her new memoir, Diamond in the Rough, at Barnes & Noble at The Grove in LA tonight and performs at the El Rey with Buddy Miller and Viktor Krauss on Tuesday. They performed on CBS This Morning on Saturday. Colvin is featured in the New York Times' Texas Report and in the Austin American-Statesman, which calls All Fall Down "superb."

John Adams's first opera, Nixon in China, makes its San Francisco Opera debut tonight at the War Memorial Opera House, the opening night of the Opera's Summer Season and the first of seven performances of Adams's piece. This year marks the 25th anniversary of the landmark work and the 40th anniversary of Nixon's visit to China. Watch a preview video here. Also this weekend, Adams's latest opera, A Flowering Tree, will be performed by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra with the three principals who originated their roles.

The Black Keys performed a special rendition of their hit single “Gold on the Ceiling,” at the 2012 MTV Movie Awards last night in honor of the actor/musician Johnny Depp, who joined the band on guitar for the performance before receiving the MTV Generation Award, the MTV Movie Awards' highest honor, from Aerosmith's Steven Tyler and Joe Perry. Watch The Black Keys / Jonny Depp performance of "Gold on the Ceiling" below.

Steve Reich will join the Bang on a Can All-Stars on their European tour next month, with concerts at Cité de la Musique in Paris and at the Bloc festival in London, featuring an all-Reich program. Reich spoke with the folks at Bloc for an illuminating video feature about his influences—including Ghanaian drumming and Balinese gamelan—with illustrative examples and archival performance footage of his own work. Watch the video here.

Sara Watkins' video for the song "Take Up Your Spade," the closing track off her new album, Sun Midnight Sun, has premiered on the Los Angeles Times Pop & Hiss blog, which describes the song as "a gentle benedictory ode to the notion that every moment brings with it the possibility of renewal." The video was shot at the recording session for the new album by director Reid Long and features guest vocalists Jackson Browne and Fiona Apple and producer Blake Mills. Watch it here.

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