Kronos Quartet is featured in new video from the New York Times, in which the Quartet performs Carlos Paredes's "Canção Verdes Anos" (heard on the five-disc box set Kronos Explorer Series) and discusses the special nature of making music through the quartet. "To me," says Kronos founder and artistic director David Harrington, "the challenge of music is to really be awake, really listen and to try to get your body to respond to what you're hearing inside." You can watch the video, which uses 3D-data capture to present the performance, here.

Robert Plant put out the call for fans to create a music video for “Rainbow,” the first single off his new album, lullaby and… The Ceaseless Roar, via Genero.tv, the online community of filmmakers. From the more than 100 entries, Plant has selected the winning video, which was co-directed by Isabella and Lucien Spelman. You can watch it here. Robert Plant and his band The Sensational Space Shifters kick off a North American tour next week.

Chris Thile and Edgar Meyer have released a video of their performing "Big Top" from their new album, Bass & Mandolin. You can watch it here. The duo kicked off a North American tour this week in Vancouver. These "two giants of contemporary acoustic music ... managed to showcase exceptional chops while never falling into any of the tedious flash virtuosi so often are taken by," raves the Vancouver Sun. "It's a rare opportunity to be captivated by two such unusual instruments in a pairing. These two are truly special."

Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell performed songs from their 2013 Grammy-winning duo album, Old Yellow Moon, and more under at Lincoln Center Out of Doors for AmericanaFest NYC in August. You can watch the complete concert here. They return to the Americana Music Honors & Awards ceremony in Nasvhille, where they took home two awards last year, this Wednesday; Ry Cooder performs in the house band for the evening. You can watch the entire event streaming live at npr.org. Harris kicks off a fall tour at the Bristol Rhythm & Roots Reunion this Friday, followed by a swing through the Northeast before heading out West in October.

Robert Plant, whose new album, lullaby and... The Ceaseless Roar, was release yesterday on Nonesuch/Warner Bros. Records, has unveiled the official music video for the first single off the album, "Rainbow." The video received its world premiere yesterday via The Colbert Report, and can now be seen here.

Carolina Chocolate Drops, during a summer tour stop in Colorado, sat down, or rather rode up the mountain for a Gondola Session in Aspen, performing "Trouble in Your Mind," off its 2010 Grammy Award-winning Nonesuch debut album, Genuine Negro Jig, plus "Pretty Little Girl with the Blue Dress On." Watch them here. The band closes out the summer and kicks off its fall touring season with a special performance: at the BAM Howard Gilman Opera House on September 18 for the Nonesuch Records at BAM celebration of the label's 50th anniversary. Chocolate Drop Rhiannon Giddens joins label mates Kronos Quartet, Natalie Merchant, Sam Amidon, and Olivia Chaney for another concert in the series on September 20.

Conor Oberst has unveiled the third video from his new album Upside Down Mountain. You can watch the enigmatic short for "Common Knowledge," a companion piece to the album's first video, "Zigzagging Toward the Light," here. The video's release comes just a few days before he embarks on the second leg of a coast-to-coast US tour, beginning September 14 in Salt Lake City. Oberst will release two previously unheard songs, “Standing on the Outside Looking In” and “Sugar Street” for this year's Black Friday Record Store Day on November 28. 

Nickel Creek have performed a Tiny Desk Concert for NPR's All Songs Considered, featuring four songs from the group's new album, A Dotted Line. "Nickel Creek was made to sing and play around a single microphone, so a Tiny Desk Concert seemed inevitable," says All Songs Considered host Bob Boilen. "The trio, backed here by bassist Mark Schatz, has no equal. Nickel Creek has been doing this on and off since its members were kids, and what blows me away is the comfort and ease with which they navigate their instruments. That skill, and the creative force behind it, is a joy and a thrill to witness." Watch it here.

With just about two weeks to go before the release of Robert Plant's new album, lullaby and... The Ceaseless Roar, on September 9, Plant and his band the Sensational Space Shifters take fans through the new album in a new short film, which you can watch below. Band member Justin Adams discusses the band's unanimity and creative freedom, while Skin Tyson talks about "creating space at the right time, for each other," and Johnny Baggot discusses his psychedelic looping samples.

Nonesuch Records President Bob Hurwitz and Senior Vice President David Bither recently sat down with the folks at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) in Brooklyn, New York, to discuss the history of Nonesuch Records, the family of artists, and the longstanding relationship between those artists and BAM for an online exclusive video. This comes in advance of BAM's forthcoming celebration of the 50th anniversary of the label: Nonesuch Records at BAM: Celebrating a Label Without Labels, a wide-ranging series of concerts and events, September 9–28, 2014. Watch the video here.

Conor Oberst was the musical guest on Late Show with David Letterman last night, joined by LA band Dawes and more to perform "Hundreds of Ways," off his new album, Upside Down Mountain. You can watch it here. Oberst, backed by Dawes as special guests, is currently touring the globe, including a performance at SummerStage in New York City's Central Park tonight.

Robert Plant has teamed up with Genero TV to give fans the unique opportunity to produce the music video for "Rainbow," the lead track off his forthcoming album, lullaby and... The Ceaseless Roar. The competition gives filmmakers a chance to receive $3,000 and have their video used as the music video for "Rainbow." Robert Plant and the Sensational Space Shifters will be appearing for the first time at the iTunes Festival at London's Roundhouse on September 8.