What's It All About, Pat Metheny's forthcoming sequel to his first solo baritone-guitar effort, One Quiet Night, features classic tunes from songwriters like Paul Simon, Lennon & McCartney, Burt Bacharach, and Henry Mancini. "With What's It All About," says All About Jazz, "Metheny's ability to think outside the box never comes at the expense of losing sight of it, making music that's easy and accessible, but with deeper layers simmering just beneath its calm surface." In a new video posted here, Metheny introduces the new album by performing a number of tracks and discussing the album's inspiration.

Shawn Colvin, who is currently on tour, recently appeared on an episode of HBO's Treme. On the show, from David Simon, creator of The Wire, Colvin performs her song "I'm Gone," off her 2006 Nonesuch debut album, These Four Walls, with violinist Lucia Micarelli, who plays Annie on the series. You can watch some of their performance and see Colvin and Micarelli discuss how it all fits into the series in a video here.

The New York City Ballet begins a six-show run of George Balanchine's Jewels, featuring music by Fauré, Stravinsky, and Tchaikovsky, at Lincoln Center tonight. Two selections from Jewels—"Emeralds" and "Diamonds"—are included in the Nonesuch DVD of the New York City Ballet's 1977 performance from the acclaimed PBS series Dance in America. The Los Angeles Times says the works became "instant classics" when filmed for the series.

In a new video, Emmylou Harris lends her voice to the effort to stop mountaintop removal mining in the Appalachian Mountains of West Virginia, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Maryland. Harris joins Naomi Judd, Kathy Mattea, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and local and national organizations to help raise public awareness about an upcoming march to end mountaintop removal and a new documentary feature film about the issue called The Last Mountain, set for release in early June. You can watch Harris's video here.

Bob Dylan celebrates his 70th birthday today, and what better occasion than that to revisit Wanda Jackson's take on the legendary songwriter's "Thunder on the Mountain," as heard on her new, Jack White-produced album, The Party Ain't Over. Dylan himself, who once described Jackson as "an atomic bomb with lipstick," had suggested Jackson record the song, and it paid off with what HitFix called a "motorcyle-movie nasty" rendition of the tune. Watch the video here. Jackson performs live this week in Little Rock, Memphis, and Knoxville.

Randy Newman was featured in the Observer last weekend, in which his song "Losing You" was described as "a reminder of what a poignant musician Newman can be." Now, as part of the Guardian and Observer's How I Wrote video series, he performs the song at the piano and shares the beautiful and touching true-life story behind the song. Watch the video here. The A.V. Club offers the uninitiated an introduction to Newman's work, calling him "one of the finest songwriters of his time."

Randy Newman was the musical guest on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon last night. He performed "Losing You," off his latest Nonesuch release, Songbook Vol. 2, which Fallon calls "a beautiful record." Prefix says the new album's "reinterpretations of his classic works offer a chance to hear his material with fresh ears," and the Late Night "performance demonstrates Newman’s famous way with words, but it also shows what an affecting singer he can be." Watch it here, along with a web-exclusive performance of "Short People."

The Low Anthem performs Phosphorescent's "The Mermaid Parade" in the latest episode of The Voice Project, a non-profit organization that supports women of war-torn Northern Uganda. Watch it here. The band was recorded moments before they played a concert at Boston's Old South Church at which they hit "a high note," said the Boston Globe, with "a galvanizing 90-minute performance that was masterful and even magical at times."

Carolina Chocolate Drops play WMNF’s Tropical Heatwave and choose new logo ... James Farm launches tour in Tel Aviv ... Ben Folds plays two nights in Sydney ... Emmylou Harris celebrates Kate McGarrigle in NYC and baseball in Nashville ... Wanda Jackson opens Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum's Women Who Rock exhibit ... Kronos Quartet holds Kronos in Glasgow festival ... The Low Anthem plays Pacific Northwest ... Jessica Lea Mayfield closes out tour in Chicago ... Chris Thile, Michael Daves head South ... Dawn Upshaw joins Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra at Carnegie Hall ... and more ...

Earlier this month, The Kitchen, the NYC non-profit performance and visual arts space, celebrated its 40th anniversary by honoring Philip Glass in a gala benefit. The gala also included the premiere of a short film that looks back on the organization's history of supporting innovative artists and includes interviews with Glass, Laurie Anderson, Rhys Chatham, and others, along with photos, and audio and video footage of performances from throughout the Kitchen's 40 years, including early sets from Alarm Will Sound, Bill T. Jones, Beastie Boys, and Talking Heads. Watch it here.

Ben Folds launches a month-long tour of Australia, Indonesia, Japan, and South Korea this week in Canberra. He returns to the US to tour this summer. Folds recently recorded Ke$ha's "Sleazy," a tour favorite, to support the Japan tsunami relief efforts. He has now released a video for the song. MTV describes Folds as "a musician's musician: someone who knows everything one needs to know about the craft of songwriting" and calls the cover "a welcome experiment." Perez Hilton says: "This is just flat-out EPIC." Watch it here.

Chris Thile and Michael Daves, whose debut duo album, Sleep with One Eye Open, is due out on Tuesday, have premiered the fourth and final video in a series of performance videos captured live at New York's Rockwood Music Hall: the traditional tune "Rabbit in the Log." Watch it here. "This ain’t your grandparents’ bluegrass hootenanny," says Time Out New York in a preview of the duo's tour kick-off at Rockwood next week.