Nonesuch releases Audra McDonald’s first solo album in seven years—Go Back Home—on May 21, 2013, featuring songs by composers with whom she has long been associated (Guettel, LaChiusa, Rodgers & Hammerstein, Sondheim) and some, like the Kander & Ebb title track, relatively new to her repertoire; in addition, McDonald continues to champion works by an emerging generation of composers. Nonesuch Store pre-orders include an instant download of the title track (which you can preview here) and a limited-edition autographed print. On May 24, McDonald headlines and hosts "Audra McDonald In Concert: Go Back Home," a national PBS telecast presented by Live From Lincoln Center, featuring songs from the album as well as other personal favorites.

Sara Watkins will join Garrison Keillor and the cast of A Prairie Home Companion on tour this summer for the Radio Romance Tour. In July and August, Watkins will join for the Northeast leg of their tour plus three shows in Michigan. Watkins joined Keillor and crew on their inaugural Summer Love tours in 2010 and 2011 and has been one of the most frequent guest artists on the Prairie Home Companion radio show. She recently performed "You and Me," off her album Sun Midnight Sun, for CMT Edge; watch it here.

Nonesuch Records labelmates mandolinist/singer Chris Thile and pianist Brad Mehldau embark on a nine-city duo tour, beginning at New York City’s Bowery Ballroom tonight and includes stops in Durham, College Park, Great Barrington, Boston, Knoxville, Indianapolis, Chicago, and Austin. Their repertoire includes classical transcriptions, pop covers, and original songs. 

Iron and Wine makes its Nonesuch Records debut with the release of Ghost on Ghost next week. But you don't need to wait till then to hear it. The album is streaming in full all this week as an NPR First Listen. "Beam now presides over arrangements springy and three-dimensional enough to accommodate a horn section—and yet he still finds a way to wrap his agreeably soft voice around thematically weighty material," writes NPR's Stephen Thompson. "Beam still lets his songs and sound morph and evolve; more than ever, he's a songwriter versatile enough to pack huge ideas into simple arrangements and vice versa."

Rokia Traoré’s new album, Beautiful Africa, following last week's release in France, is out this week in the UK, the rest of Europe, and Canada, with the US release to follow at a later date. The album has been met with great critical acclaim, earning perfect five-star reviews from the Guardian, which calls her "Africa's most inventive singer-songwriter," Observer, Daily Telegraph, and Financial Times. Uncut calls it "a career highpoint." Traoré recorded an intimate version of the album track "Ka Moun Kè" in the halls of le Trianon in Paris; watch it here, where you can also watch her recent appearance on Radio France's Vinyl Radio.

Kronos Quartet performs works by Steve Reich, Donnacha Dennehy, and Laurie Anderson in France ... Alarm Will Sound premieres Dennehy piece at Carnegie Hall ... Timothy Andres joins Gabriel Kahane at Library of Congress in DC ... The Black Keys close out Lollapalooza Chile and South American tour ... David Byrne's Here Lies Love continues in NYC ... Carolina Chocolate Drops tour Northeast ... Nataly Dawn heads to Texas ... Jeremy Denk is in New Mexico ... Fatoumata Diawara spans from Chicago to Austin ... Richard Goode plays Beethoven in San Francisco ... Emmylou Harris & Rodney Crowell close out US tour in Knoxville ... Lianne La Havas hits the Northeast ... Audra McDonald performs in Connecticut ... and more ...

Nomad, Bombino's Dan Auerbach-produced Nonesuch debut album released to critical acclaim earlier this week, has received a rave review from the Los Angeles Times. "Bombino and his band have released a killer document not only for fans of North African guitar music," writes Times critic Randall Roberts; "anyone who has ever appreciated a master player make magic on a Fender ... will find comfort in Bombino’s music." On Nomad, "simple wonders are celebrated with meandering joy."

Bombino's new album, Nomad, was featured on NPR's All Things Considered, which calls it "a landmark in African rock music." Reviewer Banning Eyre says producer Dan Auerbach "has done nothing to dilute Bombino's folksy, organic songs. Instead, he's given them sonic heft rarely heard on African guitar recordings and added a few tasteful Nashville touches, like lap steel guitar." Eyre concludes: "This is a seductive, friendly album. It doesn't pander with gimmicks or English lyrics, but it manages to bring a distant, Islamic culture unexpectedly close through the universal language of rock and roll."

Jeremy Denk has written a personal history for The New Yorker titled "Every Good Boy Does Fine: A life in piano lessons." In the article, his second contribution to the magazine, Denk offers insight on the relationship between music students and teachers by recounting a few such relationships in his own life. The New York Times, reviewing Denk's solo recital at Carnegie Hall last week, says his “colossal interpretations conveyed the sense of composers grappling with the ineffable, inventing new vocabulary to express the inexpressible." Following his recent solo debut at Boston's Jordan Hall, the Boston Globe exclaimed: “Denk gave a revelatory performance ... It would be foolish to understate how remarkably talented he is.” 

Nataly Dawn, who is currently touring the US, recently appeared on WNYC's Soundcheck to perform a few songs from her new album, How I Knew Her, and talk with host John Schaefer. You can listen to the episode here. The latest video shot at the recording sessions for How I Knew Her at Prairie Sun Studios, for "Why Did You Marry," is now available to watch here as well, via Dawn's YouTube channel. 

Tuareg guitarist, singer, and songwriter Omara “Bombino” Moctar today releases his Nonesuch debut album, Nomad, produced by The Black Keys' Dan Auerbach. "Bombino’s playing is full of fast, stuttery, rhythmic hammering, coiling lines inside lines," says the New York Times. "But it also comes out in soft strums and battering single-note attacks, and its tone and phrasing have a flexible identity. In his playing, besides the sound of the pioneering Tuareg band Tinariwen, you might be reminded of Ali Farka Touré, Carlos Santana, Mark Knopfler, Jerry Garcia electric, Jerry Garcia acoustic. Bombino is never just one thing." Watch a short video about the album here.

The new musical of Here Lies Love, which explores the life of former Filipino First Lady Imelda Marcos, with concept and lyrics by David Byrne and music by Byrne and Fatboy Slim, receives its world premiere at the Public Theater in New York City tonight. The production, directed by Alex Timbers, will run through May 19. In 2010, Nonesuch Records released a double-disc recording of the song cycle of Here Lies Love, featuring Tori Amos, Steve Earle, Cyndi Lauper, Natalie Merchant, Florence Welch, Santigold, and St. Vincent; the Boston Globe calls it a "superb ... sumptuous double album."