London-based Lianne La Havas has arrived in North America for shows at the Bowery Ballroom in NYC and Belmont in Montreal, plus a free in-store performance at Amoeba Music in LA this week. Tonight's Bowery Ballroom concert has been named WNYC's Gig Alert and is a Critics' Pick at New York magazine, which says La Havas' "smoky ripple of a voice and her way with a guitar are beautiful things to behold, especially alone onstage, where their feathery perfection seems almost miraculous."

Emmylou Harris, Rokia Traoré, Fatoumata Diawara, and Oumou Sangare are participating in 30 songs / 30 days, in which female musicians from around the world have come together to support the Half the Sky movement. Through the 30 songs / 30 days project, one song per day is available to download for the month of September and leading up to the October 1 & 2 premiere of Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, a four-hour PBS documentary inspired by the widely acclaimed book of the same name by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn. 

Pat Metheny's Unity Band heads West, performing in Denver, Aspen, and Salt Lake City ... Jeremy Denk opens the Louisville Orchestra season ... Dr. John plays Beaver Creek, Colorado ... Philip Glass goes inside Einstein on the Beach in NYC event videocast live on Q2 ... Lianne La Havas makes her Bestival debut ... k.d. lang kicks off her Canadian tour in Victoria, British Columbia ... Joshua Redman Trio headlines Rosslyn Jazz Festival outside DC ... Dawn Upshaw closes out Ravinia's summer season with The Knights ... and more ...

The Black Keys have released the music video for "Little Black Submarines," the new single off the band's latest album, El Camino. The video, directed by Danny Clinch, captures the band performing before an intimate audience at the Springwater Supper Club in Nashville. Watch it here. The band has just added a second London show to their recently announced UK tour in December.

Ry Cooder, recently featured in the New York Times, was the guest on PBS's Tavis Smiley show on Monday—fittingly, Labor Day—to discuss his timely new album, Election Special, the specific stories behind some of its tracks, and the broader political and social climate that compelled him to create it. Watch the episode here. Cooder and Smiley continue the conversation with Cornell West on PRI's Smiley & West, a program that inspired one of the songs on the album.

Singer/songwriter Nataly Dawn, one half of the duo Pomplamoose, has released "Araceli," the first music video from her forthcoming debut solo album, How I Knew Her, due out on Nonesuch on January 22, 2013. Jack Conte, Dawn's partner and the other half of Pomplamoose, produced and orchestrated the track. Watch the video here.

John Adams has been selected as BBC Radio 3’s Composer of the Week. All week, the program is presenting interviews with Adams along with illustrative examples of music from Nonesuch recordings throughout his career, from 1973's Christian Zeal & Activity to his 2008 String Quartet, as heard on his latest Nonesuch album. Adams also conducts his opera Nixon in China live from Royal Albert Hall on BBC Radio 3 for Prom 72 on Wednesday.

Robert Wilson and Philip Glass's famed 1976 opera Einstein on the Beach is the subject of a feature article in the Sunday New York Times that looks at the work's historical significance as a new production lands at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) September 14–23. Q2 Music launches Music of Constant Change: A Philip Glass Festival, running though September 9, surveying the composer's career through music, interviews, videos, and a live videocast of a conversation and performance featuring Glass and members of the current tour of Einstein on the Beach.

As Labor Day weekend brings the summer to its unofficial close, late summer festivals abound. Allen Toussaint performs The Bright Mississippi at Curaçao North Sea and Chicago jazz fests ... Joshua Redman is at Curaçao with James Farm ... Carolina Chocolate Drops play Rhode Island's Rhythm & Roots ... Dr. John plays Wyoming's Snowy Range Music Fest and St. Louis' Big Muddy Blues Fest  ... Emmylou Harris returns to the Greenbelt Harvest Picnic ... Lianne La Havas is at Dublin's Electric Picnic ... k.d. lang closes out US tour in California ... The Low Anthem is at End of the Road ... Pat Metheny resumes Unity Band tour ... Sara Watkins plays Four Corners Folk Fest in Colorado ... and more ...

The Black Keys closed out their European summer festival tour with a performance at the Reading Festival Sunday night. The BBC was there and captured their performance of "Little Black Submarines," off El Camino. The band was also featured on last night's episode of Le Grand Journal on Canal+, performing "Gold on the Ceiling," also from El Camino. Watch both videos here. And listen to an interview with Patrick Carney from Lollapalooza via The Weekly Feed.

When Sara Watkins was in New York City earlier this month, she stopped by public radio station WFUV's Studio A to record an episode of Words and Music, out now. Watkins spoke with host Claudia Marshall about her life in music and performs a few songs off her new album, Sun Midnight Sun, with her brother Sean. Watch their performance of "Take Up Your Spade" and "The Foothills" and listen to the complete Words and Music episode here.

Singer/songwriter Fatoumata Diawara’s debut album, Fatou, is out now in North America. Diawara 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,” while the Times of London says “the air of wistful, understated beauty draws you in,” and Mojo calls her a “spell-weaving new voice.” The New York Daily News includes Fatou among the Top 10 Things on CD this week. Diawara will tour the US in September, following a tour of the UK with Africa Express.