Emmylou Harris joins Willie Nelson, Lyle Lovett, and more for a special episode of Austin City Limits (ACL) featuring performances from the inaugural Austin City Limits Hall of Fame presentation, which took place in April. The hour-long special, hosted by actor Matthew McConaughey, debuts on PBS this weekend. Harris and ACL Hall of Fame inductee Nelson perform "Crazy," and Lovett joins them both for a trio take on "Pancho & Lefty" and "On the Road Again." Harris's groundbreaking album Wrecking Ball was the featured classic album on BBC Radio 2's Johnnie Walker’s Long Players program earlier this week. 

Tigran Hamasyan, whose Nonesuch Records debut album, Mockroot, is due out on Tuesday, kicks off a tour of the US with a performance at the University of Chicago's Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts—his Chicago debut—on Friday. The tour continues through the month, with stops in Oakland, Santa Cruz, Los Angeles, and Cambridge, two nights in New York City, and two sets in College Park, Maryland.

David Byrne will curate 2015’s Meltdown Festival at Southbank Centre in London, August 17–28. Previous directors include Laurie Anderson, Patti Smith, David Bowie, Yoko Ono, Ray Davies, and Ornette Coleman. "This is going to be exciting," says Byrne. "I plan to invite performers I've seen—and I do get out—and others I've missed or have dreamed of seeing." The line-up will be announced in the coming months. 

Rhiannon Giddens, whose debut solo album, Tomorrow Is My Turn, was released yesterday on Nonesuch Records to critical acclaim, celebrated the record's release with a performance of the song "Waterboy" on CBS's Late Show with David Letterman last night. "Oh my god," Letterman exclaimed following the performance. "Oh my god, that was unbelievable." Watch for you yourself here. "Tomorrow Is My Turn confirms the arrival of a significant talent whose voice and distinctive approach communicate the simmering emotion at the core of the songs," says the Wall Street Journal. "Thus, she may prove indispensable."

Punch Brothers recently stopped by the CMT studios for a Live @ CMT session, performing what CMT Edge calls a "sparkling" set of four songs off their new album, The Phosphorescent Blues: “Julep,” “Magnet,” “I Blew It Off,” and “Boll Weevil.” You can watch the performances here. The band was featured on NPR's World Cafe yesterday. They spoke with host David Dye, who calls them "some of the very best acoustic musicians anywhere," and performed three songs from the new album: "I Blew It Off," "Magnet" and "Boll Weevil."

Today marks the release of Rhiannon Giddens' solo recording debut, Tomorrow Is My Turn. She makes her solo television debut when she performs "Waterboy" from the album on CBS’s Late Show with David Letterman tonight. The album, produced by T Bone Burnett, "is a showcase for Ms. Giddens’s glorious voice," says the New York Times. "For all her technical control, her voice is a perpetually soulful marvel." NPR calls it "a scrupulously selected, richly realized collection of songs." Rolling Stone dubs her "one of the most promising voices in American roots music." The Sunday Times of London says she "manages to tap into the emotional core of everything she touches." The Irish Times exclaims: "This is one seriously impressive debut album."

Punch Brothers were the musical guests on Conan last night on TBS, performing "Magnet" from their new album, The Phosphorescent Blues. They were also the musical guest on a special episode of A Prairie Home Companion on Saturday, guest-hosted by none other than Chris Thile. Watch performances from both shows here. And tune in to NPR's World Cafe today to hear the band perform. 

Congratulations to John Adams, Chris Thile, and Edgar Meyer, all winners at the 57th Grammy Awards, held in Los Angeles last night. Adams's City Noir won the Grammy Award for Best Orchestral Performance for the St. Louis Symphony and conductor David Robertson, featuring saxophonist Timothy McAllister. Thile and Meyer's duo album, Bass & Mandolin, won the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album. 

Tigran Hamasyan has unveiled an animated video of the song "Kars 2 (Wounds of the Centuries)," off his new album, Mockroot. The video, which premiered on Les Inrocks, was created by his sister, Melanya Hamasyan. You can watch it here. The song was written about the town of Kars, the ancestral home of Hamasyan's maternal grandparents, a place that became part of Turkey in the years that followed the Ottoman genocide of Armenians during the First World War.

Congratulations to the cast and crew of the film Boyhood, which won three BAFTA Film Awards, presented by the British Academy at a ceremony in London tonight, broadcast live by the BBC: Best Film; Best Director for Richard Linklater; and Best Supporting Actress for Patricia Arquette. The film won Golden Globe Awards in the same three categories and is nominated for six Academy Awards, including those three.

This Grammy weekend, Chris Thile, whose work is up for five awards, guests hosts A Prairie Home Companion with special musical guests Punch Brothers ... Alarm Will Sound joins Medeski, Martin & Wood in Boulder ... Timo Andres piece for Orpheus gets Carnegie Hall premiere ... Olivia Chaney kicks US tour in Cambridge ... Kronos Quartet is in Iowa ... Audra McDonald tours North Carolina ... Brad Mehldau tours France ... Sara Watkins, Rodney Crowell join Patty Griffin in London ... and more ...

Carnegie Hall has announced its 2015–16 concert season, and featured among the performers taking the esteemed hall's stages are a number of artists familiar to readers of the Nonesuch Journal, including Brad Mehldau, Ry Cooder, Kronos Quartet, Timo Andres, Jeremy Denk, and Audra McDonald, as well as the New York premiere of a new work by John Adams.