The Black Keys have announced their World Tour of America: three intimate shows in Athens, GA, St. Petersburg, FL, and Oxford, MS, this September, surrounding their performance at Pilgrimage Fest in Tennessee. The band will partner with the Save The Music Foundation to support elementary and middle school music programs in Mississippi. Fans can participate in a sweepstakes to win a once-in-a-lifetime experience with the band, with 100% of the proceeds going towards music education grants in seven schools across Mississippi.

Emmylou Harris and the Nash Ramblers have released their performance of A.P. Carter's "Hello Stranger," from their upcoming album, Ramble in Music City: The Lost Concert, due September 3. You can hear the album version, recorded live in concert at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center in Nashville in 1990, and watch their performance of the song on Austin City Limits in 1993 here. You can also download the album version, along with the previously released "Roses in the Snow," when you pre-order Ramble in Music City.

Chris Thile performs "God Is Alive Magic Is Afoot," based on Buffy Sainte-Marie’s adaptation of a Leonard Cohen poem, from his new album, Laysongs, in a new video. It was shot by Josh Goleman during the recording of the album at Future-Past Studio, a converted church in upstate New York. You can watch it here. Thile performs live at Wolf Trap outside Washington, DC, this weekend.

Rhiannon Giddens and Francesco Turrisi perform the 17th century piece "Si Dolce è'l Tormento" by Claudio Monteverdi in a new video. It was filmed by Laura Sheeran at Hellfire Studio in Dublin during the making of their new album, They're Calling Me Home, which features the song. You can watch it here. Giddens will release an Audible Original, To Balance on Bridges, July 22, as part of Audible's Words + Music series in the US. In the 1.5 hour audio-only memoir, Giddens recounts her life from childhood to present and explores her discovering many different types of music. She performs tracks from several of her acclaimed albums and leads listeners through a multitude of musical styles, confronting questions on race, culture, appropriation, and class.

Congratulations to the cast and crew of Spike Lee's film of David Byrne's American Utopia, which has been nominated for six Emmy Awards: Outstanding Variety Special (Pre-Recorded); Outstanding Directing for a Variety Special; Outstanding Lighting Design/Lighting Direction for a Variety Special; Outstanding Music Direction; Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Variety Series or Special; and Outstanding Technical Direction, Camerawork, Video Control for a Special. Winners will be announced on Sunday, September 19, just two days after David Byrne's American Utopia returns to Broadway at the St. James Theatre. 

"They were both fearless, pushing back against the severe music that seemed to dominate the modern composition landscape during the 1960s and 1970s, the same music that was, by the way, a major part of Nonesuch’s identity during that period," writes Nonesuch Records Chairman Emeritus Bob Hurwitz, in a remembrance of composers Louis Andriessen and Frederic Rzewski. "Neither was afraid to reference vernacular music, and jazz, and popular and folk music, and most importantly, both embraced a tonal language that was out of favor at the moment they were coming of age as composers. Their music was deadly serious at times, and polemical and political, but it could be humorous, and always filled with humanity."

Dan Auerbach will make his directorial debut in a documentary feature about Dr. John, aka Mac Rebennack. RadicalMedia has announced its partnership with Auerbach for the project, which will tell a story about the storied musician and Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, who died in 2019, and his impact in music and on the culture. Auerbach, who produced Dr. John's 2012 Grammy-winning Nonesuch album, Locked Down, says: "I’m still learning bits about him that I never knew, and I hope the movie provides a lens into the story of the life of Dr. John."

Punch Brothers guitarist Chris "Critter" Eldridge is on the podcast Inside the Musician's Brain to talk with host Chris Pandolfi of The Infamous Stringdusters from the Telluride Bluegrass Festival, where Punch Brothers, a mainstay of the festival, returned to perform last month. "Critter is really an astounding acoustic guitar player," says Pandolfi. "I've always loved his playing." You can hear their conversation here.

The Black Keys perform "Poor Boy a Long Way From Home," an R.L. Burnside tune from their new album, Delta Kream, live from Mississippi at Jimmy Duck Holmes’ Blue Front Café, the oldest active juke joint in America, in a new video. Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney are joined by Kenny Brown on guitar and Eric Deaton on bass, both long-time members of the bands of blues legends including Burnside and Junior Kimbrough. You can watch it here.

Rachael & Vilray—Lake Street Dive singer-songwriter Rachael Price and composer, singer, and guitarist Vilray—kick off a ten-concert tour of the United States with three performances in Colorado this weekend, including a set as special guest of The Avett Brothers at Red Rocks Amphitheatre. The tour continues throughout July and into August with shows in Illinois, Connecticut, New York, Massachusetts, and Maine.

Lake Street Dive has announced a dozen new tour dates for the fall, with shows in Nevada, California, Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia, and New Jersey through October. They follow the band's previously announced summer and early fall shows.

Composer Louis Andriessen died today at a care home in Weesp, North Holland, at the age of 82. Andriessen was once described by the Guardian as “not only the leading Dutch composer of our time, but one of the most important figures in European music in the last half century, whose influence has spread far beyond that of his own works.” Over thirty years, he released nine recordings on Nonesuch, from De Staat in 1991 to his final work, The only one, earlier this year.