Iron and Wine makes its Nonesuch Records debut with today's North American release of Ghost on Ghost. The AP calls it "a wonderfully produced and assembled record, propelled with joyous momentum even on tracks with darker lyrics." The NY Daily News gives it four stars, citing its "gorgeous and glowing melodies," as does American Songwriter, which says the songs "sound absolutely sublime." In the UK, where the album is out on 4AD, Uncut also calls it "sublime ... a work of immense beauty and scale." Ghost on Ghost earns five stars from the Mail on Sunday, Independent on Sunday, and Daily Telegraph and four stars from Mojo, Independent, Observer, Guardian, and Metro, which calls it "a brilliantly written collection and an album of the year." 

The line-up for the 2013 Luminato Festival in Toronto has been announced, and included among this year’s performers are Bombino, Amadou & Mariam, Laurie Anderson, and Carolina Chocolate Drops. All of these artists will give free concerts in David Pecaut Square at the Hub of the Festival, which runs from June 14 to 23. Among the Luminato Festival’s other highlights will be a multi-artist, two-night tribute to Joni Mitchell at Massey Hall.

Punch Brothers’ five-song EP Ahoy!, previously released digitally and on CD, is now available on 10" vinyl. Recorded during the Nashville sessions for their critically acclaimed album Who’s Feeling Young Now?, these tracks also were produced by Jacquire King. The Ahoy! EP includes songs by Josh Ritter, Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, Punch Brothers, and Mclusky, along with one traditional tune, arranged by Punch Brothers.

Bombino's Nonesuch Records debut album, Nomad, has earned the top spot on the Billboard World Music album chart, landing at #1 in its first week of release. The album, produced by Dan Auerbach, has earned four stars in Rolling Stone. “Bombino’s style is raw, spacious, tuneful, deeply hypnotic and remarkably fluid—even when he’s shooting rapid-fire notes, the effect is like ripples gently unfurling in a pond," writes Rolling Stone's Will Hermes. “A perfect match of sound and soul, the set introduces a new guitar hero, and confirms Auerbach’s arrival as a roots-music producer to be reckoned with.”

Iron and Wine makes its Nonesuch Records debut with the release of its new album, Ghost on Ghost, tomorrow. In advance of the release comes the video for the album track "Joy." The video, made by projecting hand-painted water color animations into stop-motion landscapes by director Hayley Morris, premiered on NPR Music on Friday. Morris has "created a sense of fragile and otherworldly beauty," says Stereogum. Watch the video here.

To celebrate Jackie Robinson Day—marking the day when, in 1947, Jackie Robinson made his major league debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers and broke the color barrier in professional baseball—the Nonesuch Journal revisits Natalie Cole's performance of "Did You See Jackie Robinson Hit That Ball?," off the original soundtrack recording to Ken Burns's landmark 1994 documentary Baseball. Listen to the track here.

Bombino continues a four-night stretch in Netherlands through the weekend on his just-launch European tour ... Carolina Chocolate Drops tour New England ... Jeremy Denk plays Beethoven, Bartók and Bach in Southern California ... Fatoumata Diawara heads from Minnesota to New Mexico ... Lianne La Havas concludes her US tour in DC, Atlanta and Nashville ... Iron and Wine plays a free set at Oklahoma University ... Natalie Merchant joins the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra for three nights ... Steve Reich joins So Percussion at Cincinnati’s MusicNOW Festival ... Chris Thile, Brad Mehldau tour East Coast ... Rokia Traoré celebrates Beautiful Africa in Europe ... Dawn Upshaw performs in Austin ... and more ...

Nataly Dawn, who has been touring the United States in support of her critically acclaimed new album, How I Knew Her, will tour Europe for the first time this spring, including two UK headline shows in London and Nottingham and seven shows in the UK supporting Lord Huron. The European tour, which follows additional tour dates on the US West Coast later this month, also includes dates in France, Netherlands, and Germany. Tickets are on sale now.

Bombino, who made his Nonesuch Records debut with the release of his new album, Nomad, last week, has unveiled the official video for the album track “Azamane Tiliade.” The video, directed by Reid Long, premiered via Rolling Stone yesterday and is now on YouTube; watch it here. Rolling Stone says Bombino and producer Dan Auerbach "recorded raw, dialed-up jams rooted in the electric-blues tradition of Bombino’s nomadic, desert-dwelling Tuareg people." Bombino has kicked off a month-long European tour and launches a four-night run in the Netherlands tonight.

Chris Thile and Brad Mehldau kicked off a nine-city US duo tour with a sold-out performance at NYC’s Bowery Ballroom last night. "Chris Thile and Brad Mehldau come from different worlds but the same species, and whatever feels unlikely about their pairing is eclipsed by what feels perfectly natural," writes the New York Times' Nate Chinen. "At every turn, whatever the song, both musicians played with alert intelligence and deep sensitivity, only rarely entering competitive airspace," which then brought "an exhilarating rush." The tour continues with stops in Durham, College Park, Great Barrington, Boston, Knoxville, Indianapolis, Chicago, and Austin. 

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.