Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell's first performance together on the Austin City Limits stage will premiere on PBS stations across the US on Saturday, November 2, 2013. The duo's performance was recorded at The Moody Theater in downtown Austin this past June as part of a world tour supporting their new album, Old Yellow Moon. Harris and Crowell will also appear on a special ACL show November 23 featuring the best music performances from this year’s Americana Music Association Honors and Awards ceremony, at which they took home awards for Duo of the Year and Album of the Year.

Ry Cooder's new album, Live in San Francisco, his first live album in more than 35 years, was released earlier this month. He spoke about the new album on the 4 O'Clock Report with Jon Wiener on Pacifica Radio's KPFK 90.7FM Los Angeles yesterday afternoon; the show also includes four tracks from the new album: “Crazy ‘bout an Automobile,” “Do Re Mi,” “Lord Tell Me Why,” and “School Is Out." The Morton Report says of Cooder's new album: "Once this man hits the high beams and races into it, there is A+ action guaranteed ... It's called live music and there is nothing better."

Rokia Traoré spoke with NPR's All Things Considered about her new album, Beautiful Africa, and the inspiration behind its songs, not least her fellow Malian and African women. "These women are simply amazing because when I feel tired, I imagine them in their life of every day. They never show that they are tired. They are like iron women: all the time working, but working and smiling and taking care of everything with nothing to support them," she explains. "I wanted to ... say thank you for being my source of inspiration."

Congratulations to pianist and writer Jeremy Denk, who has been named a MacArthur Fellow. Denk was among the 24 new MacArthur Fellows for 2013, selected by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. The annual fellowship, often referred to as the "Genius" grant, offers an unrestricted award of $625,000, paid out over five years, to individuals working in diverse fields and often across multiple disciplines. Watch Denk discuss his work and the fellowship in a MacArthur Foundation video here.

Showtime announced today that the network has just acquired exclusive television rights to film and air the one-night only benefit concert Another Day, Another Time: Celebrating the Music of “Inside Llewyn Davis,” inspired by music from the upcoming Coen Brothers’ film, Inside Llewyn Davis, which is set in the 1960’s Greenwich Village folk music scene. Produced by the film’s writer and directors Joel and Ethan Coen, the film’s executive music producer T Bone Burnett and producer Scott Rudin, the star-studded concert reunites the trio behind O Brother, Where Art Thou? and the highly successful concert events launched in conjunction with that film. Another Day, Another Time: Celebrating the Music of “Inside Llewyn Davis” will feature live performances of the film’s music, as well as songs from the early 1960s that inspired the film. A portion of the proceeds from the concert will benefit the National Recording Preservation Foundation. The concert will take place at The Town Hall in New York City on Sunday, September 29, 2013, and Showtime will air it nationally on Friday, December 13, at 9 PM ET/PT.

Today marks the release of Rokia Traoré’s new album, Beautiful Africa, in the US. The record, which was released internationally earlier this year to critical acclaim, was produced by English musician John Parish. "The Malian singer Rokia Traoré has a gentle voice with a steely core, one that’s revealed more clearly than ever on Beautiful Africa," says the New York Times. NPR concludes: "Beautiful Africa is just as smart and lovely as its creator." Following its UK release, the album earned five stars from the Observer, Guardian, and Songlines, which raves: "It really doesn’t get better than this in today’s African music ... Rokia’s work is exciting, surprising, and always perfectly executed."

Pianist Jeremy Denk's recording of J.S. Bach's Goldberg Variations, is due out in the US September 30 (October 21 internationally). But no need to wait till then to hear it. The album is streaming in full all this week as an NPR First Listen. "Whether this is your first encounter with this epic work or the 30th (40th? 50th?) version you've heard," says NPR Music's Anastasia Tsioulcas, "once you've entered the Denkian dimension, you won't want to leave."

John Adams’s Saxophone Concerto received its US premiere over the weekend, with Marin Alsop conducting the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and saxophonist Timothy McAllister, for whom the "virtuosic piece" (Washington Post) was written. The Baltimore Sun says "the score deftly fuses classical and jazz elements to create a cohesive, arresting experience ... Adams, whose style has evolved over the decades from pristine minimalism to a kind of post-Mahler richness of thematic ideas and orchestral textures, has created here a kinetic, ecstatic ride that achieves giddy heights along the way." McAllister performs the Saxophone Concerto with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra on October 5 and 6.

Chris Thile joins Garrison Keillor for a live broadcast of A Prairie Home Companion from Minnesota, then hits Brooklyn's Bluegrass Bash with guitarist Michael Daves ... John Adams's Saxophone Concerto receives US premiere in Baltimore ... Sam Amidon joins Bill Frisell at Jazz at Lincoln Center ... Laurie Anderson performs in Ithaca ... Jeremy Denk joins Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra ... Dr. John, Allen Toussaint, Orquest Buena Vista Social Club tour California ... Emmylou Harris, Rodney Crowell play Petty Fest in Nashville ... Iron and Wine tours Canada ... Lianne La Havas is in Tokyo ... Audra McDonald plays Midwest universities ... Kate McGarrigle concert film screens in LA ... Joshua Redman inaugurates Wigmore Hall jazz season ... Dawn Upshaw is guest of honor at MATA gala benefit in NYC ... 

Pat Metheny, who won his 20th Grammy Award earlier this year for his 2012 album Unity Band, has announced the expansion of that band, featuring Chris Potter, Antonio Sanchez, and Ben Williams, to include multi-instrumentalist Giulio Carmassi in the Pat Metheny Unity Group. The Unity Group will release a new album on Nonesuch Records in 2014 (details to come) and will launch a world tour in February in North America, followed by Europe in the spring. Fan ticket pre-sales begins today. "The Unity Band project was life-changing for me," writes Metheny. "With Giulio added to the core-four of us ... this is one of the strongest bands I have ever had. Just about anything will be possible."

Congratulations to Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell, who took home the Duo of the Year and Album of the Year awards for their album Old Yellow Moon at the Americana Music Association Honors & Awards ceremony last night at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, and to Dr. John, who was presented the Lifetime Achievement Award for Performance by The Black Keys' Dan Auerbach. You can listen to the show at folkalley.com. PBS's Austin City Limits will broadcast an edited special on November 23. Voice of America and Bob Harris of BBC2 will broadcast overseas in the following weeks.

Iron and Wine's Sam Beam, who kicked off a North American fall tour with a sold-out show at First Avenue in Minneapolis last night, stopped by the studios of Minnesota Public Radio's 89.3 The Current while in town for the tour launch. He spoke about Iron and Wine's recently released Nonesuch debut album, Ghost on Ghost, and performed intimate solo takes on three songs off the new album: "Caught in the Briars," "Grace for Saints and Ramblers," and "Winter Prayers." You can watch the performances of the latter two songs here.