Pat Metheny, who celebrates a birthday on Sunday, closes out the current leg of his US tour with the Unity Band with shows in PA and NY ... Amadou & Mariam are at SF's Outside Lands ... Björk, The Black Keys, Billy Bragg play Nordic festivals ... Carolina Chocolate Drops play NYC's Cental Park SummerStage ... Shawn Colvin is in Denver with Loudon Wainwright III ... Dr. John, Emmylou Harris are at Edmonton Folk Festival ... Lianne La Havas plays UK's Wilderness Festival ... k.d. lang has two shows in NY state ... Jessica Lea Mayfield joins Langhorne Slim out West ... Punch Brothers close out Australia tour ... Sara Watkins joins Jackson Browne in Ohio and Kentucky ... and more ... 

Ry Cooder recently spoke with the Guardian about a wide range of issues, including the Republican party and Mitt Romney; corporate influence on the political system and the world at large; and the power of music, including that of his new album, Election Special, to affect change. "[W]hat I'm trying to do with these little songs I write is say: let's look at this a different way. I don't write books and give speeches but with a four-minute song you can use allegory and other means to suggest a different point of view," says Cooder. "Music is the way that I know. It's the thing I have."

The music video for The Black Keys' "Tighten Up," off the band's multiple Grammy Award–winning 2010 album Brothers, has been given the Pop Up treatment from VH1's Pop Up Video. This version adds a new layer to the much-loved video directed by Chris Marrs Piliero, offering new insights and behind-the-scenes details on the making of the video. Check it out here.

Dawn Upshaw has been named one of five honorees to receive the 2012 Opera News Awards, which will be presented at a gala ceremony in New York City on April 21, 2013, to benefit the education programs of the Metropolitan Opera Guild. “Dawn Upshaw represents the highest ideals of pristine musicianship, intellectual curiosity, and artistic integrity," says Opera News. She spoke with CBC Music about the award and more, including her Nonesuch recording of Górecki's Symphony No. 3, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. 

Lianne La Havas' debut album, Is Your Love Big Enough?, was featured on NPR's All Things Considered last night. "[S]ometimes all it takes to snap me out of a late-summer heat coma," says NPR's Tom Moon, "is the sound of a new and electrifying voice—like that of Lianne La Havas." The Los Angeles Times calls the album "sublime," saying: "[W]ith Is Your Love Big Enough?, Miss La Havas vaults right to the big leagues. Repeated listenings only prove how strong and artful this collection is."

Lianne La Havas, whose debut album, Is Your Love Big Enough?, was released in the US yesterday to great critical acclaim, recently visited the NYC studio of the Associated Press to perform the album tune "No Room for Doubt," sat down for a live performance and fan Q&A on Livestream; and stopped by Rivington Guitars to talk with The Warner Sound. Watch videos of all three events here. And listen to Is Your Love Big Enough? on AOL Music and MSN, where the album is streaming in full all week.

The Black Keys, Neil Young with Crazy Horse, and Foo Fighters will headline The Global Poverty Project's Global Festival 2012, a multifaceted event culminating with a free ticketed concert on the Great Lawn of New York's Central Park on Saturday, September 29, 2012. Also performing are Band of Horses and K’Naan. The Festival celebrates achievements made towards eradicating extreme poverty. Tickets to the concert can be earned through the Global Citizen website.

Lianne La Havas' debut album, Is Your Love Big Enough?, is set for its US release tomorrow, August 7, and is already earning critical acclaim. The Associated Press calls it "outstanding ... not just one of the year’s best debuts, but one of the year’s best albums." The New York Times finds "an innate sense of confidence" in the tunes. The Globe and Mail says the album's "dozen tracks are unanimously marvelous." The San Francisco Chronicle says: "It's easy to see why so many people are taken with Lianne La Havas ... [I]t's hard not to want to shout, 'Viva La Havas!'"

The Black Keys continue their North American summer festival run at Lollapalooza in Chicago and Osheaga in Montreal, plus a show with The Shins in Toronto ... Amadou & Mariam play Lollapalooza and Osheaga too, plus NYC's Central Park for SummerStage ... Laurie Anderson is at Antony's Meltdown in London ... Björk, Emmylou Harris play Stockholm Music Fest ... Carolina Chocolate Drops treat New England to two free shows ... Jeremy Denk plays Aspen Music Fest ... Dr. John, Pat Metheny play Newport Jazz Fest ... Lianne La Havas is on Livestream ... k.d. lang, Jessica Lea Mayfield converge in Colorado ... Sara Watkins joins Jackson Browne for two nights at NYC's Beacon Theatre ... and more ...

After a European tour which included four Cultural Olympiad performances in the UK, Kronos Quartet has returned home to San Francisco and announced a new set of tour dates for the 2012–13 season. The group will perform across the US, Europe, and Australia, including the premiere of a new collaboration with Laurie Anderson, the conclusion of Kronos' multi-year partnership with the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, a return to the UK for the All Tomorrow’s Parties festival curated by The National, and much more.

Billy Bragg will bring his Ain't Nobody That Can Sing Like Me tour to New Zealand and Australia this October in celebration of the life and legacy of Woody Guthrie, on the 100th anniversary of the folk legend’s birth. The first half of each show on the tour features songs from the Mermaid Avenue albums, in which Bragg and Wilco's Jeff Tweedy put Guthrie's words to music; the second half of the sets features songs from throughout Bragg's career. The New Zealand and Australia shows follow a similarly focused months-long tour of Europe and North America.

Nonesuch Records releases The Art of Instrumentation: Homage to Glenn Gould, by violinist Gidon Kremer and his Kremerata Baltica chamber orchestra, on September 25, 2012, which would have been Gould’s 80th birthday. The album comprises 11 pieces and arrangements by contemporary composers that quote from or are inspired by works, mostly by Bach, that Gould famously recorded during his career; two Arnold Schoenberg pieces also are drawn upon in one piece. The album is available to pre-order now in the Nonesuch Store.