Sara Watkins' video for the song "Take Up Your Spade," the closing track off her new album, Sun Midnight Sun, has premiered on the Los Angeles Times Pop & Hiss blog, which describes the song as "a gentle benedictory ode to the notion that every moment brings with it the possibility of renewal." The video was shot at the recording session for the new album by director Reid Long and features guest vocalists Jackson Browne and Fiona Apple and producer Blake Mills. Watch it here.

Congratulations to Carolina Chocolate Drops and Punch Brothers, who have both been nominated for Duo/Group of the Year in the 2012 Americana Honors & Awards, presented by the Americana Music Association. Punch Brothers' own Chris Thile has also been nominated as Instrumentalist of the Year. The awards ceremony will take place at Nashville's historic Ryman Auditorium on September 12, as part of the Americana Music Festival.

Dr. John kicks off a two-week tour of the United States featuring music from his Nonesuch debut album, Locked Down, and favorite tunes from throughout the New Orleans legend's 50+ year career. Joining him for the tour will be his band The Lower 911 featuring Jon Cleary. In addition to his own headline shows, Dr. John will join Gov't Mule for several shows across the South and will be a special guest of Iron & Wine for a show at the Ravinia Festival. At the end of the month, the tour heads to Europe for several club shows and festival sets through July.

Kronos Quartet has announced the details of the fifth edition of the Kronos: Under 30 Project, a commissioning program designed to support the creation of new music by young artists. Applications are available now; the deadline is November 16, 2012. The selected composer will be commissioned to write a new work for the quartet, which will premiere in Spring 2014 as a part of Kronos' 40th anniversary season. The Kronos: Under 30 Project was created in 2003, Kronos’ 30th anniversary year.

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John Adams's new oratorio, The Gospel According to the Other Mary, with a libretto by Peter Sellars, receives its world premiere tonight in the first of four performances this week by the LA Philharmonic and conductor Gustavo Dudamel at Walt Disney Concert Hall. "Adams' take on his subject is a timely, politically engaged one and unabashedly so," says the Los Angeles Times. "However, the politics of Gospel are artfully melded with its broader humanistic and spiritual concerns ... If Adams' work is notable for its willingness to grapple with such thorny subtexts, it's also been lauded for its emotional intensity and accessibility." Watch Adams discuss the piece in a video here.

The new album pairing works by Krzysztof Penderecki with those they inspired by Jonny Greenwood has been named June's Recording of the Month by Stereophile. It's "a fulfilling, call and response between student and teacher where the younger composer tries to push forward the ideas that the older man began," says Stereophile. The album's sound quality is "superb throughout: detailed, spacious and breathtakingly transparent." Greenwood's work will be performed at the Spoleto Festival this weekend; the album's repertoire can be heard at Poland's Open'er Festival in July.

Jeremy Denk, whose Nonesuch debut album, Ligeti/Beethoven, has debuted at #9 on Billboard's Traditional Classical chart, is featured on WNET's NYC-ARTS. He talks to the show about his career in music, his writing, and the impetus behind Ligeti/Beethoven, performing pieces from the new album as well. Denk has "steadily built a reputation as one of today's most compelling artists," says host Paula Zahn. "He is a man of prodigious talent, with a wide-ranging intellectual curiosity." Watch the segment here.

Shawn Colvin's new album, All Fall Down, is due out next week. But you don't need to wait till then to hear it. The album is streaming in full till then at Performing Songwriter. "Colvin has uncovered, polished and delivered another wellspring of personal and poetic gems for her fans," writes Performing Songwriter. "[E]very song’s foundation is built on Colvin’s trademark rhythm and poetry, and topped off with that fearless honesty that has resonated with her fans for over 20 years." USA Today calls the title track "among her best."

To commemorate the 100th anniversary of Woody Guthrie’s birth, Nonesuch released Mermaid Avenue: The Complete Sessions, on which Billy Bragg and Wilco put music to lyrics by Guthrie for which he had not written music or made recordings. Bragg has launched a tour in celebration of the centenary and has just added four specially curated acoustic shows in the UK and Ireland this September, with guests Joe Henry, KT Tunstall, and more. Here, in his own words, Bragg shares his thoughts on Guthrie, the Mermaid Avenue project, and the concerts.

Amadou & Mariam performed songs from their new album, Folila—which Relix calls "a funky, intricate and richly textured record"—in A Room for London, a one-bedroom riverboat lodged atop the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, last Wednesday as part of the Sounds from a Room series. You can now watch the nearly 40-minute set here, via the Guardian.

The Center for the Art of Performance at UCLA, formerly UCLA Live, has announced its inaugural season, marking the curatorial debut of its Executive and Artistic Director Kristy Edmunds, and featured among the artists performing as part of its 2012–13 season of events at Royce Hall are several artists familiar to readers of the Nonesuch Journal: Emmylou Harris, Laurie Anderson, Allen Toussaint, the Brad Mehldau Trio, and Joshua Redman. The new season also includes events celebrating Kate McGarrigle and Ali Farka Touré.