Newport music festival season gets under way this weekend, when the Newport Folk Festival returns, featuring several Nonesuch artists: Carolina Chocolate Drops, Emmylou Harris, Wanda Jackson, and Chris Thile & Michael Daves, plus Sara Watkins with the Decemberists and a special benefit performance by The Low Anthem. James Farm will play the following weekend's Newport Jazz Festival. NPR Music will be broadcasting and webcasting full concerts throughout each event.

Inspired by a news headline about the Wall Street bailout, Ry Cooder began work on his forthcoming album Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down with the track “No Banker Left Behind,” an ode to the corrupt few spared from the financial crisis while most were left to fend for themselves. The songs on the album express sentiments or critiques often voiced only in private, among family or ideological allies. Here, Cooder discusses the inspiration behind these songs.

Chris Thile and Michael Daves are set to tour the UK and Ireland in September in support of their debut album, Sleep with One Eye Open. The tour begins in London on September 13 and includes concerts in Dublin, Cork, Liverpool, and Sheffield. Thile will also join Brad Mehldau in a special concert at London’s Wigmore Hall on September 16, where they will perform as a duo. Before then, Thile and Daves have a few duo performances in the States, starting with this Sunday's performance at the Newport Folk Festival.

Celebrations of Steve Reich's 75th year continue with The Reich Effect, a five-day festival presented by the Cork Opera House in Cork City, Ireland, starting today. The composer will participate in a number of events at the festival, which also features performances of more than a dozen of his works, including the Irish premiere of his WTC 9/11, performed by Kronos Quartet. Reich's influence "on contemporary music is layered into almost every genre," says the Irish Times. "His minimalist innovations have certainly gone far beyond the confines of classical composition."

The video for the title track to Philip Selway's forthcoming EP Running Blind, directed by Rupert Style and featuring a live session of the song, has received its Pitchfork premiere. The video premiered on NME in the UK, where the EP was just released on Bella Union. It will be included with the digital EP out on Nonesuch in August. Watch the video here.

Björk continues to unveil Biophilia with today’s premiere of the music video for the song "Crystalline" from groundbreaking director and longtime Björk collaborator Michel Gondry. Watch it here. Also available today in the Nonesuch Store is the first of four 12" vinyl releases, all part of The Crystalline Series featuring variations on music from Biophilia by Serban Ghenea, Matthew Herbert, and Omar Souleyman. All five physical versions of the Biophilia album are available to pre-order in the Nonesuch Store, including the custom-made Biophilia Manual and Ultimate Edition.

Randy Newman kicked off his two-week tour of Australia Friday night in a one-night-only performance with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra in Brisbane. "Everyone is swept along by Newman's charm," reports The Australian. "This was live performance at its best, spontaneous and heartfelt, with one of America's greatest songwriters at the helm." The Brisbane Times gives this "night of perfect tone" five stars. The Age says: "For more than 40 years, his hallowed name has comprised a two-word rebuttal to the clueless cliche that 'Americans don't get irony."

Björk is the subject of the cover story in Billboard magazine's Fall Preview edition, detailing the "24 most-anticipated releases" of the season. Björk discusses her latest project, Biophilia, and its many facets: the studio album, the app, the live show, and the forthcoming Michel Gondry-directed video. "At the center of it all," says Billboard, "is Björk, whose cavernous, emotionally stirring follow-up to 2007's Volta is her most immediate album since 2001's Vespertine."

Emmylou Harris, Ben Folds play the XPoNential Music Fest, broadcast live via XPN ... Bang on a Can pays tribute to John Adams at MASS MoCA ... Carolina Chocolate Drops are in NY and PA ... Shawn Colvin hits Strings Music Fest ... Kronos Quartet plays Poland and Germany ... k.d. lang, Punch Brothers play Calgary Folk Music Fest ... Jessica Lea Mayfield headlines out West ... Randy Newman kicks off Australia tour ... Oumou Sangare launches North American tour ... Philip Selway plays Truck Fest ... Dawn Upshaw sings in Santa Fe ... and more ...

Oumou Sangare launches a rare North American tour this weekend with a free set at the Festival International Nuits d'Afrique in Montreal tonight before heading to the States and the Caramoor International Music Festival in Katonah, New York. The tour includes additional stops in Boston, Manhattan, Maine, and Brooklyn. The Boston Globe says: "A visit from this charismatic queen of Malian music and fierce combatant for women’s rights is always an occasion, not least because, as seen on her most recent album, Seya, she’s at the summit of her art."

Randy Newman kicks off his two-week tour of Australia tomorrow night in a performance with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra in Brisbane, followed by two nights with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and two more at the iconic Sydney Opera House with the Sydney Symphony. In the 1970s, Newman's "edgy, narrative-rich songs were part of an explosion of youthful talent bursting from the US west coast," says The Australian. "So much music from the era has been forgotten but Newman is still going strong ... He's long been acknowledged as a master songwriter: critics applaud the musical depth, edge and literary quality of his lyrics."

Congratulations to The Black Keys on the nomination of their "Howlin' for You" video for Best Rock Video in the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards. As MTV describes it: "The Black Keys turn their music video into an action packed movie trailer complete with knife fights, kickass women and good 'ole fashion stare downs." Re-live the magic by watching the video here. To vote for "Howlin' for You" for Best Rock Video, go to vma.mtv.com.