Carolina Chocolate Drops' song "Country Girl," off their forthcoming album, Leaving Eden, has been named Song of the Day by NPR; an instant download of the track is included with album pre-orders. The band is currently touring the US. Listen to their recent appearance on WTJU in Charlottesville here. The Schenectady Daily Gazette, reviewing a recent show, says: "The Carolina Chocolate Drops are highly skilled musicians, but they’re also a lot of fun, with a gift for showmanship." The Independent Weekly in Durham concurs, saying the band has been "wowing audiences with their roots music chops and pure showmanship." Highlights from the band's recent set at Celtic Connections can be heard on BBC Radio 2.

Nonesuch Records wishes Philip Glass a very happy 75th birthday today. The composer celebrates with the US premiere of his Ninth Symphony by the American Composers Orchestra at Carnegie Hall. He previews the performance on WNYC's Soundcheck today at 2 PM ET. He was the subject of a feature profile on NPR's Morning Edition earlier today. "Composer Philip Glass changed the landscape of American music," says NPR. "Glass came up with a new way to make music, and with it, brought a new audience to the concert halls."

Kronos Quartet began its week-long Barbican residency in London over the weekend with master classes and workshops. The residency, titled Awakenings, continues with concerts at Hackney Empire tonight, the Barbican on Thursday, and Wilton's Music Hall on Friday. Kronos Quartet appeared on BBC Radio 3's In Tune and performed two pieces from the concerts. "One of the most celebrated and famous ensembles on this globe," says In Tune's Sean Rafferty of his guests. "Nearly 40 years of innovation, excellence and excitement—how does one begin to describe the Kronos Quartet?"

Carolina Chocolate Drops and Punch Brothers are in the UK this week, set to share a bill at Celtic Connections in Glasgow on Friday. Before then, Punch Brothers have been performing with Amos Lee and headline their own show at Bush Hall in London. Carolina Chocolate Drops have been making the rounds at the BBC, performing songs from their forthcoming album, Leaving Eden, on BBC Radio 3's In Tune and talking with Radio 4's Front Row about reclaiming the black string-band tradition.

Listeners of New Sounds, from New York NPR member station WNYC, have chosen their picks for the Top Ten best new releases of 2011, and topping the list is Donnacha Dennehy's Nonesuch Records debut album, Grá agus Bás. On the list at No. 3 is Steve Reich's latest, WTC 9/11. Both albums had previously made NPR Music's best-of-the-year lists. New Sounds host John Schaefer also includes Dennehy's Grá agus Bás on his list of the year's best.

The NPR Music listeners have spoken, choosing their 100 favorite albums of 2011. "The Black Keys swooped into the No. 6 slot with El Camino," says NPR, "an album just a few days older than the poll itself." "I was pretty thrilled by this list," says NPR's Bob Boilen in the All Songs Considered countdown of the Top 25. Also among the Top 100 listener favorites are Björk's Biophilia and Emmylou Harris's Hard Bargain. Björk's "Virus" is among the NPR Music staff's favorite songs of the year, as is James Farm's "Polliwog."

The Black Keys, whose new album, El Camino, is just one day away, were featured on NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday, talking with host Audie Cornish about the new album. The Black Keys were musical guests on Saturday Night Live this weekend, performing two songs off of El Camino: "Lonely Boy" and "Gold on the Ceiling." Watch the performances here. The Evening Standard gives the album four stars, calling it “fiery, raucous and ferocious fun.” "The Black Keys have grown into one of the most exciting rock bands of our time," exclaims the Independent on Sunday. "Too late for those album of the year polls?"

Donnacha Dennehy's Nonesuch debut album, Grá agus Bás, has made NPR Music's list of its 50 Favorite Albums of 2011. "Dennehy infuses hallowed Irish texts, from the esoteric sean-nós vocal tradition to the plaintive poetry of fellow countryman W.B. Yeats, with a shimmering and kaleidoscopic array of minimalist colorations," says NPR. "The result, masterfully performed by Crash Ensemble under Alan Pierson and featuring vocalists Iarla Ó Lionáird and Dawn Upshaw, is a compelling, meditative walk through time and terrain. It studies an Ireland rooted in reverence for its past, but which also brims with curiosity for its future."

The Black Keys are featured in a cover story in this Sunday's New York Times Arts & Leisure section and in the Times' Popcast, which look at the band's new album, El Camino, and their rise to fame. A Guardian profile also examines how the band has "become a global pop phenomenon." The Guardian gives El Camino a perfect fives stars: "They sound like a band who think they've made the year's best rock 'n' roll album, probably because that's exactly what they've done."

Ry Cooder's new song about the Occupy Wall Street movement, "Wall Street Part of Town," was recorded last Tuesday and premiered on Pacifica Radio's Jon Wiener show on Wednesday, a fundraiser for the Pacifica Radio Archives' Campus Campaign National Education Project. It also aired on Democracy Now! with Amy Goodman. You can now listen to the song here, download it for free, then help spread the good word. Cooder's latest album, Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down, was inspired by the inequities that spared the few from the financial crisis while most were left to fend for themselves.

Composer/pianist Timothy Andres was featured on Q2 Music's Nadia Sirota show today titled "Timothy Andres: Bringing the Virtuoso Composer-Performer Tradition Into the 21st Century." Q2 is celebrating WQXR's "Beethoven Awareness Month" in its own fittingly contemporary way, looking at "modern-day Beethovens ... some of today's most distinct and inventive compositional voices." Today's show includes four pieces from Andres's 2010 Nonesuch debut album, Shy and Mighty, each introduced by the composer.

The Black Keys are featured on the latest edition of NPR's All Songs Considered, the show's last regular episode of the year. "Run Right Back," off the band's forthcoming album, El Camino, due out December 6, kicks off the show. All Songs Considered host Bob Boilen calls it "wonderful" and says of the band: "They're the pillars. You just know they're gonna put out really solid rock." Derrick Tuggle, the star of the video for the album's first single, "Lonely Boy," stopped by the Ellen show yesterday. Watch the segment here.