Randy Newman, who performed with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra over the weekend, concludes his Australian tour with two shows with the Sydney Symphony at the Sydney Opera House this week. The Age and Sydney Morning Herald laud Newman as "one of the greatest songwriters of the past 50 years," whose "work proves yet again that on the big questions, all too often the artists can illuminate the truth better than the essayists, the journalists and, perhaps less surprisingly, the politicians." His recent appearances on ABC Radio National's The Music Show and 702 ABC Sydney Afternoons are now online.

The Flynn Center for the Performing Arts in Burlington, Vermont, has announced its 2011–12 season, and on the schedule are four Nonesuch artists: k.d. lang and the Siss Boom Bang open the venue's concert season on September 23, Laurie Anderson follows with her piece Delusion in October, Cheikh Lô joins a multi-artist celebration of James Brown in November, and the Carolina Chocolate Drops play the Flynn in January.

This past weekend, the Newport Folk Festival offered the sold-out crowd two beautiful summer days of music from performers including the Carolina Chocolate Drops, Emmylou Harris, Wanda Jackson, and Chris Thile & Michael Daves. You can now listen to all of those sets online at NPR Music, from the ever "vital and contemporary" Harris to the "blazingly intense music" of Thile & Daves. The Boston Globe says that all the music proved "compelling and indebted to what preceded it."

Malian singer Oumou Sangare concluded her North American tour this weekend with shows in Brooklyn and Maine. "Regal, righteous and funky," exclaims New York Times music critic Jon Pareles, "the Malian singer and songwriter Oumou Sangare commanded the stage of Celebrate Brooklyn! on Friday night at the Prospect Park Bandshell." Through her music and lyrics, this longtime champion of women's rights took on "the traditional West African singer’s role as community conscience while delivering her messages with a modern kick."

Nonesuch Records recently published the cover of the forthcoming album featuring Steve Reich's WTC 9/11, performed by Kronos Quartet. The cover and our publishing of it have elicited a considerable response both on this website and elsewhere. Nonesuch Records President Robert Hurwitz offers a comment.

The Newport Folk Festival features sets from Emmylou Harris, Carolina Chocolate Drops, Wanda Jackson, Chris Thile, Michael Daves, plus Sara Watkins with The Decemberists and a special Low Anthem benefit performance ... Kronos Quartet performs Steve Reich's WTC 9/11 at Northern Ireland's Walled City Music Fest ... k.d. lang has three shows in California ... Jessica Lea Mayfield heads South ... Brad Mehldau, Joshua Redman close out duo tour at Marciac Jazz Fest ... Randy Newman continues Australian tour in Melbourne ... Donnacha Dennehy's Grá agus Bás closes out Cork's Reich festival ... Oumou Sangare plays free Brooklyn show ... Dawn Upshaw continues at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Fest ... and more ...

Sara Watkins will join Garrison Keillor and the cast of public radio's A Prairie Home Companion on another cross-country tour that will take them from Alaska to Alabama this August and September on their second-annual Summer Love Tour. The concert tours will consist of "evenings of passionate duets, hot jazz, Catchup, English Majors and Poesy" and such favorite Prairie Home Companion elements as Guy Noir Private Eye, the Cowboys Dusty and Lefty, and all the latest News from Lake Wobegon.

Björk unveils another piece of Biophilia with a look inside the Ultimate Edition of the forthcoming album. Presented in a lacquered and silkscreened oak hinged-lid case, the Biophilia Ultimate Edition consists of the Biophilia Manual along with 10 chrome-plated tuning forks, silkscreened on one face in 10 different colors, stamped at the back, with each fork adjusted to the tone of a Biophilia track, covering a complete octave in a non-conventional scale. It will be made to order and fabricated only once. Orders must be collected before August 12. Look inside the Ultimate Edition here.

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."