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.

Ry Cooder will join a number of artists in celebrating the centenary of folk legend Woody Guthrie in This Land Is Your Land, a concert at The Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, on October 14. Cooder, whom Uncut has described as "a modern-day Woody Guthrie," has a new album, Election Special, out on August 21, and Uncut has named it Album of the Month. "In a recording career that stretches back more than four decades," says Uncut, "Cooder has never before made an album as immediate as Election Special." Mojo gives it four stars.

Sara Watkins performed at the 2012 Newport Folk Festival over the weekend, and NPR Music was there to capture the set. Watkins performed songs from her self-titled solo debut album and her latest album, Sun Midnight Sun, which NPR’s Stephen Thompson calls “a smart, surprising collection of sweetly hooky songs that rest within pop, country and folk on the Venn diagram of musical genres.” Listen to the set now at npr.org. Sara Watkins continues her tour as special guest of Jackson Browne with two shows at NYC's Beacon Theatre this weekend.

Nonesuch releases the Brad Mehldau Trio’s Where Do You Start, a companion disc to this spring’s critically acclaimed Ode, on September 18, 2012. Whereas Ode featured 11 songs composed by Mehldau, Where Do You Start comprises the Trio’s interpretations of ten tunes by other composers, along with one Mehldau original. Where Do You Start is available for pre-order now in the Nonesuch Store, where an instant download of the album's Mehldau track, “Jam,” is included with purchase.

Punch Brothers, following a month of US and European festival sets, have now announced that they will return to Europe this November, beginning with the previously announced show at Open House Festival in Belfast on November 5, followed by several headline stops in the UK including shows in Manchester, Birmingham, Edinburgh, and London, as well as festival sets in the Netherlands and Belgium for Crossing Border Festival. Tickets are on sale now. Punch Brothers head to Australia next week.

Amadou & Mariam launch their tour of North America with a performance at the 9:30 Club in Washington, DC, tonight. It's the couple's first such tour since 2009 and includes stops at festivals like Lollapalooza, Central Park SummerStage, Outside Lands, Edmonton Folk, and Osheaga, in addition to headlining shows at theaters and clubs. Amadou & Mariam will perform songs from their new album, Folila, which has been named among the Best Albums of 2012 So Far by Rolling Stone magazine and listeners of NPR.

Jessica Lea Mayfield launches a month-long summer tour, including a number of headline shows as well as a ten-day tour supporting Langhorne Slim. Mayfield kicks off the tour with a headlining show at Firebird in St. Louis tonight, followed by shows in Kansas City, Wichita, Denver, and Salt Lake City. The tour with Langhorne Slim begins at the Independent in San Francisco and the Troubador in LA next week and includes additional stops in California, Arizona, Texas, Tennessee, and Kentucky.

Lianne La Havas' debut album, Is Your Love Big Enough?, is due out on August 7. But you don't need to wait till then to hear it. The album is streaming in full all this week as an NPR First Listen. "Lianne La Havas possesses a rich, expressive voice—but also, more importantly, a keen understanding of when to dial it back," says NPR, which calls the album "terrific," a "hyper-accessible entry point into a smart, sophisticated sound world." La Havas performs a special acoustic set and answers fans' questions live this Friday, August 3, at 4 PM ET, via Livestream.

The Nonesuch Journal is taking a bit of a break, ready to return with all the latest Nonesuch news on Monday, July 30. Till then, the summer concert season remains in full swing, of course, and with plenty of great music being made on all four corners of the globe, here's a look at some of the many events featuring Nonesuch artists this week, hopefully reaching wherever your summer travels may take you.

Joshua Redman, who is currently touring Europe as the special guest of The Bad Plus, is set to make his Irish debut when the Joshua Redman Trio, featuring Reuben Rogers and Gregory Hutchinson, tours Ireland this September. The autumn also marks the start of the Wigmore Hall Jazz Series curated by Redman, who succeeds Brad Mehldau as the Hall’s Jazz Series curator. Tickets for the Trio tour and Wigmore series are on sale now.