Kronos Quartet will receive the Polar Music Prize in a ceremony at the Stockholm Concert Hall on Tuesday. King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia of Sweden will hand out the awards to Kronos and their fellow laureate, Patti Smith. The ceremony is part of a week-long celebration, which includes a photo exhibit, talks with the artists, a music industry conference, and the Polar Music Prize Concert featuring Smith. Earlier this year, Kronos received the prestigious Avery Fisher Prize, making the group the first-ever recipient of both prizes.

Ry Cooder's new album, Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down, is out tomorrow. The album, which Uncut calls "one of his best albums ever," is available to stream in full till then at Slate. Cooder will celebrate the record's release with two sold-out shows at San Francisco's Great American Music Hall later this week. He spoke with the San Francisco Chronicle about the new album and the back-to-back concerts, at which he'll be joined by a 17-piece band.

Concert listings are subject to change due to severe weather expected along the US East Coast this weekend ... Punch Brothers, Jessica Lea Mayfield are due to share a double bill at the Belleayre Music Festival in upstate NY ... Carolina Chocolate Drops' show in Raleigh has been canceled ... Emmylou Harris joins Daniel Lanois' Harvest Picnic in Ontario ... The Low Anthem plays LouFest in St. Louis ... Pat Metheny concludes his Summer Music Workshop ... Joshua Redman joins The Bad Plus at Austria's Saalfelden Jazz Fest ... Sara Watkins closes out tour with the Decemberists, launches tour with Garrison Keillor ... and more ...

It was 10 years ago this week that Laurie Anderson made her Nonesuch Records debut with the release of Life on a String. On the album, Anderson returned to playing violin on record for the first time since her debut album, Big Science, and featured guest turns from Lou Reed, Bill Frisell, Van Dyke Parks, and Dr. John, among others. In conjunction with its release in 2011, Nonesuch commissioned filmmaker Steve Lippman, aka FLIP, to create a short film showcasing songs from the album; the film went on to screen as an official selection at film festivals around the world. Watch it again here.

Sara Watkins closes out her months-long tour as a guest band member with the Decemberists outside the band's hometown of Portland, Oregon, at McMenamins Edgefield Amphitheatre's Concerts on the Lawn tonight. But there's not much in the way of down time for Watkins, as she heads straight into her next set of performances on Sunday: with Garrison Keillor and the cast of public radio's A Prairie Home Companion for their cross-country Summer Love Tour.

New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity dedicated the newly finished Musicians’ Village Toddler Park today in the Upper Ninth Ward of New Orleans, made possible through the support of Nonesuch Records / Warner Music Group, New York Life, and The Talbott Foundation. The central walkway, Hurwitz Way, is named in honor of Nonesuch president Bob Hurwitz. In 2005, Nonesuch released the benefit album Our New Orleans, which raised 1.1 million dollars, donated to New Orleans Habitat for Humanity to create new housing for the Musicians' Village.

“Virus,” the latest single from Björk’s forthcoming album, Biophilia, is today’s Top Tune at KCRW in Los Angeles, free to download at kcrw.com. The Biophilia album is already receiving critical acclaim in early reviews from the UK, with Uncut, MOJO, and Q all giving it four stars. Q says: "Biophilia is a wonderful record in the most literal sense: it overflows with wonder." The magazine includes "Virus" on its list of "Q50 Essential Tracks," saying it "harks back to the lavish frost-sparkle beauty of Vespertine."

Chris Thile and Michael Daves, while in Newport for what NPR called a "sizzling set" at the Newport Folk Festival last month, took some time out to perform two songs for Paste—"Roll in My Sweet Baby's Arms," off their album Sleep with One Eye Open, and another traditional tune, "Darlin' Corey"—now available to watch in the latest issue of Paste's online mPlayer. Thile and Daves are on the road again next month, touring the Midwest, UK, and Ireland, following Thile's current tour with Punch Brothers.

There's just under a week to go before the release of Ry Cooder's new album, Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down, on August 30. Until then, you can listen to the album in its entirety exclusively on Slate. MOJO and Q give the album four stars; Uncut gives it a perfect five, calling it "one of his best albums ever." Cooder is the subject of a feature article in the magazine, which calls the new album "an impassioned portrait of 21st century America and its injustices" in which Cooder is "remade as a modern-day Woody Guthrie, fearless and funny, for like Guthrie he nails his targets with droll humour while empathising with society's underdogs."

Björk will be recognized with the Outstanding Contribution to Music Award at the inaugural AIM Independent Music Awards, taking place this November in London. The award, selected by a judging panel of UK music critics and tastemakers, recognizes an artist who continues to influence and inspire with their work. Says AIM, the UK's Association of Independent Music: "Björk continues to push boundaries with her work and continues to create music that inspires and influences music fans, other artists and the wider music business."

It was 25 years ago this fall that Caetano Veloso's self-titled album was released in the US on Nonesuch Records. That acoustic guitar set launched a relationship that has since brought more than a dozen unforgettable albums, most recently last year's zii e zie, of which the Times of London declared: "The Brazilian master remains in a league of his own." Now, Veloso's Nonesuch catalog is available digitally, in the Nonesuch Store and on iTunes and Amazon. Veloso is Guest Director of the 2011 Telluride Film Festival, which will be held over Labor Day weekend.

Steve Reich's 75th birthday celebrations continue with a free concert in Chicago's Pritzker Pavilion at Millennium Park tonight. The concert features performances by Chicago's own eighth blackbird and Third Coast Percussion and an all-Reich program comprising what the Chicago Tribune counts among "some of his finest pieces": Double Sextet, Mallet Quartet, and Music for 18 Musicians. Chicagoist calls it "the most anticipated show of the summer." Catch a video preview here.