Nonesuch will release its second album by Grammy Award–winning singer/songwriter/guitarist Shawn Colvin, Live, on June 23, 2009. Recorded in 2008 during a special three night solo engagement at San Francisco’s famous jazz club Yoshi’s, Live includes 12 songs written or co-written by Colvin, as well as covers of songs by Robbie Robertson, Gnarls Barkley, and the Talking Heads. The record was co-produced by Colvin and longtime collaborator John Leventhal.

Nonesuch Records will release Malian singer Oumou Sangare’s first album in six years, Seya, in North America on June 9. Since its European release  earlier this year, Seya has received critical acclaim from outlets including MOJO, The Times, Uncut, The Independent, and Observer Music Monthly, which calls the record “a masterpiece.” This summer, Sangare tours major festivals in support of the new record. You can watch a video of Oumou performing the title track at nonesuch.com/media.

Of Richard Goode, the Denver Post has written, "he might well be without equal when it comes to the music of Beethoven." Next week, Nonesuch Records will release Goode's first-ever recording of the complete Beethoven concertos, performed with the Budapest Festival Orchestra and conductor Iván Fischer. All this week, Britain's Classic FM is playing tracks from the set, which its Executive Producer calls "one of the best new CDs of the year so far," even more pointedly exclaiming: "I can safely say that this is going to become one of the benchmark recordings of these Beethoven masterpieces." The Independent gives the recording a perfect five stars.

Voltaic, a very special CD/LP/DVD project from Björk, is set to be released in the US by Nonesuch Records on June 30, 2009. Available in five different physical configurations, it is a lovingly packaged celebration of the past two years of Björk’s Volta activities—her critically praised sixth studio album, which came out in 2007, and the subsequent two-year world tour. Voltaic serves as a coda to Volta, an album about which NME said “Volta is a thunderous return as enchanting as Debut,’’ while Q described it as “the best album that Björk has done in a decade—a reminder of what a vital force she is.”

Wilco has completed work on their forthcoming album, due out June 30 on Nonesuch Records, and, after much anticipation, it now comes complete with a title: Wilco (the album). "There’s a little something for everyone on the group’s new disc," says Rolling Stone. Wilco's performance at the New Orleans JazzFest last weekend was their last US gig till June, and, says Rolling Stone, "The band presented its friendliest, most rootsy face ... Throughout, the band’s movement from a whisper to a screech happened organically." "The fresh air favors Wilco," reports the Times-Picayune. "Jeff Tweedy and company delivered thrilling, nuanced sets ... [and] stamped an exclamation point on ... the day."

Nonesuch Records will release the self-titled label debut from singer-songwriter Christina Courtin on June 23. The New York Times says Courtin’s voice “feels uniquely otherworldly, as if it couldn’t possibly be entirely human born.” The album is co-produced by Courtin, a graduate of The Juilliard School; jazz bassist Greg Cohen; and her frequent band mate singer/guitarist Ryan Scott. Cohen and Scott also contribute bass and guitar to the recording. Several  acclaimed musicians join them, including keyboardist Benmont Tench, drummer Jim Keltner, pedal-steel player Greg Leisz, Punch Brothers violinist Gabe Witcher, and multi-instrumentalist Jon Brion.

Allen Toussaint Nonesuch solo debut, The Bright Mississippi, is out today. The Washington Post calls it an "exquisite new set of Crescent City-associated jazz" that reveals Toussaint's "great flair and imagination as an interpreter and performer." The Philadelphia Daily News rates it an A-, and Audiophile Audition gives four stars to "one of the finest releases of Toussaint's extensive, storied discography ... Highlights are many." Creative Loafing gives it a perfect five stars, describing it as "nothing short of a revelation, an album ... that both honors and reinvents a number of songs associated with early New Orleans blues and jazz."

Allen Toussaint's Nonesuch solo debut album, The Bright Mississippi is set for release tomorrow. "Mr. Toussaint brings to these songs his own elegant, reserved sensibility," says the New York Times. "He doesn’t rip them apart or interrogate them on the harmonic or rhythmic terms with which they’ve usually been met; he shines them up and levels them out into slow-rolling and grandiloquent New Orleans songs, full of tremolo chords and serenity no matter whether they were written by Duke Ellington or Thelonious Monk or Django Reinhardt." The Chicago Tribune gives four stars to the "top-notch" new album; The Independent gives it four stars too and describes Toussaint as "the jewel in New Orleans's crown," citing one track as "a bravura performance that bears out Van Dyke Parks's estimation of Toussaint as 'the greatest piano player alive.'"

Wilco helped mark national Record Store Day this past Saturday with the limited release of their new concert DVD, Ashes of American Flags, through independent music retailers and on nonesuch.com. Fans in Knoxville got to celebrate up-close with Wilco as the band signed copies of the DVD at the local store The Disc Exchange, video coverage of which was posted online by the Knoxville News. Jeff Tweedy spoke with Spin about Wilco's forthcoming studio album, due out in late spring, described as "a mix of pastoral Americana rock (think 2007's Sky Blue Sky) and experimental studio sounds (2002's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot)."

Allen Toussaint's Nonesuch solo debut, The Bright Mississippi, is set for release on Tuesday, April 21. You can catch a glimpse of the songs, songwriters, and guest artists on the album and take a look behind-the-scenes with Toussaint at piano and producer Joe Henry at the boards in a short video on nonesuch.com/media. The Detroit Free Press gives the album four stars. Rolling Stone says it's "pure Toussaint, emotionally and structurally expansive, yet as keenly done as one of Toussaint's perfectly knotted ties." Dusted magazine says, "It’s quite simply one of the best albums we’ll hear in 2009."

Sara Watkins's self-titled solo debut is out today on Nonesuch. To mark the occasion, Sara is in New York City, where she'll perform on Soundcheck this afternoon at 2 PM ET, with her brother and Nickel Creek band mate, Sean Watkins, and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers keyboardist Benmont Tench, both of whom are among the stellar list of guest artists on the new album. Sara begins an extensive US tour later this week and returns to New York on Monday to perform on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.

Sara Watkins's self-titled debut is set for its Nonesuch release next Tuesday, April 7, and the new album "is quietly authentic as it mesmerizes," says the Huffington Post. "Sara's strong yet sometimes whispered vocal approach on these tracks conveys all it needs to without one ounce of overkill ... picture Emmylou Harris with touches of Edie Brickell and Rickie Lee Jones." Sara offers her own interpretation of songs by a diverse range of writers and as many of her own self-penned tunes, which the review calls "musically engaging, and they also reveal Sara as a serious lyricist with a mission ... Sara Watkins firmly establishes the woman as folk's newest herald, and a future force of nature to be reckoned with." Q magazine lists the album track "Give Me Jesus," arranged by Sara and Chris Thile, among the Top 50 Essential Tracks of the month.