This year's Newport Folk Festival in July includes sets from Punch Brothers and Sara Watkins. A new short documentary from sö pa productions and Ryan Mastro revisits last year's festival and looks into what makes Newport so special. The video features interviews and performances from artists at last year's festival, including Carolina Chocolate Drops, The Low Anthem, Chris Thile, Michael Daves, Wanda Jackson, and Emmylou Harris. "In the story of my life, folk music brought me to music," says Harris. Newport "was where these people that I just kind of worshiped gathered." Watch the documentary here.

Punch Brothers make their headlining debut at NYC's Town Hall in a sold-out show tonight. "They are an all-star bluegrass band, five virtuosos led by Chris Thile, the mercurial mandolin player, but their songs smash the three-chord harmonies and blazing march rhythm of bluegrass," says the New York Times. "It is restless music, by musicians so preternaturally talented they get bored easily with fiddle tunes." The New York Daily News says they "have not only turned a rural sound urban, they’ve achieved that most rare of musical feats—to create something genuinely new." Listen to their complete performance on WNYC's Soundcheck here and watch them perform three songs from the show.

Carolina Chocolate Drops joined The Chieftains for a performance on Later ... with Jools Holland on BBC Two last night, marking the legendary Irish band's 50th anniversary and the UK release of its new album, Voice of Ages, on which Carolina Chocolate Drops perform "Pretty Little Girl" with The Chieftains. The two bands performed the song together live on the Later. Watch it here. Then tune in to Later on Friday for a song from the Chocolate Drops' new album, Leaving Eden. The band resumes its US tour in New Orleans this weekend.

The Black Keys were the subject of a feature profile on CBS Sunday Morning. Band mates Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney return to their home town of Akron, Ohio, to take a tour of their old neighborhood, visit with family, take a spot on their high school's Wall of Fame, and discuss their rise to being what the show says "may be the hottest rock band in the country." While headlining Coachella on Friday, they were joined by John Fogerty to honor Levon Helm with a performance of The Band's "The Weight." The Los Angeles Times says "the night belonged to the Black Keys—and to Helm." Watch it here.

Amadou & Mariam's new album, Folila, released this week in the US, has been named Album of the Week by Stereogum, which says that "at its heart it’s a euphoric psychedelic rock album." For all of its collaborators, like Santigold and TV on the Radio, Folila finds "every musical influence melting seamlessly into the whole," making for "a fun and playful artifact from two crazily gifted pop polyglots at work." The track “Dougou Badia,” featuring Santigold, is in The New Yorker's Listening Booth. Amadou & Mariam performed an unplugged version of the song "Cherie" for Daily Candy. They performed an acoustic duo version of "Wily Kataso" for NPR, which you can watch here.

Punch Brothers were the musical guests on The Late Show with David Letterman last night. The band performed "This Girl," off their new album, Who's Feeling Young Now?. Watch the performance here. Punch Brothers launch the latest leg of their US tour a week from Saturday with a live broadcast performance of A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor. The tour includes a stop in Austin for a taping of Austin City Limits and a sold-out show at Antone's and wraps up with a sold-out LA Bluegrass Situation show at Largo. Several summer festival dates follow.

Dr. John, whose new album, Locked Down, is out this week, performed the album track "Revolution" on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon last night. He was joined by The Black Keys' Dan Auerbach, who produced Locked Down, and the album's band. Watch it here. They premiere more live music from the album at BAM this week as part of Dr. John's residency there. In a feature on Locked Down on NPR's All Things Considered, Tom Moon says: "Incredibly, in the few weeks they spent creating this, Dan Auerbach and Dr. John roused some spirits not heard from since the late 1960s and got them to speak about what it means to be alive and kicking in 2012."

Punch Brothers will be the musical guests on The Late Show with David Letterman Wednesday night. They'll soon be hitting the road again with the next leg of their US tour, kicking things off with a live broadcast performance of A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor on Saturday, April 14. The band and fellow guests Renée Fleming, Aoife O'Donovan, and Heather Masse join Keillor and crew live at New York's Town Hall, where Punch Brothers headline later this month. Punch Brothers are featured in the latest installment of the A.V. Club's A.V. Undercover, performing The Cars' "Just What I Needed." Watch it here.

Amadou & Mariam's new album, Folila, is due out in the US on April 10. The album's opening track, "Dougou Badia," featuring Santigold, premiered on Pitchfork earlier this year. Today, Pitchfork has premiered the video for another album track, "Wily Kataso," featuring another stellar collaboration, this time with TV on the Radio's Kyp Malone and Tunde Adebimpe. Watch the video, directed by Jennifer DeLia, here.

Following yesterday's video featuring the title track to Dr. John's forthcoming album, Locked Down, comes a second teaser video with a clip from the track "Revolution" and more footage from inside producer Dan Auerbach's Nashville studio. Watch it here. A third album track, "Big Shot," has been named NPR's Song of the Day. "Auerbach makes 71-year-old Mac Rebennack sound fresh and intimate by connecting him to his vital musical past," says NPR. Dr. John "proves that now, as always, he's the ruler of American roots music."

Release day for Dr. John's new album, Locked Down, is less than two weeks away, April 3. Now you can catch a look inside the studio as Dr. John and producer Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys laid down the album's title track in a new video here. Then head to the Brooklyn Academy of Music's website, bam.org, where the track is streaming in full. Dr. John and Auerbach will premiere music from the album at BAM as part of a three-weekend residency there titled Dr. John: Insides Out, which starts next week.

David Byrne, whose album with Caetano Veloso Live at Carnegie Hall was released last week, has unveiled Get It Away, a new soundwork he created while living in A Room for London, a one-bedroom riverboat installation atop the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, last month. "I brought along some field recording gear to use while I was staying in the lovely pod/room/boat," Byrne explains. "I went out during the day and recorded sounds that I thought might be useful and evocative." Watch Get It Away here.