Today, the Nonesuch Journal launches a week-long series of video interviews with Emmylou Harris, leading up to next week's release of her third solo record on Nonesuch, All I Intended to Be. Over the course of these five episodes, the singer/songwriter discusses the making of the new album and her relationship to its songs. In this initial episode, Emmylou shares the story behind the disc's opening track, "Shores of White Sand," the song that first inspired her to record the new album. Here Emmylou explains the inextricable link between her own version and the original.

Emmylou Harris , whose latest Nonesuch release, All I Intended to Be, is due out on June 10, is the subject of an extensive profile in yesterday's Sunday Times magazine, in which Harris discusses the breadth of her life and career. The Times calls the new album "a typically well-crafted collection that shows off her prowess as an interpreter of other people's songs, her ability to elide the distinction between folk, country and rock, and her own underrated skill as a songwriter." Also coming from the UK is an interview and session Emmylou gave to the BBC Radio 2 Johnnie Walker show. 

This past Saturday, Christina Courtin, whose Nonesuch debut is slated for next year, joined the Knights, the chamber orchestra in which she plays violin, in a concert at NYC's Washington Irving High School. The evening's program paired Beethoven's "Pastoral" Symphony with Courtin's own works. "Ms. Courtin's music and her unaffected vocal style call to mind the soulful, atmospheric sound of the late 1960s," says the New York Times review: "early Joni Mitchell at times, with an occasional touch of Laura Nyro and the vaguest hint of Janis Joplin."

The work of Cincinnati, Ohio-based photographer Michael Wilson has graced the covers of countless Nonesuch albums over the years, including the iconic imagery featured on Nonesuch albums by David Byrne, Bill Frisell, Emmylou Harris, Randy Newman, the Brad Mehldau Trio, and Nicholas Payton. His photography will be on display in an exhibit at the Boone County Public Library in Cincinnati beginning this Wednesday. Michael will be on hand to discuss his work in an opening reception that night.

When John Adams's opera Doctor Atomic premiered at the San Francisco Opera in October 2005, the New York Times' Anthony Tommasini declared that it "must surely be considered the musical event of the year in America." Documentary filmmaker Jon Else was there when the curtain went up, as he had been throughout the previous year, capturing the efforts of the composer and his longtime collaborator, director/librettist Peter Sellars, to tell, through opera, the story of J. Robert Oppenheimer and the start of the nuclear age. Times film critic Stephen Holden calls the resulting documentary, Wonders Are Many, "enthralling." The film makes its way from successful festival runs to its theatrical debut, opening in NYC and LA this afternoon. Doctor Atomic makes its Metropolitan Opera debut in this October. 

The Bang on a Can Marathon---which the New York Times calls "an annual orgy of new music," takes places this weekend, bringing 12 hours of free music to the World Financial Center's Winter Garden in downtown NYC. The event kicks off at 6 PM on Saturday evening with Alarm Will Sound's performance of the third movement to John Adams's Son of Chamber Symphony. The San Francisco Chronicle calls it a "vivacious" piece that "bursts with the technical prowess and cogent wit of the composer's finest efforts." As the clock turns past midnight, Steve Reich's Daniel Variations is scheduled to be performed by SIGNAL.

Bill Frisell's latest release, History, Mystery, receives five stars from the Manchester Evening News (UK). On the album, Bill's "mellifluous guitar, enhanced by pedals and switches, interacts with a genteel string trio and flesh and blood drummer." For the "ethereal/beautiful" music on History, Mystery, "Frisell creates a world full of mystery, enigma and romance, transforming classic Americana like "A Change Is Gonna Come" along the way. Two CDs doesn't seem to overstretch a great artist at his peak."

Sam Phillips's new album, Don't Do Anything, is out Tuesday, and she'll celebrate by kicking off a two-week tour of in-store performances at Borders from coast to coast, starting with her hometown store in LA. Rolling Stone picks "Little Plastic Life" as a standout track off the record, including the song in its "Single Minded" list. "The magnificent Sam Phillips returns with a song that demonstrates her knack for blending curious vocals with a big parched strum," writes Rolling Stone. "To put it another way: she was Feist before there was Feist." Beliefnet says of the new album: "This underrated singer's unique vocal stylings are at their finest here, and the musical arrangements are masterful." The site lauds Sam's "prowess as an artist of true distinction," one who "still has the courage to encapsulate her emotions and experiences in her music in a way few artists ever do."

The Black Keys have closed out the UK leg of their Attack & Release tour and will soon be heading south for stops in Australia and New Zealand in mid-June. Reviewing the new album, JamBase describes it as music that "crawls into your marrow and disturbs your rest. It's not the blues but it's gone drinking with them. For sure, it's rock 'n' roll but with a haunted echo behind even the good time pronouncements ... [T]he imagination and talent gathered on Attack & Release make it a shoe-in for Best of 2008 lists everywhere. Often that sounds like hype but in this case it's just a statement of fact. Once in a while quality just shines out in a way that can't be denied."

David Byrne's latest project, Playing the Building, is set to open this Saturday in downtown New York City. Byrne has created a sound installation in which he's turned an entire building, the early 20th-century Battery Maritime Building, into a working instrument that visitors can play. Admission is free, with an opening reception Saturday evening at 6 PM and the exhibit open Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays through August 10. 

Many a fan of the TV series Gilmore Girls, which ran from 2000 to 2007 on the WB network, got to know the music of the show's composer, Sam Phillips. Sam wrote original music throughout the series' seven-season run; the show also featured songs from her Nonesuch debut, Fan Dance, and its follow-up, A Boot and Shoe. And Sam herself even joined Lorelei and Rory Gilmore in fictional Stars Hollow, Connecticut, as a troubadour of sorts. Now, with Sam's third Nonesuch album, Don't Do Anything, set for release this Tuesday and available for pre-order now, fans of the show can enter to win a free, signed and personalized copy of the CD at GilmoreGirlsNews.com. The contest is on now and runs through June 5. 

Emmylou Harris's new Nonesuch release, All I Intended to Be, is due out June 10. Crawdaddy!'s Steve Matteo calls "Harris's recent albums, including this new one, some of the best music she has ever made ... [H]er voice remains the heart of her music. The aching compassion with which she sings reveals a voice as real as any in music today." Matteo concludes with high praise for "this superb recording": "It would appear that Harris is simply incapable of making a bad album."