The Nonesuch Journal is taking a bit of a break in the week ahead, 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. For additional details on these and other upcoming shows, head to nonesuch.com/on-tour. (Idyllic photo at left by Melanie Zessos.)

The Black Keys' Back-to-Back Festival Weekends

The Black Keys kick off their run of summer festival dates with a headline performance at the Firefly Festival in Dover, Delaware, closing out the entire three-day festival with its set on the Firefly Stage on Sunday the 22nd. The band returns to the northeast the following weekend to headline the inaugural Catalpa Festival on Randall's Island in New York City on Saturday the 28th.

Billy Bragg's Big Busk

Billy Bragg, having just completed his North American tour with a number of events celebrating Woody Guthrie's 100th birthday, takes the celebration home to England for a performance at the Cambridge Folk Festival (7/26) featuring the tunes he wrote for Guthrie's lyrics on the Mermaid Avenue project. And just in time for the first full day of the London Olympics, there's Billy Bragg's Big Busk, a free afternoon concert outside the Southbank Centre's Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, in which fans and musicians of all stripes are invited to join in on a song-learning session (7/28).

Carolina Chocolate Drops Al Fresco

In keeping with the summer tradition, Carolina Chocolate Drops are taking their music outdoors for much of the week, with two shows in the Midwest, at the Evans Amphitheater in Cleveland Heights, Ohio (7/20) and Somerset Amphitheater for the Sound Town Music and Camping Festival in Somerset, Wisconsin (7/26), bookending two in upstate New York, indoors at Rochester's Water Street Music Hall (7/21) and back outdoors at Mid's Park in Lake Placid for the free Songs at Mirror Lake series (7/26). It's north of the 49th parallel for the band's final show of the month, joining the fun at the Interstellar Rodeo in Hawrelak Park in Edmonton, Alberta (7/28).

Shawn Colvin, Coast to Coast

Shawn Colvin takes her US tour from the East Coast to the West this week, starting in Virginia with the second of two consecutive nights at The Birchmere in Alexandria (7/20) and a set at the Shenandoah Valley Music Festival in Orkney Springs (7/21). The very next day, Colvin is on the other side of the country, performing at the Chateau Ste. Michelle outside of Seattle in Woodinville, Washington (7/22), as very special guest of Chris Isaak. She joins Isaak again the following weekend again in Washington, at the Maryhill Winery in Goldendale (7/28). Colvin heads next to California for a solo show at the Center for the Arts in Grass Valley (7/29).

Piano Intensive: Jeremy Denk | Richard Goode

Now in its 18th year, the PianoSummer Institute and Festival returns to the State University of New York at New Paltz School of Fine and Performing Arts. As part of the festivities, pianist Jeremy Denk gives a festival concert at the school's McKenna Theatre on Saturday the 28th.

Just a few hours northeast, in Marlboro, Vermont, pianist Richard Goode continues his summer tradition of serving as co-artistic director, with Mitsuko Uchida, of Marlboro Music, the chamber music festival and concert series described by The New Yorker as "the classical world's most coveted retreat." Concerts take place Saturday evenings and Sunday afternoons, July 14–August 12.

Music at Mizzou with Alarm Will Sound, Donnacha Dennehy

Alarm Will Sound is the Artist-in-Residence at the third annual Mizzou New Music Summer Music Festival, held July 22–28 on the campus of the University of Missouri in Columbia. Eight composers from around the world have been selected through a portfolio application process to compose a work to be performed by the ensemble.

Irish composer Donnacha Dennehy will be a guest composer at the festival, participating in discussions with the selected composers and master classes, as will fellow guest composer Steven Stucky. Festival attendees will also take part in workshops with Alarm Will Sound and receive a professional live recording of the premiere performance of their work.

Dr. John Bids Europe Adieu

Dr. John brings his extensive European tour to a close with three shows covering plenty of ground in the UK and Ireland after his recent two-night run at Under the Bridge in London. He and his band the Lower 911, featuring Jon Cleary, perform at the Festival Theatre in Edinburgh on the 21st, the Sage Gateshead with support from Phantom Limb on the 22nd, and Vicar Street in Dublin on the 24th. Dr. John launches the US leg of his summer tour at the Newport Jazz Festival's Opening Night celebration on August 3.

Emmylou Harris Out West with Steve Martin

Emmylou Harris has a string of shows across the American West this week, three of which are in amphitheaters with banjoist extraordinaire Steve Martin and his band the Steep Canyon Rangers: at Chateau Ste. Michelle in Woodinville, Washington (7/24), and two Oregon dates at the Cuthbert Amphitheater in Eugene (7/25) and McMenamins Edgefield Amphitheater in Troutdale (7/26). This week also brings a third date in Oregon, for the Summer Nights series at the Athletic Club of Bend (7/22), and shows at the Center for the Arts in Jackson Hole, Wyoming (7/20), Eagle River Pavilion in Eagle, Idaho (7/21), and closing out the run in Big Sky Country at the Red Ants Pants Festival in White Sulphur Springs, Montana (7/28).

The Denver Post's Reverb, reviewing the recent Harris/Martin pairing with Arlo Guthrie at the Red Rocks Amphitheatre, says: "Mesmerizing songstress Harris brought the evening to a close in grand style ... It is a measure of how enchanting Harris is that during her performance, the audience was so silent you could hear the empty beer cans being blown through the aisles by the strong wind."

Kronos Quartet Celebrates the Olympic Spirit

Kronos Quartet helped ring in the opening of the 2012 London Olympic Games earlier this month with a performance of Terry Riley's Sun Rings in Glasgow as part of the London 2012 Festival. The festivities continues as the Olympics get in full gear and the BT River of Music Festival welcomes athletes and fan from around the world to London on the 21st and 22nd for a once-in-a-lifetime weekend of free music at landmarks along the River Thames, the weekend before the Opening Ceremony. Kronos performs twice on the Asia stage in Battersea Park: first with Homayun Sakhi and Salar Nader (7/21), followed by a performance with Vân-Ánh Vanessa Võ (7/22). Capping off Kronos’ time in London is the group’s debut at BBC Proms on the 24th, a special late-night performance at Royal Albert Hall broadcast live on BBC Radio 3.

From there, Kronos heads to Finland to perform at the Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival on the 27th.

k.d. lang in Oz

k.d. lang makes a very special trip to one of her favorite cities in the world, Melbourne, Australia, for a sold-out concert celebrating the opening of the Arts Centre Melbourne's newly renovated Hamer Hall on the 27th.

Lianne La Havas at the Secret Garden

Lianne La Havas continues to celebrate the UK and European release of her debut album, Is Your Love Big Enough?, with three festival sets before the US release of the album on Nonesuch August 7. She and her guitar can be found at the Secret Garden Party (7/22) and Camp Bestival (7/29), both in the UK, and at the naughtily named Blue Balls Festival in Lucerne, Switzerland (7/24).

Jessica Lea Mayfield Joins the Avetts Afterhours

Jessica Lea Mayfield's US tour doesn't launch in earnest till the end of the month, but fans at the Avett Brothers show for Innsbrook Afterhours at the Snagajob Pavilion in Glen Allen, Virginia (7/20), can catch her opening set.

Brad Mehldau Trio from Genova To Japan

Of all the Nonesuch artists touring the globe this week, it's the Brad Mehldau Trio that's looks to be covering the most miles, bringing its European tour to a close then heading straight to Asia. The Trio, featuring Larry Grenadier on bass and Jeff Ballard on drums, plays three shows in Italy, at the Arena del Mare in Genova (7/20), Stresa International Music Festival (7/21), and Fano Jazz by the Sea (7/22), before flying to Seoul for a one-night-only concert at the Yonsei University Concert Hall. From there, it's a three-city tour of Japan, making stops at Suntory Hall in Tokyo (7/27), Billboard Live in Osaka (7/28), and the Blue Note in Nagoya (7/29).

Pat Metheny Unity Band From Europe to the US

Pat Metheny Unity Band—featuring Chris Potter on sax and bass clarinet, longtime collaborator Antonio Sanchez on drums, and the up-and-coming Ben Williams on bass—closes out its month-long European tour with a bang, performing six nights in a row, culminating with shows at Polideportivo de Mendizorrotza in Vitoria, Spain (7/20), and two in Portugal: a free set in Guimarães (7/21) and a final show at the Jardim Marques de Pombal in Lisbon (7/22).

A week later, the Unity Band reunites for the launch of the first leg of its months-long tour of the United States. The run begins at Caramoor's Venetian Theater in Katonah, New York, on Sunday, July 29.

Randy Newman Plays Two in Alberta

Randy Newman plays his only two scheduled shows of the summer, both festival sets in Alberta, Canada, next weekend. Like label mates Carolina Chocolate Drops, Newman is at the Interstellar Rodeo in Edmonton's Hawrelak Park on the 28th. He then heads south to Calgary to help close out the four-day Calgary Folk Festival, playing the penultimate Mainstage set in Prince's Island Park, just before Iron & Wine.

Punch Brothers Play Five Festivals: From Grey Fox to Newport Folk

Fresh from their European tour, and having just announced the second leg of their US fall tour, Punch Brothers play a full week of US festival sets, including Grey Fox in Oak Hill, New York (7/20); Master Musicians in Somerset, Kentucky (7/21); RockyGrass in Lyons, Colorado (7/27); FloydFest in Floyd, Virginia (7/28); and, finally, Newport Folk in Newport, Rhode Island (7/29). Fans at Grey Fox and RockyGrass, be sure to catch additional sets from Noam & Friends, featuring Punch Brothers banjoist Noam Pikelny, band mates Chris Eldridge and Gabe Witcher, and vocalist Aoife O'Donovan, and from Chris Thile with guitarist Michael Daves.

Joshua Redman with The Bad Plus

Joshua Redman concludes his European tour as special guest of The Bad Plus, performing sets at four jazz festivals around the Continent and into the UK: in Pori, Finland (7/21), Edinburgh (7/32), St. Moritz (7/26), and Marciac (7/28).

Steve Reich Marathon

Steve Reich joins Bang on a Can for the group's marathon concert at MASS MoCA's Hunter Center in North Adams, Massachusetts, on Saturday, July 28. The six-hour extravaganza, featuring over 50 musicians and composers from around the world, includes performances of Reich's 2x5 (which Bang on a Can premiered and recorded on Nonesuch), Eight Lines, and Cello Counterpoint, as well as George Crumb's Ancient Voices of Children, and music by Michael Gordon and others.

Sara Watkins Joins Jackson Browne Along the Atlantic

Sara Watkins continues her months-long US tour as special guest of Jackson Browne with three shows in the South—at the Carpenter Center in Richmond (7/20), the Durham Performing Arts Center (7/22), and the Filene Center at Wolf Trap outside DC (7/23)—before a swing north to Philadelphia for a show at the Academy of Music (7/25), followed by two festival dates, at FloydFest, back in Virginia (7/26), and Newport Folk Festival up in Rhode Island (7/29).