After releasing her debut solo album last week, Sara Watkins took to the road for the start of a monthlong tour in support of the new record. She played with Old Crow Medicine Show through the weekend, and tonight, she performs "Long Hot Summer Days" off the new album on NBC's Late Night with Jimmy Fallon with the album's producer, Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones. Look for support to come from Jimmy's house band, The Roots, as well.

David Byrne takes his "relentlessly captivating" (Observer) tour to Nottingham and London ... Afro-Cuban All Stars closes out US tour in Miami ... Laurie Anderson performs at Dutch art & tech fest ... Dan Auerbach ends Aussie tour at Boogie Festival ... Christina Courtin opens for Robin Hitchcock in NYC ... Toumani Diabaté plays two more shows with Béla Fleck ... Bill Frisell plays Chi-town and Minneapolis ... k.d. lang heads home for Canada tour ... The Low Anthem plays northern New England with Ray LaMontagne ... Brad Mehldau solos in Tunisia ... Orchestra Baobab plays the Netherlands ... Joshua Redman Trio sets up shop in Seattle residency ... Sara Watkins joins Old Crow Medicine Show in Atlanta ... Wilco concert film premieres in Seattle ... and more ...

Sara Watkins, whose self-titled solo debut was released on Nonesuch earlier this week, and the album's producer, Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones, are featured in a multimedia look at the album in the Wall Street Journal online. No Depression describes the album as "preternatural" for "its gossamer vocals and heavenly instrumentation," lauding Sara's "seamless interaction with a stellar cast of accompanists" and exclaiming: "From the haunting opening strains of [the album opener], you know you're in the presence of an artist working on a deeper level than your average new grasser."

Bill Frisell has teamed up with bassist Tony Scherr and drummer Rudy Royston for a series of Trio performances taking them outside DC tonight and to Chicago tomorrow. "Few jazz musicians have acquired the stature and respect of guitarist Bill Frisell," says DCist, crediting "his intensely personal sound" and "the range of timbres and colors in [his] palette." The Chicago Tribune says that, for The Best of Bill Frisell, Vol. 1: Folk Songs, the most recent Nonesuch release from this "guitarist extraordinaire ... some of his finest recordings have been assembled." The album "plays like the missing link between avant-folk guitarist John Fahey and jazz legend Miles Davis." Time Out Chicago calls him "the quintessential proponent of true roots music—embodying the ever-diverging genealogy of American music from blues and country through the outer reaches of improv heroics."

After The Low Anthem's performance with Ray LaMontagne at The Egg in Albany, New York, Monday night, the Albany Times Union described the band's music as "spare" and "magical," exuding charm in "a hushed, hypnotic way." The Low Anthem helped celebrate the 25th anniversary of West Virginia public broadcasting's Mountain Stage in a special concert last December, now streaming online. "All of them play various instruments," says the show's host, Larry Groce. "They play very subtle music, very quiet, very thoughtful, very interesting tunes."

David Byrne will open the 2009 season of Celebrate Brooklyn!, one of New York City's longest running, free, outdoor concert series, with a free concert ($3 suggested donation) in Brooklyn's Prospect Park Bandshell the night of Monday, June 8, its organizers have announced. The series, which has offered free concerts in the Park since 1979, launches its first-ever Opening Night Green Gala, preceding the concert, to support the festival's programs and its efforts to present more environmentally responsible events, including the first-ever large-scale bike parking area at a cultural event in New York.

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.

Audra McDonald will be among Broadway's finest at New York's Roseland Ballroom tonight for the Roundabout Theatre Company's Spring Gala, Take Me Back to Manhattan, a one-night-only celebration of the New York's big-band era. The performance, which benefits the Roundabout's Musical Theatre Fund, features music by Rodgers, Porter, Arlen, Berlin, Ellington, and Gershwin. Tonight's event will be hosted by Nathan Lane and is also scheduled to include performances by Michael Cerveris, Kelli O'Hara, Alec Baldwin, Matthew Broderick, Mario Cantone, Jane Krakowski, Cynthia Nixon, Denis O'Hare, Martha Plimpton.

The Low Anthem, the newest member of the Nonesuch artist roster, opens for Ray LaMontagne, Josh Ritter ... St. Lawrence String Quartet gives West Coast premiere of Adams String Quartet ... Laurie Anderson, Lou Reed play Yongey Peace Center benefit concert ... Dan Auerbach tours Australia ... David Byrne brings Byrne/Eno songs across England ... Christina Courtin takes over at NYC's Rockwood Music Hall ... Toumani Diabaté, Béla Fleck's Africa Project tour the South ... Bill Frisell concludes Disfarmer Project concerts in California ...  Philip Glass leads workshops at Pennsylvania academy, toasts Allen Ginsburg with Patti Smith in NYC ... Brad Mehldau Trio closes out week in France ... Youssou N'Dour doc screens at Wisconsin Film Fest ... Punch Brothers tour Midwest ... Joshua Redman Trio plays five nights at Yoshi's ... Alvin Ailey and Ballet Tech dance to Reich ... and more ...

Bay Area native Joshua Redman is back on his home turf this week to play a five-night residency—nine shows—at Yoshi's in Oakland, beginning tonight, with bassist Matt Penman, of the SFJAZZ Collective, and drummer Greg Hutchinson, a featured player on Redman's latest Nonesuch release, the double-trio album Compass. Branford Marsalis tells the San Jose Mercury News of the special affinity between Redman and his drummer, calling Hutchinson "the perfect foil for Josh."

To mark the start of National Poetry Month, Steve Reich will join a diverse array of noteworthy public figures, including musicians, actors, and writers, among others, at Lincoln Center's newly remodeled Avery Fisher Hall tonight to read their favorite poems by some of America's best-loved poets. Among those scheduled to read along with Reich are Joan Baez, Mia Farrow, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Chip Kidd, Wynton Marsalis, and Zadie Smith. Proceeds from the event, titled Poetry & The Creative Mind, benefit the Academy of American Poets and will help provide free classroom materials to more than 200,000 schools across the US this month.

Jeff Tweedy performed two solo sets this past weekend, at the Calvin Theater in Northampton, Massachusetts, Friday night, and at Beacon High School in upstate New York, in a fundraiser for the Clearwater organization co-founded by Pete Seeger, who also performed. Rolling Stone says "Tweedy, like Seeger, engaged the crowd throughout his set ... He also sang with crisp vocals and rich vocal inflection on 'Passenger Side' and played haunting harmonica lines on 'Via Chicago.'” The Republican says Tweedy was equally humble and successful with the sold-out crowd at the Calvin: "Tweedy was magnificent over the course of his 25-song set, recounting the Wilco catalog in acoustic form."