Randy Newman will be at Royce Hall at the University of California, Los Angeles, tonight for An Evening with Randy Newman. "He was The Daily Show for his generation," says the Los Angeles Times, "trenchant wit and political nous the hallmark of his humorous songs. Randy Newman still applies both forces to his work and, as such, is still a force to be reckoned with." LA Weekly says tonight's show "is not a thing to be missed."

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Alarm Will Sound, led by artistic director/conductor Alan Pierson, will be joining Brooklyn-based band Dirty Projectors for to perform the latter band's 2005 album The Getty Address at Lincoln Center's Allen Room in New York City tonight.

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Laurie Anderson continues the world premiere performances of her new piece, Delusion, at the Vancouver Playhouse Theatre each day this weekend as part of the Cultural Olympiad. She describes the piece to the Globe and Mail as "a collection of stories about identity ... and ancestors and relatives and where you come from, where you’re going. Those small questions."

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Shawn Colvin performs two sets at the One World Theater in her hometown of Austin, Texas, tonight.

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Christina Courtin headlines at the Java Jaay Cafe in Decatur, Alabama, tonight before she begins her two-week tour supporting Mike Doughty through the Southwest and California. She meets up with Doughty for the tour opener at Poor David's Pub in Dallas, Texas, Saturday night.

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Bill Frisell is in St. Pölten, Austria, this weekend for the start of the week-long New York Presents festival at the Festspielhaus. On tonight's bill, the Bill Frisell Trio, featuring bassist Tony Scherr and drummer Kenny Wollesen, takes on Buster Keaton, Jim Woodring, and Bill Morrison, performing to the works of these filmmakers. On Saturday, Frisell will be joined by Czech avant-garte violinist and singer Iva Bittová for a night of improvisation.

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Philip Glass is at the Rubin Museum of Art in New York City this Sunday to participate in the third-annual Brainwave series, which  brings thinkers from multiple disciplines to sit down in conversation with scientists. The topic: "How Do We Listen to the Music of the Spheres?" Glass, who has written works based on Kepler and Galileo, will join astronomer Greg Laughlin, who has developed software to map planetary systems as audible waveforms, to interpret the sounds of the universe. This event is sold-out. On March 6, Laurie Anderson will participate in the series on March 6. For more information on Brainwave, visit rmanyc.org.

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Richard Goode performs two shows with the NDR Symphony Orchestra at the Laeiszhalle in Hamburg, Germany, this weekend, tonight and Saturday. The New York Times, reviewing Goode's recent New York duo recital with Jonathan Biss, commended both pianists for the "insightful and profoundly expressive music making" of their solo work.

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The Magnetic Fields continue their North American tour with a sold-out set at The Aladdin Theater in Portland, Oregon, on Sunday.

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Pat Metheny's Orchestrion tour winds through Spain this weekend, with stops at the Teatro Calderon in Valladolid tonight; Rioja Forum in Logrono on Saturday; and L'Auditorium in Barcelona on Sunday. Both the Financial Times and The Guardian gave four stars to Mehldau's performance at the Barbican in London last week, with the latter exclaiming, "it will go down as one of the most remarkable one-man shows in music history." Following a performance in Eindhoven, Netherlands, All About Jazz said "Pat Metheny's Orchestrion joined a galaxy of greatness, as he continued among the brightest stars."

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Punch Brothers continue their tour of the South that began earlier this week with a show in Charlottesville, Virginia (at which Christina Courtin opened). This weekend has three shows in store: the Reynolds Industries Theater at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, tonight; Diana Wortham Theatre in Asheville, North Carolina, Saturday; and The Lyric Theatre in Blacksburg, Virginia, Sunday. The Asheville Citizen-Times, in the introduction to an interview with banjo player Noam Pickelny, describes the band members as "fiercely talented avant-garde new-grassers."

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The Joshua Redman Trio, featuring Reuben Rogers on bass and Gregory Hutchinson on drums, performs at the Clarice Smith Center's Dekelboum Concert Hall on the University of Maryland campus in College Park. The trio appears on Compass, Redman's latest Nonesuch release, which the Washington Post says "easily ranks among his most rewarding." DCist says, "The music is challenging, but remains accessible even to the untrained ear." The Washington City Paper insists the trio has "one of the surest and most intoxicating sense of melody you’ve ever heard."

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Allen Toussaint performs at SPACE in Evanston, Illinois, tonight.
 
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Sara Watkins performs two shows with John Prine this weekend: tonight at the Merriam Theatre in Philadelphia and Saturday at the Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank, New Jersey. Tune in to BBC Radio Scotland's Another Country with host Ricky Ross tonight at 8 PM to hear Sara. You can listen in online at bbc.co.uk.

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Wilco will stream a live webcast from its sold-out show at Overture Hall in Madison, Wisconsin, Saturday night at 8:30 PM CST. It's one of three sold-out sets for the band this weekend. First up is Duluth, Minnesota, tonight, for a show at DECC Arena. On Saturday, Wilco will be in East Lansing, Michigan, to play Wharton Cobb Great Hall. The Lansing State Journal says, "Fifteen years and seven albums since getting together, Wilco's music still sounds edgy and alive."

Also this weekend and through the week, the documentary Ashes of American Flags, which follows the band on its 2008 tour, is showing at the Screenland Armour in Kansas City, Missouri.