Spring officially begins in the Northern Hemisphere on Sunday (happy autumn to those of you in the Southern Hemisphere), and there's plenty of live music with which to celebrate the longer days this weekend, not least the South by Southwest (SXSW) Music Conference, which continues in Austin, Texas, through the weekend. Emmylou Harris and Jessica Lea Mayfield continue their performances, with Wanda Jackson joining in on the fun on Saturday.

Emmylou Harris joins IFC's SXSW coverage live from the Crossroads House on Brazos Street today, starting at 1 PM CT, which you can watch live at ifc.com. She gets Austin radio station KGSR's coverage in gear on Saturday with a 9:30 AM performance, broadcast live from the Four Seasons Hotel; listen in online at kgsr.com.

Rolling Stone has set up its SXSW shop at La Zona Rosa in Austin, and Jessica Lea Mayfield is there to perform today at 1 PM CT; watch it streaming live online at rollingstone.com. At 4:30 PM CT, she performs at Mellow Johnny's Bike Shop, where Seattle's KEXP is broadcasting live; tune in to kexp.org to hear that set. Finally, on Saturday, Mayfield caps off her SXSW stay with a 2 PM performance at the Cactus Café presented by University of Texas radio station KUT; tune in to kut.org for live coverage.

Wanda Jackson, who made an unexpected appearance at Austin's Jo's Coffee for South by San Jose last night, performs at Rachael Ray's Feedback Party at Stubb's BBQ on Saturday, as will The Bravery, Tapes 'n' Tapes, Eli "Paperboy" Reed, and others. The festivities begin at 10:30 AM and continue till 4 PM. Jackson begins the next leg of her US tour next week in Chicago.

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As noted earlier today in the Nonesuch Journal, Steve Reich and Kronos Quartet are in the midst of their artist residency at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, which will culminate in the world premiere of Reich's latest work, WTC 9/11, in an all-Reich concert at Duke's Page Auditorium on Saturday. The residency also includes a discussion with the composer about his Pulitzer Prize-winning piece Double Sextet on Duke's East Campus today at noon and an open rehearsal and discussion of Duke Ph.D candidate David K. Garner's new piece for Kronos at Duke
Coffeehouse in Crowell Hall.

Steve Reich's music can be heard in a different context tonight in London, where BBC Radio 3 presenter Robert Worby hosts an event at the National Gallery's Sainsbury Wing Theater that examines the links between the abstract art of Bridget Riley and the music of Bach, Stravinsky, and Reich. Violinist Charles Mutter presents work by these three composers and will incorporate discussion on the connections between painting and music.

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As announced yesterday in the Nonesuch Journal, Bill Frisell launched an 11-city European tour featuring the music of his last Nonesuch album, Disfarmer, in Hamburg, Germany, last night. Joining him on tour are steel-guitar player Greg Leisz, bassist Viktor Krauss, and violinist Carrie Rodriquez. In the multimedia piece, inspired by the life, work, and subjects of eccentric photographer Mike Disfarmer, projected images of Disfarmer's portraits illuminate Frisell's musical perspectives on this fascinating character. The tour continues with the second of two consecutive nights at NDR's Rolf-Liebermann-Studio in Hamburg tonight, followed by two nights in Italy: at the Conservatorio Giuseppe Verdi on Saturday and The Fillmore in Piacenza on Sunday.

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The Black Keys continue their European tour with a sold-out concert at Heineken Music Hall in Amsterdam, with DeWolff opening.

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Carolina Chocolate Drops have three sold-out shows in Maine this weekend: at the Strand Theatre in Rockland tonight, plus two consecutive nights at the Stone Mountain Arts Center in Brownfield, Saturday and Sunday.

"The Carolina Chocolate Drops has a little bit of everything going on in its sound," writes the Bangor Daily News in a preview of tonight's show. "Though it is firmly rooted in acoustic blues, country and folk in the string band tradition, you can hear jazz, R&B, hip-hop and modern-day progressive bluegrass all hovering around the edges."

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Michael Daves performs at the All Angels Church in New York City on Saturday as part of its Café Night of American roots music. Also performing is Baby Soda. The evening coincides with the opening of a new visual art show in the Rob Buckley Memorial Gallery.

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The Low Anthem brought its winter US tour to a close last weekend with an unforgettable gathering at the Central Falls, Rhode Island, pasta sauce factory where they recorded the majority of its latest Nonesuch album, Smart Flesh. The band launches its tour of Europe, where the album is out on Bella Union, at Café de la Danse in Paris tonight, with Woods opening. On Sunday, The Low Anthem heads to Cologne, Germany, to perform at the Stadtgarten, the first of several dates with The Head and the Heart opening.

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Brad Mehldau is in Scandinavia performing two different programs this weekend. He joins Swedish mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter for a performance of the expanded version of his Love Songs at Berwaldhallen in Otter's hometown of Stockholm on Saturday. Mehldau performs a solo set at Victoria in Oslo, Norway, on Sunday.

The Globe and Mail recently gave Mehldau's new 2CD/DVD solo album, Live in Marciac, four stars, it’s the singularity of his improvising that makes this solo set so stunning. Despite echoes of Bill Evans, Keith Jarrett and Fred Hersch, his playing—by turns epic, elegiac, lyrical and hypnotic—is a dominion unto itself, employing a harmonic and rhythmic vocabulary unique to jazz. Prepare to be dazzled, if not converted."

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Randy Newman, who resumes his US tour next week at the Avalon Theater in Easton, Maryland, can be heard this weekend in a new interview with Coastal Connection's Bryan Russo from NPR member station WAMU 88.3 FM in Ocean City, Maryland. The two discuss, among other things, Newman's forthcoming Nonesuch album, The Randy Newman Songbook Vol. 2. Listen to the interview now at wamucoast.org.

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Punch Brothers are in northern California for two shows this weekend: first at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco tonight and then at the Mystic Theatre in Petaluma in Sonoma County wine country on Saturday.

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Joshua Redman concludes his European tour with the Trondheim Jazz Orchestra this weekend. They perform at Porgy and Bess in Vienna on Saturday and at Jazzclub Unterfahrt in Munich on Sunday.