Emmylou Harris performed songs from her forthcoming album, Hard Bargain, at LA's El Rey Theatre last night, with Ryan Adams offering a surprise guest opening set. She performs at New York's Bowery Ballroom with another surprise special guest opener on Tuesday. Harris appeared on PBS's Tavis Smiley show earlier this week. "Harris is admired as much for her straightforward songwriting as for her expressive singing," says the show. "Forty years into her career, she's still doing both with ... Hard Bargain." Watch the show here.

k.d. lang and the Siss Boom Bang bring to a close their weeklong celebration of the UK release of their new album, Sing it Loud, with an appearance from lang on The Graham Norton Show tonight on BBC One and an encore presentation of their performance on Later ... With Jools Holland tonight on BBC Two. Last night, BBC Radio 2 In Concert aired a full concert from lang and the band; watch "I Confess" from the show here and see a whole gallery of photos from the event at nonesuch.com/media.

As noted earlier this week in the Nonesuch Journal, Chris Thile and Michael Daves, whose debut duo album, Sleep with One Eye Open, is due out May 10, have launched a new web site about the project. The site launched with two videos, including the first in a series of performance videos captured live at Rockwood Music Hall in New York City. Now comes the release of the latest video in the series: Thile and Daves performing Lester Flatt's "My Little Girl in Tennesse." Watch it here.

Emmylou Harris brings the music of her forthcoming album, Hard Bargain, to LA's El Rey Theatre tonight. The Los Angeles Times says Harris, on the new album, "very firmly takes center stage with wistful, heartrending tunes." The Wall Street Journal, previewing her album release day show in NYC, says: "Her voice remains an open channel for otherworldly beauty, earthy and ethereal in equal measure, and her style retains a rootsy grounding even when she strays from the confines of country." Harris spoke with ESPN about her music and one of her other passions, baseball.

Wanda Jackson hits the road for her second nationwide tour in support of her latest album, The Party Ain’t Over, which was produced by her friend Jack White. Jackson opens for the young British singer/songwriter Adele for nine sold-out performances in May and June. She says of these shows, “I was thrilled to learn that my music has been an influence on such a talent as Adele. I am looking forward to the concert tour with her. We’re gonna have a party!”

Emmylou Harris's will appear on PBS's Tavis Smiley tonight to discuss her career and her new album, Hard Bargain, out Tuesday. "Harris is admired as much for her straightforward songwriting as for her expressive singing," says the show. "Forty years into her career, she's still doing both with ... Hard Bargain." She performs on three BBC Radio shows in the coming days. The Daily Mail gives the album four stars, calling it " a wonderfully immediate collection." Billboard says she still "a still-luminous voice that can make the phone book sound like Puccini." Fans in the US can enter to win an Epiphone EJ-200 signed by Harris.

Ben Folds, who is set to tour Australia and Asia next month, has just announced several new US summer tour dates, including performances in Tulsa, Kansas City, Salt Lake City, Tucson, Tempe, Anaheim, San Francisco, Birmingham, and Minneapolis, as well as sets at the XPoNential Music Festival in Philadelphia and the DMB Caravan in Chicago. Folds has released a cover of Ke$ha's "Sleazy" to support Japanese relief efforts and will join Damian Kulash, Amanda Palmer, and Neil Gaiman at the Rethink Music conference in Boston for a songwriting/recording marathon.

The Low Anthem and Iron and Wine will release their Daytrotter Sessions as a limited-edition, split 12" vinyl on May 17. The LP, limited to 1,000 copies, is being sold exclusively through "mom and pop" record stores, with a few copies available through the Daytrotter website and the bands' websites. This will be the first-ever vinyl release to feature a full Daytrotter Session. The two bands are on tour together now. The Low Anthem's side of the LP features a live performance of six songs from their album Smart Flesh, which Daytrotter proclaimed is "without question a contender for album of the year."

The worldwide celebrations of Steve Reich's 75th birth year have come to NYC, starting with tonight's NY premiere screening of the documentary Steve Reich: Phase to Face at the NY Public Library for the Performing Arts; Reich and the film's director will be there. Carnegie Hall presents an all-Reich concert on April 30 featuring Kronos Quartet, Bang on a Can, eighth blackbird, So Percusssion, and three NY premieres; enter to win tickets and more. Tune in to Q2 this Monday to hear some of the performers discuss the concert.

Chris Thile and Michael Daves' upcoming release, Sleep with One Eye Open, is still three weeks away, but you can learn more about the album now at the newly launched thiledaves.com. This debut from mandolin virtuoso Thile and guitar-maven Daves was recorded live to tape in at Jack White’s Third Man studio in Nashville and features 16 traditional bluegrass tunes by legends like The Monroe Brothers, The Louvin Brothers, Jimmy Martin, and Flatt & Scruggs. The new site features tour and album info, as well as two videos: a discussion between Thile and Daves about Sleep with One Eye Open, and a live performance of the title track.

k.d. lang and her new album, Sing it Loud, were featured on NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday this past weekend. lang spoke with host Liane Hansen about the making of the album and collaborating with co-writer and producer Joe Pisapia. "The second everybody walked into the room, the energy was palpable. It was an amazing session," says lang, of the July 4th recording session, with her band in Nashville with her band, the Siss Boom Bang. k.d. lang is currently in London celebrating the local release of Sing it Loud, with live interviews on television, and a review in the Observer describes the album as "jazz and country-flecked songs [that] brim with confidence."