Nonesuch releases its second record from North Carolina-based string band the Carolina Chocolate Drops—a four-song EP—on January 25. The record is a collaboration with the New York City–based Romanian gypsy punk band Luminescent Orchestrii. This self-titled EP is now available for pre-order in the Nonesuch Store, where the first 100 copies of the CD and the first 100 copies on vinyl will be signed by the Chocolate Drops. All pre-orders include an instant download of the record’s opening track, “Short Dress Gal.”

The Low Anthem has just added another date to their rapidly growing tour calendar: opening for Iron & Wine at the Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles on January 26. The band joins Emmylou Harris at the Byham Theater in Pittsburgh tomorrow to launch a ten-city tour of the US East Coast. The Low Anthem will join the Carolina Chocolate Drops for six dates in December and will play the Allen Room in New York as part of Lincoln Center's 2011 American Songbook series in January.

Punch Brothers play Letterman, open for Dave Matthews ... AfroCubism kicks off three-city North American tour ... Laurie Anderson performs Transitory Life in England ... David Byrne screens tour doc in NYC ... Ben Folds launches Lonely Avenue tour in Chicago ... Gidon Kremer, Kremerata Baltica continue US tour in Chicago ... Kronos Quartet brings borderless music to Boston ... Brad Mehldau premieres Highway Rider in Minneapolis ... Natalie Merchant talks at TimesCenter ... Stephen Sondheim talks in San Francisco ... Allen Toussaint, Nicholas Payton play music of New Orleans ... Sara Watkins tours UK ... and more ...

Ben Folds launches his fall US tour at The Riviera in Chicago tonight, featuring music from Lonely Avenue, his collaboration with Nick Hornby. The 14-city tour features a Thanksgiving weekend homecoming performance to benefit the Nashville Symphony and concludes at the Beacon in New York City in December. Folds will also participate in the National Geographic Live series Music on ... Photography and will return as a judge on NBC's a cappella competition The Sing-Off. Folds and Hornby discuss their new album on Sirius/XM's Bob Edwards Show.

The musicians of the new album AfroCubism launch a three-city North American tour tonight in Montreal, then head to Boston and New York. The Boston Globe calls this "the most important world-music tour of the season" and describes the album as "thrilling and impeccably produced." The Wall Street Journal says it displays "the same kind of creative genre-mixing in world forms that we're accustomed to hearing in North American jazz." PRI's The World says "AfroCubism feels like something that's long overdue has finally arrived. Triumphantly." Alarm Press says "the album has an electrifying liveliness that stems not only from 15 years of pent-up collaborative energy but more than 100 years of crisscrossing cultural histories."

Brad Mehldau's Highway Rider receives its world premiere performance tonight and Saturday at the Walker Arts Center in Minneapolis. Mehldau will perform with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Jeff Ballard, Larry Grenadier, Joshua Redman, and Matt Chamberlain. "Mehldau has built a career on mixing musical styles and influences into something celebrated as distinctly original," says the Minneapolis Star Tribune. "He has put that aesthetic to particular work in his newest album Highway Rider, a piece that flexes Mehldau's composing muscles as much as it does his jazz piano acumen." The New York Times calls it "this year’s most luxurious jazz release."

Punch Brothers will appear on NYC public radio station WFUV, 90.7 FM (wfuv.org), today at 1 PM ET, performing songs from their album Antifogmatic. Watch The Late Show with David Letterman tomorrow night for their performance with Steve Martin. And tune in to A Prairie Home Companion Thanksgiving weekend, when Punch Brothers will be the musical guests. They open for Dave Matthews Band in two shows this weekend.

AfroCubism will be featured on today's edition of PRI's The World; Nick Gold, the album's producer, will discuss the project, some 14 years in the making. The Village Voice cites two early tracks on the album as "about as perfect a blend of AfroCubism's two dominant cultures as you'll ever find; the rest of the album sustains that high ... At long last, Gold and his cohorts have achieved something that lives up to its original promise, a direct link between the Old World and the new." All Music says: "a true musical meeting of minds between the two cultures."

When Ben Folds and Nick Hornby came to New York City last month to celebrate the release of their album, Lonely Avenue, they met up at the Housing Works Bookstore Cafe to discuss and perform a few songs off the album. It was the latest in the "Liner Notes" series from SPIN and raised $10,000 for Housing Works. You can now watch six exclusive videos from the evening at spin.com. Folds launches his fall tour this Friday in Chicago.

Gidon Kremer and the Kremerata Baltica continue their North American tour with a sold-out show at the Newman Center in Denver, featuring works from their album De Profundis. The San Francisco Chronicle describes Sunday's show in Berkeley as "deeply satisfying" and Lera Auerbach's Sogno di Stabat Mater, off the album, as "fascinating. The San Jose Mercury News calls that piece "best of all" in this concert of "enchantment and mystery," the new album "superb ... dark and mesmerizing."

AfroCubism makes its much belated North American release this week, followed by a three-city tour of Montreal, Boston, and New York City. The New Yorker calls the project a "collaboration well worth the wait." The New York Times, in a feature article on the album, calls it "a rich yet subtle fusion of African and Cuban sounds." AfroCubism is also featured in a Reuters/Billboard article and reviewed by Dusted, which calls it "elegant."

When Wanda Jackson, the Queen of Rockabilly, recorded “Let’s Have a Party,” a tune she made into a hit of her own in 1958 even after one-time boyfriend Elvis Presley had released a version of it, her delivery of the chorus wasn’t so much a suggestion as a command. As the title—and, more importantly, the contents—of her latest album, The Party Ain’t Over, indicates, this feisty septuagenarian artist is as galvanizing as ever. Check out the cover art and hear what Jackson has to say about the new record.