James Farm, the collaborative band featuring Joshua Redman, Aaron Parks, Matt Penman, and Eric Harland, launches its world tour this weekend in Tel Aviv, Israel. The tour continues over the next month with performances throughout Europe, before returning to the States for four-nights at NY's Jazz Standard plus summer festival sets at Caramoor, Newport, and Monterey. "The power from these four dynamos throbs beneath the surface," says Arts Journal. Their "album has a fine balance between peacefulness and strength."

Kate McGarrigle's family and friends gathered on stage at New York's Town Hall last night for the first of two concerts celebrating the life and music of the late singer-songwriter. The evening was a beautiful and emotional tribute featuring scores of unforgettable performances, with proceeds going to the Kate McGarrigle Sarcoma Research Fund. "Their voices flew as high as birds and resonated with a closeness only siblings can create," says the Daily News of Kate and her sister. "Kate and Anna McGarrigle sang some of the most distinct and shimmering harmonies in the modern folk era."

Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Wanda Jackson helps kick off the opening of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum's new exhibit, Women Who Rock: Vision, Passion, Power, in a performance at the Museum's annual Spring Benefit Concert in Cleveland on Saturday. The new exhibit, which opens today, illustrates the important roles women have played in rock and roll and includes an acoustic guitar of Jackson's from 1958. "Women rock," she says in a new video for the exhibit, "and they rock very well." Watch it here.

Randy Newman performs three song off his newly release Songbook Vol. 2 on BBC Two's Later ... with Jools Holland tonight: "Birmingham," "Laugh and Be Happy," and "Same Girl." Newman posed on the set for the photo at left with fellow guest Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks. He appeared on the BBC World Service show The Strand last night and is on BBC Radio 2's Bob Harris Sunday this weekend. Newman performs on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon on Monday; enter to win up-close seats to the NYC performance.

Earlier this month, The Kitchen, the NYC non-profit performance and visual arts space, celebrated its 40th anniversary by honoring Philip Glass in a gala benefit. The gala also included the premiere of a short film that looks back on the organization's history of supporting innovative artists and includes interviews with Glass, Laurie Anderson, Rhys Chatham, and others, along with photos, and audio and video footage of performances from throughout the Kitchen's 40 years, including early sets from Alarm Will Sound, Bill T. Jones, Beastie Boys, and Talking Heads. Watch it here.

Kate McGarrigle, who died of sarcoma last year, will be celebrated in a two-night tribute at New York’s Town Hall tonight and tomorrow, with performances by her children Martha and Rufus Wainwright, her sister Anna, Emmylou Harris, Antony Hegarty, Norah Jones, Teddy Thompson, and others. Tell My Sister, a three-disc set comprising Kate & Anna McGarrigle's first two albums plus previously unreleased songs, is out now. The Philadelphia Inquirer says it "captures the McGarrigles in their prime, when they made their own brand of frisky, tough-minded, and sexy folk music."

Anna McGarrigle will appear on NPR's Fresh Air today to discuss her relationship with her late sister Kate and the music they made together. Tell My Sister, a three-disc set comprising remastered versions of their first two albums and a collection of previously unreleased songs, is out now. The Financial Times gives the set a perfect five stars. Kate McGarrigle, who died of sarcoma last year, will be celebrated in a two-night tribute at New York’s Town Hall starting this week, with performances by Anna, Kate's children Martha and Rufus Wainwright, Emmylou Harris, and others.

Chris Thile and Michael Daves kicked off their three-night run of sold-out shows at Rockwood Music Hall in New York City last night, performing songs from their new album, Sleep with One Eye Open, released yesterday. No Depression calls the album "a smartly-paced and well-varied set of tunes, performed with celebratory vigor and and passion for the material." We're happy to announce the winner of the Martin 000X1AE acoustic guitar in the album pre-order contest: Morgan Mecaskey of Cleveland Heights, Ohio. Congratulations!

The Metropolitan Opera's premiere production of John Adams's Nixon in China, conducted by the composer and staged by director Peter Sellars in their Met debuts, will air on PBS on Wednesday, June 1, at 9 PM ET, as part of THIRTEEN's Great Performances at the Met series. Watch a preview here. To coincide with the Met premiere of Nixon in China, Nonesuch Records reissued the Grammy-winning original cast recording in a newly redesigned three-CD set, available now.

Sleep with One Eye Open, the debut album from Chris Thile and Michael Daves, is out today. They kick off their US tour with a sold-out, three-night run at NYC's Rockwood Music Hall tonight. It's "a rip-roaring partnership," says the New York Times. "Bluegrass, in their hands, gets roughed up in the best possible way, with skill and fervor, and a touch of abandon." The Independent on Sunday says it's "a pleasure to hear such virtuosic types giving themselves over to high-end ribaldry." Metro gives the album four stars, citing "an up-all-night intensity and a technical virtuosity." Watch the duo perform "20/20 Vision" here.

Steve Reich was the guest of honor at the Barbican in London for Reverberations, a weekend-long music marathon exploring his music and influence, featuring Kronos Quartet in the European premiere of his WTC 9/11. The Daily Telegraph gives Reverberations a perfect five stars, saying that while Reich's "influence has been massive ... it was the innocence and shy ecstasy of Reich’s own music that left the deepest impression." The Times and Evening Standard give the festival four stars. Kronos gives the Scottish premiere of WTC 9/11 this Friday for the weekend's Kronos in Glasgow festival.

Randy Newman's Songbook Vol. 2 is out today on Nonesuch. On the new album, Newman takes a fresh look at both classic and more recent work in new solo takes on 16 of his celebrated songs, surveying 40 years of recordings. MusicOMH calls it "an invigorating celebration of the power of music, and a delicate declaration of the power of one man and his piano." Newman performs on Later ... with Jools Holland this Friday and on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon on Monday.