The Carolina Chocolate Drops have added two new musicians to the band: human beatboxer Adam Matta and multi-instrumentalist Hubby Jenkins. The two join the group as founding member Justin Robinson departs to take up new challenges. The Chocolate Drops’ winter/spring tour began earlier this week with a performance at Lincoln Center’s prestigious American Songbook series and continues through April 14.

Chris Thile performs his Mandolin Concerto in Iowa ... John Adams conducts Nixon in China at the Met ... David Byrne attends 25th anniversary True Stories screening in San Francisco ... Carolina Chocolate Drops hit upstate New York, Vermont ... Shawn Colvin returns to Yoshi's San Francisco ... Wanda Jackson headlines Rockin’ Race Jamboree in Spain ... Kronos Quartet makes it a two-fer in Minneapolis ... Jessica Lea Mayfield kicks off tour with Justin Townes Earle ... Fernando Otero plays NYC,  Allen Toussaint too ... and more ... 

Jessica Lea Mayfield's new album, Tell Me, produced by The Black Keys' Dan Auerbach, is due out this Tuesday. You can listen to the album in its entirety now at RollingStone.com. "At 21, Mayfield looks like an ingénue but sings like a worldly-wise veteran," says the magazine. Pre-order in the Nonesuch Store with an exclusive signed 7” of the album’s first single, “Our Hearts Are Wrong.” Mayfield launches a ten-day tour with Justin Townes Earle tonight.

Wanda Jackson celebrated the release of her new album, The Party Ain't Over, last month with sold-out shows with producer Jack White in New York and Los Angeles and performances on the Late Show with David Letterman and Conan, as well as her own hometown show in Oklahoma City. She kicks off a month-long tour in Europe and the United States this weekend with the headliner slot at the Rockin' Race Jamboree in Málaga, Spain.

The Metropolitan Opera production of John Adams's Nixon in China continues this weekend, following this week's Met premiere. "When John Adams's opera Nixon in China had its world premiere in 1987, it was provocative, edgy, audacious," says the Washington Post. "Twenty-four years later, it's come to the Metropolitan Opera and, along the way, become a Modern Masterpiece." The Huffington Post calls it "a thrill."

Kronos Quartet performs two concerts at the Walker Arts Center in Minneapolis this weekend, featuring works from their album Floodplain and Laurie Anderson's Grammy-nominated "Flow." "It's hard to hype the Kronos Quartet," says the Star Tribune. "The group ... really has transformed the face of chamber music; it still makes many younger rivals seem staid." The Winnipeg Free Press gives 4.5 stars to a recent concert by this "new music royalty," exclaiming: "Everything they touch seems to turn to gold."

John Adams's groundbreaking 1987 opera, Nixon in China, received what the Associated Press calls its "long-overdue premiere" at the Metropolitan Opera last night. The AP describes Nixon in China as "perhaps the greatest American opera of the last quarter-century" and the Met production "a testament to its enduring power." The New York Times sees the premiere not as overdue but rather arriving "at just the right time to comprehend the continuing resonances of this audacious and moving opera."

The Low Anthem's latest album, Smart Flesh, is due out in just a few weeks, on February 22, and is available for pre-order. The band was recently in Utah for the Sundance Film Festival, where they performed at the ASCAP Music Café. You can watch a performance video from Sundance here, interspersed with a conversation with the band about their affinity for playing multiple instruments, their dynamic range, and the collaborative nature of the band. 

The Carolina Chocolate Drops’ launch their 2011 tour with a special engagement on Lincoln Center’s prestigious American Songbook series at The Allen Room in New York City tonight. The show follows last week's release of their new four-song EP, a collaboration with the New York City–based Romanian gypsy punk band Luminescent Orchestrii, along with human beatboxer Adam Matta. Another 20 shows follow in the coming months, with Matta and multi-instrumentalist Hubby Jenkins joining the band on the road.

Nonesuch releases guitarist/composer Jonny Greenwood’s instrumental score to director Tran Anh Hung’s new film Norwegian Wood on March 8. An adaptation of Haruki Murakami’s bestselling novel, the film will be released in the UK on March 11 and stars Kenichi Matsuyama, Rinko Kikuchi, and Kiko Mizuhara. The score is performed by the BBC Concert Orchestra led by Robert Ziegler, and the Emperor Quartet, and is produced by Graeme Stewart. The soundtrack album also features three tracks written and performed by CAN.

Chris Thile will appear on The Travel Channel's new series The Traveler’s Guide to Life tonight. On the series, guests share stories that shed insight on the important things in life, including, on tonight's episode, "Hometown," and on next week's episode, "Celebrations," also featuring Thile. His own travels continue with a performance of his Mandolin Concerto in Iowa this weekend, followed by a duo show with guitarist Michael Daves close to home in New York, and the next leg of his tour with Punch Brothers next week.

Jessica Lea Mayfield's forthcoming Nonesuch debut album, Tell Me, produced by The Black Keys' Dan Auerbach, receives four stars from MusicOMH. "Tell Me is a deliciously dark album," reads the review. "Every track on this album is elevated beyond simple country-pop singer-songwriter territory ... This album will prove to be as addictive listening come the end of the year as it is right now."