Sara Watkins kicked off her tour with The Decemberists last week and continues through the coming months. Prior to the launch of the tour, Watkins was given the very special opportunity to serve as guest host of the beloved radio show A Prairie Home Companion. Her appearance on WNYC's Soundcheck, in which she discusses her guest-hosting gig, was originally slated to air last week but will air today instead.

Ben Folds's US tour came to close one day earlier than expected when his concert in Tulsa tonight had to be postponed due to a major snowstorm blanketing the region. Throughout the tour, Folds has enlisted the help of audience members to perform an a cappella version of the song "Working Day" off Lonely Avenue, his collaboration with Nick Hornby. You can see this new a cappella work in progress come together in video clips on Folds's YouTube channel; watch the first one here.

The Black Keys will be the guests on today's episode of NPR's Fresh Air to talk about their music, not least their latest Nonesuch release, 2010's Brothers, which is nominated in six categories at next month's Grammy Awards and recently garnered the band a Gold record. On The Black Keys' tour schedule are two sold-out shows in Las Vegas and the Coachella festival. Rolling Stone placed Patrick Carney at No. 3 among the 50 Top Tweeters in Music.

Wanda Jackson gave a free hometown show in Oklahoma City on Friday. "The enduring power of the 73-year-old's voice was on full display," says the Oklahoman. "And yes, by all accounts, Wanda Jackson ripped it up. Ripped it to shreds." Clash Music has made her take on Dylan's "Thunder on the Mountain" today's Track of the Day, calling the album "a stunning return." PopMatters says Jackson "is positively incendiary." The Ottawa Citizen gives four-and-a-half stars to "this outstanding comeback." Jackson opens the latest episode of public radio's Dinner Party Download.

There's just one more week to go before the release of Jessica Lea Mayfield's Nonesuch debut album, Tell Me, produced by The Black Keys' Dan Auerbach. "Auerbach brings out the best" in Mayfield, says the Cleveland Scene; "this is Mayfield’s strongest record, an alt-country torch storm that rivals Neko Case’s best." Pre-order here with an exclusive signed 7” of the album’s first single, “Our Hearts Are Wrong.” Mayfield kicks off a tour with Justin Townes Earle this weekend.

Joshua Rifkin celebrates 40th anniversary of Joplin's Piano Rags album in NYC ... Alarm Will Sound performs Reich's Tehillim for NYC's Ecstatic Music Festival ... Ben Folds tours Midwest ... Philip Glass goes solo in Colombia ... Wanda Jackson plays free hometown show in Oklahoma City .... Glenn Kotche, Bang on a Can play Reich in Kentucky ... The Low Anthem performs at Bowdoin ... Stockholm celebrates Reich ... Allen Toussaint continues NYC residency ... Sara Watkins plays Boston with The Decemberists ... Dawn Upshaw, Gilbert Kalish give recital in Connecticut ... and more ...

The Carolina Chocolate Drops released a new EP collaboration with the New York City–based Romanian gypsy punk band Luminescent Orchestrii and beatboxer Adam Matta earlier this week. All of the performers played together at New York's Bowery Ballroom late last year; Paste magazine premiered a video of "Short Dress Gal" from that concert earlier today. You can watch it here. There's also a short documentary about the making of the EP.

Tune in to NPR's Fresh Air today to hear Wanda Jackson's 2003 interview on the show. Consequence of Sound gives Jackson's new Jack White-produced album four stars, saying "The Party Ain’t Over proves to be a bold success." The Louisville Courier-Journal calls Jackson "the hottest thing that ever came out of Oklahoma, counting oil-well fires and Wayne Coyne," and says with her new album, she "proves there's no age limit on fun." Jackson gives a free concert in her hometown of Oklahoma City tonight.

John Adams's groundbreaking 1987 opera Nixon in China will be given its Metropolitan Opera premiere this Wednesday, also marking Adams's Met conducting debut and what the New York Times calls "a tardy house debut" for director Peter Sellars. The Times looks at just what an achievement the opera was for a composer and a librettist, Alice Goodman, who had never undertaken anything like it before. The Times also looks at the state dinner thrown for Nixon in Beijing and recreated in New York. Adams and Sellars spoke with Time Out New York for an interview titled "Vote Nixon."

AfroCubism, the project featuring some of Mali and Cuba's finest musicians, finally came together 14 years after its conception, resulting in one of the best-reviewed albums of 2010. The band gave a brief tour of North America last fall, followed by a number of shows in Europe. The final show of AfroCubism's 2010 tour took place at the Bataclan in Paris, on December 5, and was captured on video. You can watch the complete concert here.

Carolina Chocolate Drops have been named among the year's best in the 2010 Nashville Scene Country Music Critics' Poll. Their album Genuine Negro Jig comes in at No. 7 on the Best Album list. The band itself is also listed among Best Groups (as are Punch Brothers), Best New Acts, and Artists of the Year, and Rhiannon Giddens among Best Female Vocalists. Nashville Scene says that "no country act rocked harder or shouted more contagiously in 2010 than this one."

Wanda Jackson celebrates the release of her new Jack White-produced album, The Party Ain't Over, with a free show in her hometown of Oklahoma City tomorrow. She is featured on the latest edition of the New York Times Popcast. The Huffington Post calls her "every inch an Elvis," who, with the new album, is "cementing her status as royalty ... Wicked Good!" The Montreal Gazette gives the album four stars, calling the pairing of Jackson and White "an inspired one." ClashMusic exclaims: "The Queen of Rockabilly Wanda Jackson is back on her throne."