The Black Keys have added another date to their summer tour schedule unveiled earlier this week: as a part of Summerfest 2011, the band will headline  at the Marcus Amphitheater in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on July 6, along with touring partners Cage the Elephant and special guest Florence + the Machine. Tickets go on sale March 5. Fan pre-sale for the June and July shows announced this past Tuesday began yesterday through MusicToday.com. Public on sale for those is either tomorrow or Saturday.

The Low Anthem, whose latest album, Smart Flesh, was released yesterday on Nonesuch, launches a brief winter tour in Washington, DC, tomorrow night. NPR's All Songs Considered will be there, broadcasting the concert live online. The band will be back in the States this spring, for support slots with Iron & Wine and a slew of newly-confirmed headlining dates, including a special show at the pasta sauce factory in Rhode Island where they recorded most of the new album. Watch the video for the album track "Boeing 737," shot at the factory, here.

On The Randy Newman Songbook Vol. 2, which Nonesuch Records will release on May 10, Randy Newman takes a fresh look at both classic and more recent work in new solo recordings of his celebrated songs. Songbook Vol. 2, which was co-produced by Mitchell Froom and Lenny Waronker, includes songs spanning from the 1968 album Randy Newman through 2008’s Harps and Angels. Newman began his North American tour on February 11 and continues through April 22 in San Francisco. Newman performs his Oscar-nominated song from Toy Story 3 at the awards ceremony this Sunday.

Today marks the release of The Low Anthem's new album, Smart Flesh. Rolling Stone gives the album four stars, saying: "It's as if the Band stripped their prairie-gothic majesty down to Tom Waits' early barfly essentials." The Los Angeles Times calls it "a gorgeous, inventively arranged set of reverb-rich roots ballads." Paste sums it up as "soft-spoken stories that’ll stop you in your tracks." The Providence Journal calls it "a stunning, incandescent gem of a recording." The Daily Telegraph gives the album four stars: "These exquisitely voiced musings on love, healing and mortality really hit the spot." Uncut says, "It's all stunningly beautiful."

Brad Mehldau's new 2CD/DVD solo album Live in Marciac is out today on Nonesuch. The Los Angeles Times says: "Mehldau's technical mastery can be enough to make your head spin, but the feeling is invigorating." The Financial Times gives four stars to the "enthralling" album, as does the Daily Telegraph. The Boston Globe says it showcases "what he does best." The Independent on Sunday calls it "a triumph of imagination and structure. Quite simply, he's on fire, inspired, out there, playing with the gods." The Irish Times gives the album a perfect five stars. "A joy at every level—and another contender for the year’s best." Watch an excerpt of Mehldau improvising on "My Favorite Things" here.

The Black Keys, fresh off their multiple Grammy Awards wins for the album Brothers, have announced plans for a summer tour of the US and Canada. The band will be joined for most of the dates by special guests Cage the Elephant and, for the first date in June, by Booker T. Jones, Nicole Atkins & The Black Sea. Fan pre-sale for the newly announced shows starts this Wednesday.

Wanda Jackson is set to kick off her months-long US tour in Philadelphia tonight, featuring music from her new Jack White-produced album, The Party Ain't Over. The Philadelphia Inquirer says the songs on the new album "are proof of a match made in heaven." The New York Times says Jackson "still sounds fantastic, and her gnarled, feisty vocals are a good fit with Mr. White’s scrappy production." The San Francisco Chronicle says Jackson "is, now and forever, the Queen of Rockabilly, and she shows it again and again on the album's 11 cuts." Seattle Weekly exclaims: "Holy damn, is this record a keeper."

Carter Burwell and his score to the Coen brothers film True Grit are featured on NPR's All Things Considered. Burwell spoke with guest host Linda Wertheimer about the score and why it was deemed ineligible for an Academy Award, namely its roots in earlier hymns, a source of inspiration Burwell says he found in the 1968 Charles Portis novel on which the film is based. Wertheimer says: "We liked it."

The Low Anthem and their forthcoming album, Smart Flesh, are the subject of a feature article in the New York Times, which looks at the abandoned pasta sauce factory in which it was recorded as "one of the instruments" on the album. "There is nothing idiosyncratic about what underlies their appeal," says the Times. "The songs are sticky and gorgeous, often because of Mr. Miller’s fungible, memorable voice." The Washington Post looks at the band's shared interest in "thinking outside the musical box." The Guardian says the factory's "effect is as bewitching as it is chilling." The Independent gives the album four stars and says the band's "textural palette is broader than ever on Smart Flesh."

Hard Bargain, the new album from Emmylou Harris, will be released April 26 on Nonesuch Records. The album comprises 11 new songs by Harris as well as two covers and was produced by Jay Joyce (Cage the Elephant, Patty Griffin). A deluxe edition, which includes a DVD featuring performances and interviews, will also be available. In celebration of the release, Harris will embark on a series of special performances including a showcase at SXSW.

Ben Folds kicks off the European leg of his 2011 world tour with a performance at Vicar Street in Dublin tonight, featuring music from his latest album, Lonely Avenue, a collaboration with English novelist Nick Hornby. After Saturday's stop in Birmingham, England, the tour heads to Hornby's hometown of London for a performance at the Hammersmith Apollo on Sunday. Time Out London recommends the show, calling Folds an artist "whose style suggests a Randy Newman for the iPod generation."

The Low Anthem is the subject of the cover story in the Providence Phoenix, which looks at their new album, Smart Flesh, and, the heady year that preceded it. "The subject matter on the new disc revolves around life’s inevitable end," says the Phoenix, "delivered with such poise and poignancy that it’s easily the band’s most impressive album." KCRW calls it "their best album yet ... With ghostly echoes of such luminous predecessors as Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen and the country side of the Rolling Stones, The Low Anthem has raised the bar for practitioners of the high-lonesome side of indie folk sounds in the new decade."