Last night, k.d. lang played the final performance of her three-night residency at New York City's Allen Room as part of Lincoln Center's American Songbook series. The New York Times posits that the Canadian singer's inclusion in an American-themed series may stem from the reputation she earned through her collaboration with Tony Bennett as "one of the two or three great under-50 interpreters of American popular standards." lang is "possessed of one of the world's most beautiful and steady pop voices."

Pat Metheny makes his long-awaited return to Yoshi's celebrated jazz club in San Francisco for a four-night stint with his trio, Christian McBride on bass and Antonio Sanchez on drums, as featured on his new album, Day Trip. Inside Bay Area's Jim Harrington says: "Jazz fans have been waiting for this one for months ... it's the one that we all circled on our calendars back in November when the club announced its first batch of shows."

The Magnetic Fields kick off their US tour with two sold-out shows at the Iron Horse in Northampton, Massachusetts, where they'll unveil "unplugged" versions of songs off their feedback-heavy new album, Distortion. The Hartford Courant spoke with Stephin Merritt about creating the signature sound for the album, which he calls "a collection of 13 pop songs with catchy, quirky melodies swathed in velvety noise," and adapting it for the road. In a feature story and an accompanying podcast, the Courant explores the making of these "witty, droll and often hilarious" songs.

The Santa Barbara Independent takes advantage of the start of the New Year to combine the paper's list of the best of last year with a look at the best of what's to come. There Will Be Blood is among the best films of 2007, and among the city's best live shows last year, the Independent's Josef Woodard lists both Wilco's concert at the Santa Barbara Bowl in support of Sky Blue Sky and the Pat Metheny / Brad Mehldau Quartet gig at Campbell Hall. For this week's Show of the Week, Woodard names Bill Frisell's return to the city's Lobero Theatre, where "the always intriguing and poetic guitarist" will perform on Saturday with drummer Joey Baron. Woodard recalls Bill's 2004 performance at the Lobero as "one of the more enchanted musical encounters in the long history" of the Theatre, and says that Frisell "continues to surprise and delight," citing the guitarist's "dynamic" 2006 Nonesuch release with the "inspired" Ron Carter and Paul Motian.

Wilco will be on hand when Australia's award-winning Byron Bay Blues Festival makes its way across the Tasman Sea to launch a New Zealand offshoot in 2008 called BluesfestNZ (aka the Coromandel Peninsula Blues and Roots Music Festival 2008). The band will be joining the line-up for the inaugural event as part of its March 2008 tour of Australia and New Zealand.

Among the nearly 10,000 foreign visitors who'll head to Glasgow this frigid January for the Celtic Connections festival will be two Nonesuch artists: k.d. lang and Punch Brothers—whom Scotland's Sunday Herald has dubbed "hot young Americana dudes"—each performing a set at what the paper says is "the best party in the world."

The Savannah Music Festival has announced its 2008 schedule, and Audra McDonald will be among the performers at this, Georgia's largest musical arts festival. McDonald will perform on March 28 as part of the Divine Divas series. The festival will run from March 20 through April 5, 2008.

Youssou N'Dour performed the closing show of his current US tour before a sold-out crowd at the Somerville Theatre, outside Boston. According to the Herald, "the singer with the astounding pipes" led the audience through "two sweaty, dance-inducing hours" of songs throughout his career, including his latest album, Rokku Mi Rokka (Give and Take). And by the end of the show, writes the Herald's Bob Young, "N’Dour left no doubt that he—and Africa—still rule the world of scintillating powerhouse grooves." In last night's tour closer, "N’Dour showed why he’s one of pop music’s most commanding performers."

When Wilco plays to a hometown crowd for five nights this February, it'll be changing things up a bit. Each night, the band will play a different set, featuring songs from throughout its decade-plus career. Or, as frontman Jeff Tweedy says in Billboard, the band will "attempt the 'complete Wilco' and try to clear out the dusty corners of the catalog that we haven't attended to in a while." The Chicago sets will take place February 15–16 and 18–20. They mark the start of a US tour that will take the band through the Northeast and the South before returning to the Midwest in March.

The national touring company of the recent Broadway production of Sweeney Todd has been playing to audiences north of border in Toronto for the past month. The show now moves back to the States for a few days in Columbus, Ohio, beginning tomorrow night at the Palace Theatre. The Columbus Dispatch sat down for an in-depth interview with the tour's scene-stealing Mrs. Lovett, Judy Kaye, whom director John Doyle lauds for her "terrific singing voice and immaculate comedy timing," essential attributes in this role as the murderous barber's partner in crime.

Among the many roles Youssou N'Dour has come to play, he has come to be known "as one of the planet's true superstars and a beacon of African pride," says the Chicago Tribune. At Wednesday's Chicago House of Blues show, N'Dour's singing was "as strong and rich as it's ever been," and his band, Super Étoile de Dakar proved itself "the rare band entirely deserving of the 'super,' perfectly composed to push ahead but constantly poised for stop-on-a-dime shifts."