Disfarmer, Bill Frisell's latest Nonesuch release, is due out a week from today you can now listen to the complete album online for NPR's Exclusive First Listen. NPR describes Frisell as "a guitar tactician with warmth and a composer of unclassifiable songs," and, on this album (inspired by the work of the late photographer Michael Disfarmer), "the quiet tactician of the electric guitar, who engineers loops and subtle distortions with phrasing you never knew you were expecting." NPR concludes: "It's a record alternately spare and full, languid and rollicking, pastoral and urbanely produced."

Shawn Colvin's Live album was released late last month on Nonesuch, and, says MusicOMH in its four-star review, "a live album is long overdue ... [T]his career-spanning selection of songs could easily be a wish list for any fan," he states, "but also serves as fine introduction to a singer-songwriter who is frequently mentioned in the same breath as James Taylor, Lucinda Williams and Joni Mitchell." Shawn is set to begin a run of solo dates this week, opening for Jackson Browne on Thursday. She spoke with Popdose, which calls her "one of the leading lights of 'Americana' music and perhaps the most important singer/songwriter—male or female—of the last 20 years."

Road Show, the latest work by Stephen Sondheim, is out now. The true-life tale has been through a number of permutations (including 2003's Bounce), and, says Playbill, "this recording sounds new, vibrant and refreshing." As always, Jonathan Tunick's orchestrations "perfectly translate the composer's music for orchestra" and producer Tommy Krasker "has made a fine job" of the recording. Talkin’ Broadway concurs, asserting: "The sound and spectacularly theatrical feel of the whole project is masterful." The review concludes: "The highly crafted work of Sondheim and the many intertwined lines of Weidman's are sharp, packed, concise and full of character specificity."

Christina Courtin's self-titled Nonesuch debut is out now, and, the Daily Express gives it a perfect five stars. She puts "her exceptional composition skills to 10 superb songs full of emotional complexity and subtle style shifts," says the paper. Teletext says that "what makes Courtin's debut stand out is the understated variety of her vocals. As precise as k.d. lang one moment, she's as untamed as Bat for Lashes the next." The Scripps Howard News Service calls Courtin "impossibly enchanting" and the new album "intoxicating."

Ry Cooder's three-week tour through Europe with Nick Lowe came to a close in Liverpool on Saturday with "an understated concert of music that captured an air of simplicity, honesty and restrained virtuosity," says the Liverpool Daily Post. "Ry, it’s great to see you back playing live where you belong." The Guardian gives four stars to last week's concert in Gateshead, asserting, "Cooder belongs to the elite group of guitarists, Eric Clapton and BB King among them, whose style can be identified by a single note." The Scotsman gives a perfect five stars to Thursday night's set in Edinburgh: "Cooder showed why he's considered the best slide player in the world." The Herald gives rates it five stars as well, saying the set "confirmed Cooder's status as the king of slide guitar."

Malian songstress Oumou Sangare’s Sunday performance at the Central Park SummerStage concert series in New York City is the subject of a review in Tuesday’s New York Times, in which critic Ben Ratliff writes that “the ancient lived with the new” in her set, which “started at a run and yanked you in.”

Wilco is back on the road in New England ... Amadou & Mariam begin their US tour opening for Coldplay ... Joshua Redman plays the Netherlands at the North Sea Jazz Festival, as do fellow labelmates Bill Frisell, Brad Mehldau, Allen Toussaint, Nicholas Payton, and Fred Hersch ... In Canada, the Punch Brothers perform in Canada at the Ottowa Blues Fest, and Oumou Sangare visits the Winnipeg Folk Fesitval in Manitoba.

All Songs Considered host Bob Boilen made an appearance on All Things Considered to discuss his favorite songs from the past six months. First on his list was The Low Anthem’s “Charlie Darwin,” from their recent Nonesuch release, Oh My God, Charlie Darwin. “I get chills the moment I hear this guy’s voice,” said Boilen, referring to band member Ben Knox Miller. 

Joshua Redman wraps up a three-day engagement at the Montreal International Jazz Festival tonight at the Théâtre Maisonneuve, featuring the band from his recent Nonesuch release, Compass. In anticipation of the performance, Redman was profiled in the Montreal Gazette, which describes Compass as "a refined experience," featuring "sound sculptures straddling the line between freedom and formalism."

Shawn Colvin, Emmylou Harris conclude the Three Girls and Their Buddy tour ("a delight," Seattle Times) ... Ry Cooder, Nick Lowe play London's Drury Lane ... Bill Frisell's Quartet is in Iowa City for free Jazz Fest ... Gidon Kremer closes Sigulda Festival with Gala Concert ... Kronos Quartet play pieces from Floodplain at the Traumzeit (Dreamtime) Festival ... The Low Anthem opens for M. Ward in Utrecht, plays in London's Hyde Park ... Brad Mehldau solos in Italy ... Joshua Redman has a hatrick at the Montreal Jazz Fest ... Oumou Sangare joins Béla Fleck at Caramoor and SummerStage ... Allen Toussaint plays Joe's Pub ... Wilco's at Red Rocks with Okkervil River ... and more ...

Jeff Tweedy is the subject of a feature article in this Sunday's New York Times, about the making of the new record, the band's story, life as a family man, and the much healthier, more content place in which he now finds himself. The Times calls Wilco (the album) a "splendid" record from "one of alternative rock’s most consistent and respected bands." It's a sign that, "unlike the rock trope that only chronic agony produces important music, the absence of mayhem has been good for the work." To that end, the record serves as "a kind of compilation of a band at the height of its powers." Jeff also answers a very eclectic set of questions in the Times Magazine.

Oumou Sangare begins a two-week tour of North America tonight in Chicago's Millennium Park, performing songs from her latest album, Seya. She heads next to the Caramoor Festival to meet up with Béla Fleck and his Africa Project for the first of several performances together. "Of all Mr. Fleck’s endeavors, his Africa Project may be the most ambitious," says the New York Times. "Among the most fruitful of his interactions has been one with the Malian diva Oumou Sangare." The two perform at New York's SummerStage on Sunday. Says the Village Voice, "Her music is surging and propulsive, a shimmying pitter-patter of guitar, violin, percussion, and vocal chorus." Time Out calls her "Africa's answer to Aretha Franklin—silky smooth one moment, and capable of soaring power the next. Her current album, Seya, translates as 'joy,' a perfect summation of her music."