Carolina Chocolate Drops tour Midwest ... Bill Frisell joins Paul Motian Trio at Village Vanguard ... Richard Goode plays Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw ... Natalie Merchant brings Leave Your Sleep to Atlanta and Nashville ... Philip Selway plays Osaka ... Chris Thile goes solo in NYC ... Allen Toussaint joins Cyndi Lauper in LA ... Sara Watkins, Garrison Keillor, and A Prairie Home Companion bring Summer Love to Oregon ... and more ...

Philip Selway kicked off his tour in Tokyo last night performing the "warm, tender acoustic nuggets" of Familial, reports SPIN, proving to be a "talented frontman." The Irish Independent hears "pleasurable echoes of the comforting delicate folk of Nick Drake" on the new album, The Independent (UK) "the quieter moments of Talk Talk and Radiohead." The Sun gives 4.5 stars to this "mighty fine" album, featuring "one of the most gorgeous songs you'll hear all year."

Emmylou Harris and The Low Anthem are coming together to tour the US East Coast this fall. Starting at the Byham Theater in Pittsburgh on November 9 and concluding at the Peace Center in Greenville, South Carolina, on November 21, The Low Anthem will open for Harris, with stops along the way in Buffalo and Albany, New York; Northampton, Massachusetts; Wilmington, Delaware; Roanoke and Charlottesville, Virginia; and Frederick, Maryland.

Natlie Merchant's Leave Your Sleep tour brought her to Florida this week. The Sun Sentinel witnessed "a new Natalie Merchant ... burnished with the amber glow of something special," the songs of the new album proved "magical." The Broward New Times calls them "delicate, dreamy songs with multigenerational appeal." Tampa's Creative Loafing says Merchant "made it seem as if the poems had been waiting for her music all along."

The Tenth Inning, a new two-part, four-hour documentary by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick that picks up where Burns's 1994 series Baseball left off, will air on PBS in September. Burns will appear on The Late Show with David Letterman tonight to discuss the new film. The original Baseball soundtrack recording was released on Nonesuch back in 1994 and is available now digitally in the Nonesuch Store; it will be available again on CD September 21.

Ahead of next week's release of Familial, Philip Selway launches a month-long tour of Japan and Europe. Following performances in Tokyo and Osaka, he heads to Ireland and the UK for several shows, including three with Wilco. NME gives Familial an 8, saying "Selway has delivered an album so honest and thoughtful, you'll see not only drummers but yourself in a new light." MOJO concurs, saying it "shows a sensitivity seldom credited to stickmen."

The new album featuring the first recordings of Steve Reich's Double Sextet and 2x5 is due out on Nonesuch in just under three weeks. "Beautifully poised throughout," says the BBC, "Double Sextet stands as arguably one of Reich’s finest works." Sequenza 21 calls the album "an intergenerational summit—minimalist elder statesman meets post-minimal/totalist ace performers—that, in terms of importance, is more or less the Downtown version of Duke Ellington and John Coltrane."

The Ben Folds "Lonely Interview" series of live online video interviews continues this week, following last week's chat with Bob Saget. Up today are Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer at 6 PM ET and Michelle Branch at 7 PM ET; on Thursday, Ben talks to fans Corey Young (6:30 PM) and Nina Jankowicz (7 PM); and Friday at 4 PM, it's UK video blogger Charlie McDonnell. Tune in at benfolds.com/chat.

The Black Keys are set to open for the Kings of Leon for three weeks in September. SPIN caught up with the band at an earlier gig with the Kings, in London's Hyde Park, for a feature profile examining the Keys' career, "as their music has expanded from raw-boned basement blues-rock into spookier, swampier, sexier territory." The Keys are also featured in Relix, which takes a look at the making of "the best record of their career, Brothers."

Natalie Merchant has contributed a moving and personal interview to the new BBC World Service series Striking a Chord, in which musicians talk about  songs they have written that “struck a chord with a nation, or a generation." Merchant discusses her song "Wonder" and the impact it has had, as well as the unique power of music. "It's hard to unite people in one feeling and one frame of mind," she says. "I feel like music is a way to do that. It's one of the only ways."

Chris Thile performs solo at Rockwood Music Hall in New York City on Saturday, not far from where Punch Brothers worked out the songs on their album Antifogmatic. Acoustic Guitar magazine calls the album "their Sgt. Pepper’s ... Draped in densely woven musical and thematic tapestries, this richly detailed album is filled with quirky, engaging, compelling, and dazzling music that will keep listeners coming back time after time to see what they hear next."

Björk has co-written a new song with Icelandic poet Sjón for the animated Finnish film Moomins and the Comet Chase, based on the Scandinavian children's book series and TV show. The track, titled "The Comet Song," is coming soon to the iTunes US store, with proceeds from track sales going to support UNICEF's efforts to aid children in Pakistan. You can watch the video for the song now.