Ben Folds brings his fall Lonely Avenue tour to a close at the Beacon Theatre in New York City tonight. Time Out New York includes the concert as a critics' pick, describing Folds as "a consummate professional." AOL's City's Best features the show as well. The Sing-Off, NBC's a cappella singing competition, continues in its second week this week. The Baltimore Sun suggests that Folds "should be a judge on every show ever." You can read Folds's thoughts on the show in his Sing-Off blog, On Key.

The Sing-Off, NBC's a cappella singing competition, continues tonight, with performances from the remaining eight teams and keen-as-ever insight from judge Ben Folds. He has added six new concerts in the US Midwest next month in support of Lonely Avenue, which the Aquarian Weekly says "is rich and filled with life’s great texture." The newly-added dates go on sale December 10; the Ben Folds Fan Club can access presale tickets now.

Last night marked the season two premiere of NBC's The Sing-Off, with Ben Folds returning as a judge on the hit a cappella competition. "The Sing-Off Proves Ben Folds Needs His Own Television Show," declares MTV. "Though all of the judges are excellent, the show really does belong to Folds ... He has both the chops and the experience to really deliver in the judges' chair." NPR calls him "wonderful." In his blog for the show, Folds writes: "The stars of this show are the groups, and whether they leave the show on the first episode or the last, we want them to stay inspired and keep making people happy."

Ben Folds returns to NBC tonight as a judge on Season 2 of The Sing-Off, the search for America's best a cappella group, premiering tonight at 8 PM ET. The New York Times calls Folds "one of the better reality-competition judges television has seen: knowledgeable, engaging, constructive rather than cruel." The Washington Post says, unlike other, more cynical TV competitions, the goal here is "the fleeting, ephemeral beauty of a song well sung." Folds tells Spinner: "People singing together is very underrated and very necessary."

Ben Folds and his band are set to tour Australia in May 2011 in support of Lonely Avenue, his collaborative album with Nick Hornby. Folds will play Canberra, Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth in May 2011. Tickets go on sale beginning at 9 AM local time on Tuesday, December 14. The Ben Folds Fan Club will have the opportunity to purchase presale tickets beginning Wednesday, December 8, at 2 PM AEDT.

Ben Folds and Nick Hornby's Lonely Avenue is CD of the Week at Minnesota Public Radio's The Current. Folds will appear on A Different Spin with Blink 182's Mark Hoppus on Fuse tonight. On Friday, Folds, an accomplished photographer, will present some of his images in the series Music on ... Photography at the National Geographic Society's Washington, DC, headquarters. Season 2 of NBC's The Sing-Off gets under way on Monday, with Folds returning to judge the a cappella competition; he has begun blogging about it at nbc.com.

Ben Folds continues his Lonely Avenue tour stops in Montclair, New Jersey, Charlotte, and Atlanta. The New York Times describes him as "a witty, engaging songwriter possessing both chops and humor, a rare combination." The Londonist, looking forward to February's UK tour, says his "live performances are full of energy, bite, irony and good humour." Folds spoke with Nashville Public Television about his upcoming benefit concert with the Nashville Symphony in a video you can watch here, along with a preview of the upcoming season of NBC's The Sing-Off.

Tune in to NPR's World Cafe today to hear Folds and Hornby discuss their new album, Lonely Avenue, and to hear Folds perform a few of its songs. Folds's US tour takes him to Buffalo tonight, where Artvoice says the unexpected collaboration behind Lonely Avenue is a success: "Folds flourishes on this album, and his curious choice to collaborate with an author, when Folds himself is recognized by fans for his words, is a trick that pays off." The duo is the subject of a new piece on the BBC News.

Ben Folds continues his US tour, featuring music from Lonely Avenue, his album with Nick Hornby, with a stop at Club Zoo in Pittsburgh. The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review says the collaboration "yielded one of the year's most compelling albums." Sequenza21 calls Lonely Avenue Folds's "most musically ambitious and wide-ranging effort to date; yet it’s uniformly distinguished. Perhaps in response to the rich lyrical terrain he has before him, Folds incorporates a number of stylistic inflections this time out, from savvily arranged seventies pop to undulating minimalism and from sensitive balladry to brash piano punk."

Ben Folds, currently in the midst of his US tour, is now set to tour Europe in February and March 2011 in support of his latest album, Lonely Avenue, a collaboration between him and Nick Hornby. The 14-date tour begins in Dublin on February 18 and includes concerts in the UK, Germany, Denmark, Austria, and Holland. Tickets go on sale to Ben Folds Fan Club on Wednesday and the general public on Friday. Folds and Hornby spoke with CNN in an interview you can watch here.

Ben Folds launches his fall US tour at The Riviera in Chicago tonight, featuring music from Lonely Avenue, his collaboration with Nick Hornby. The 14-city tour features a Thanksgiving weekend homecoming performance to benefit the Nashville Symphony and concludes at the Beacon in New York City in December. Folds will also participate in the National Geographic Live series Music on ... Photography and will return as a judge on NBC's a cappella competition The Sing-Off. Folds and Hornby discuss their new album on Sirius/XM's Bob Edwards Show.

When Ben Folds and Nick Hornby came to New York City last month to celebrate the release of their album, Lonely Avenue, they met up at the Housing Works Bookstore Cafe to discuss and perform a few songs off the album. It was the latest in the "Liner Notes" series from SPIN and raised $10,000 for Housing Works. You can now watch six exclusive videos from the evening at spin.com. Folds launches his fall tour this Friday in Chicago.