Chris Thile and Michael Daves are set to tour the UK and Ireland in September in support of their debut album, Sleep with One Eye Open. The tour begins in London on September 13 and includes concerts in Dublin, Cork, Liverpool, and Sheffield. Thile will also join Brad Mehldau in a special concert at London’s Wigmore Hall on September 16, where they will perform as a duo. Before then, Thile and Daves have a few duo performances in the States, starting with this Sunday's performance at the Newport Folk Festival.

Chris Thile and Michael Daves will be the guests on WNYC's Soundcheck today at 2 PM ET, performing songs from their debut duo album, Sleep With One Eye Open, before a live audience at the Greene Space in downtown Manhattan. Also performing are the Del McCoury Band and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. The show is sold-out and will be webcast live. The New Yorker, in a preview of their show at The Bell House in Brooklyn tonight, says: "Expect the pair to deliver a high-spirited bluegrass-infused performance full of inspired harmonies."

Chris Thile and Michael Daves have a number of live performances in the coming weeks, starting with a set at the Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival this Thursday. Audiophile Audition gives their album Sleep with One Eye Open a perfect five stars, saying: "If the O Brother Where Art Thou soundtrack raised the mainstream awareness of bluegrass, then Sleep with One Eye Open delivers on its promise." Sequenza21 calls it "beautifully simple ... an object lesson in how to do it right."

Chris Thile and Michael Daves' next live duo set is slated for mid-July at the Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival, with Thile touring with Punch Brothers until then. In the mean time, you can watch videos of the duo perform five songs off their recently released Nonesuch album, Sleep with One Eye Open, in a session at the Paste offices that "captured two musicians who continue to be at the top of their game."

Chris Thile and Michael Daves will be the guests on WNYC's Soundcheck on Wednesday, July 20, performing before a live audience at WNYC's Greene Space in downtown Manhattan. Later that night, the duo head out to Brooklyn to perform at the Bell House. Rolling Stone calls the debut album from "mandolin God Chris Thile" and "hot-shit Brooklyn guitarist Michael Daves" a "ridiculously blazing set ... The uptempo jams are wild-picking shred fests, and the ballads cut deep."

The 38th Annual Telluride Bluegrass Festival took place this past weekend, and among the highlights were "the dove-like voice of country legend Emmylou Harris and the sharp wit and ridiculous talent of Chris Thile," says Reverb; a "pick-off" launched by The Decemberists with Béla Fleck, Jerry Douglas, and Punch Brothers' Noam Pikelny; and a Punch Brothers set that provided what Reverb calls "one of the fest’s most charming musical moments." For photos, visit nonesuch.com/media.

The 38th Annual Telluride Bluegrass Festival got under way yesterday 8,750 feet up in bucolic Telluride, Colorado. The music-making continues through the weekend with sets to come from Chris Thile and Michael Daves, Emmylou Harris, and Punch Brothers, plus Sara Watkins sits in with the Decemberists as part of her ongoing tour with the group.

Chris Thile and Michael Daves's debut duo album, Sleep with One Eye Open, released last month on Nonesuch, is available for just $3.99 at Amazon for today only. The album track "My Little Girl in Tennessee" is also available for free as Amazon's Free Song of the Day. Thile and Daves are in Colorado this weekend to perform at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival, as is Thile's band Punch Brothers.

As Chris Thile and Michael Daves gear up to perform live at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival this Friday, NPR has posted a Tiny Desk Concert featuring the mandolin-and-guitar duo performing songs off their debut album, Sleep with One Eye Open, recently released on Nonesuch. You can listen to the complete performance here. "What stands out between these two musicians when they play traditional music," says NPR's Bob Boilen, "is the level of extremity they achieve. This is small-town music with New York City intensity."

Chris Thile and Michael Daves have announced a short run of tour dates in the Midwest in September, stopping in Ann Arbor, Urbana, and Chicago. These follow summer festival sets at Telluride, Grey Fox, and Newport and a headline set in Brooklyn. Relix calls their debut album, Sleep with One Eye Open, a "boisterous tribute to their bluegrass roots," one that "literally crackles with youthful energy." The review concludes: "If bluegrass ever needs another revival, this future classic is more than enough to keep the flame lit."

Chris Thile and Michael Daves have just been added to the line-up of the 2011 Newport Folk Festival, taking place July 30 and 31 at Fort Adams State Park in Newport, Rhode Island. They join three fellow Nonesuch artists on the lineup, all performing on Sunday: Emmylou Harris, Carolina Chocolate Drops, and Wanda Jackson. In addition, The Low Anthem co-hosts a backstage hootenanny Saturday night to benefit the Newport Festivals Foundation.

Chris Thile and Michael Daves are in the midst of their US tour, performing songs from their debut album, Sleep with One Eye Open. The Daily Telegraph gives the album four stars, calling Thile and Daves "a fine vocal duo ... but even more astonishing is their instrumental virtuosity." The Sunday Herald says that "whether they’re working their fingers to the bone or singing their hearts out, this is music of wonderful vitality." Birmingham says "the duo captures the vigorous vibe of the bluegrass jams that originally drew them together and the raucous nature of lives that often inspire such tunes."