Randy Newman, The Black Keys, The Magnetic Fields, and Punch Brothers. It's quite an eclectic list of artists, but they all share one thing, in addition to being Nonesuch label mates: they've all made the list of the Top 100 of the Year's Best CDs from NPR's All Songs Considered. The show is now looking for your input to narrow down the list to the Top 10. And speaking of year-end bests, Blender's annual Top 33 lists Randy's Harps and Angels at No. 8.

Randy Newman fans in the UK who had hoped to see the singer-songwriter perform this month are in luck. Though he was forced to postpone the European leg of his Harps and Angels tour this month due to severe back pain, Randy was able to tape a special concert for BBC Four Sessions this summer at LSO St. Lukes that debuts tonight. Time Out calls it "essential viewing for fans, but also worthwhile for those who haven't heard anything beyond his work with Disney." The Calgary Herald picks Randy's new album as CD of the Week, calling its songs "tuneful and interesting on so many levels."

It is with great regret that Randy Newman has had to postpone his forthcoming European tour on doctor's orders, because of physical limitations and severe pain caused by stenosis in the lower back and neck. The 18-date tour had been due to start this Saturday, November 1, in Berlin. "I deeply regret not being able to come," says Randy. "I like it so much in Europe, and I've always been treated so well. I'll get there as soon as I can."

Randy Newman is the subject of a Pitchfork interview, posted today, in which Randy talks about his latest Nonesuch release, Harps and Angels; the current state of affairs in the US and abroad; and how they all tie together. "Randy Newman's not the most prolific songwriter," says Pitchfork, "but when he does deign to release a new record, it's because he's got something to say. Harps and Angels is full of the satirical barbs and critical observations Newman fans have come to expect ..."

Randy's West Coast tour landed in California this weekend, leading the Santa Barbara Independent to pronounce that "even missing game seven of the Boston vs. Tampa Bay series last Sunday night in order to witness Newman in action was well worth it," naming him "truly a great American storyteller." No Depression echoes that remark, calling hims "as distinctive a songwriter as popular music has produced," and stating that his latest release, Harps and Angels, "not only recalls the best music Newman has ever made, it equals it."

Randy Newman will appear on the TODAY show, Tuesday, October 21, during the 10 AM hour. He will perform live as well as chat with hosts Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb.

Randy Newman brings his tour to his home state of California this weekend. After last night's concert in Tennessee, the Knoxville News calls Randy "one of the great songwriters of the rock era—and a guy who never takes the easy way with a lyric." Leading to this weekend's concerts, the Monterey Herald says Randy's "musical arrangements are brilliant and each song's personality is matched by the tone of the composition; he's the master at placing notes and rhythm in line with the character and its predicament"; and the Santa Barbara Independent says Harps and Angels "finds the native Californian at his satirical best."

Randy Newman took his tour of songs from his latest album, Harps and Angels, and throughout his career, across the Midwest this past weekend. The Waukegan, Illinois, paper The Lake Forester says Randy "was in top form Friday" at the show there, with the performance showing "how well constructed Newman's songs are." The Kansas City Star concludes after Randy's Saturday show in that city: "No one does what he does the way he does it: sing and comment with humor, sadness, anger and regret about everything from world history, politics, religion and socio-economics to love, death, sex and parenthood."

Randy Newman continues his world tour in the Midwest this week. The Chicago Tribune's Greg Kot previews tomorrow night's show in nearby Waukegan by assuring his readers that, with the new album, Randy's "standards remain high, his work stellar ... Instead of growing content and nostalgic, Newman remains at his acerbic best on Harps and Angels, his deceptively jaunty, blues-based, luminously orchestrated pop songs brimming with dark humor and pointed commentary that continues in the tradition of '70s classics such as 'Sail Away,' 'Louisiana,' and 'Political Science.'"

Randy Newman's Harps and Angels tour stop at the Keswick Theatre in Glenside, Pennsylvania, outside Philadelphia, on Friday night. The Philadelphia Inquirer previewed the set with a look at the man he places "among the most perversely funny of songwriter-observers who ever hit the charts." Randy had stopped in Bethesda, Maryland, earlier in the week for what the Washington Post calls "jaw-dropping concert" and "a rollicking ride through Randy Newman's psyche." Glide magazine calls Harps and Angels "34 minutes of sharp-witted commentary by one of America’s most original lyricists."

Randy Newman's world tour got under way last week with stops at Carnegie Hall on Friday, Toronto's Convocation Hall on Saturday, and Boston's Symphony Hall on Sunday. Reviewing the Carnegie Hall show, New York magazine says that
Randy "sang about micro and macro American hypocrisy with more sharpness and poignancy than the combined works of Thomas Frank and Maureen Dowd." The Star-Ledger says "the droll raconteur provided more food for thought than a year's worth of media punditry, and he did it with soul." The Toronto Star calls Randy "a graduate cum laude of the master class of mid-1970s American musical poets" and says his latest album, Harps and Angels, "matches the caustic intelligence and musical virtuosity of his classic 1970s albums Sail Away and Good Old Boys." The Boston Globe calls Randy "pop's most incisive, sharp-witted satirist."

Randy Newman's Harps and Angels tour began earlier this week in Peekskill, New York, and continues downstate with two performances in New York City: a free in-store set at the Apple Store in Manhattan's SoHo neighborhood tonight at 7 PM and a concert at Carnegie Hall tomorrow. USA Today describes a track off the new album as "sublime even by Newman standards." The Richmond Times Dispatch gives the album four stars, declaring: "He’s still in a class of his own, and Harps and Angels is the kind of album that longtime fans really get to celebrate every few years ... He’s in great voice, and his songwriting strikes the right Newman mix of sweet/sour/scathing that makes Harps a record that could have landed just behind 1974’s classic Good Old Boys and seemed like a natural progression."