Carolina Chocolate Drops and The Low Anthem will tour together for six dates over one week this December. The tour will begin December 4 at the Variety Playhouse in Atlanta, followed by stops in Nashville and Knoxville, Tennessee, before heading to the Drops' home state of North Carolina for shows in Asheville, Charlotte, and Raleigh. Ticket pre-sales for Chocolate Drops fans begin on Tuesday.

This fall, Ben Folds will participate in the National Geographic Live series Music on ... Photography at the National Geographic Society's Washington, DC, headquarters. Folds will discuss photos he took of the flooded streets of Nashville with his camera (and camera phone) to help spread the word of the devastation; photographer Mark Seliger will moderate. Also participating in the series are Neko Case, Andy Summers, and music photographer Danny Clinch.

Tonight marks the New York premiere of Laurie Anderson's Delusion at BAM's Harvey Theatre, launching BAM's Next Wave Festival. Time Out New York includes the concert among today's "must-see shows." The Wall Street Journal previews the festival with a look at Anderson's long history with BAM, having, over the years, "given audiences something profoundly rewarding: an ongoing emotional engagement that, like a good friendship, allows you to think about life from different perspectives."

With just one week to go before the release of the Ben Folds / Nick Hornby collaboration Lonely Avenue, which Monocle magazine says "exceeds the sum of its parts" and has dubbed "this year's singer-songwriter classic," the project is the subject of a feature article in The Observer. The Irish Independent gives the album four stars and finds Hornby "in inspired form." The Scotsman gives it four stars as well, saying: "Two great writers, one great album of 'musical short stories.'"

Allen Toussaint kicks off fall with six solo sets supporting Neil Young. Four of these dates are Gulf Coast benefit shows, for which Young has teamed up with Tyson Foods to fight hunger in Gulf Coast communities affected by the oil spill. Young is asking concertgoers to bring non-perishable food items to the concerts. All donations will be given to the Bay Area Food Bank, which serves communities in Alabama, Florida, and Mississippi.

Philip Selway, Nonesuch Records, and Indaba Music have launched a search for collaborators to the song “Beyond Reason” from his debut solo album Familial. For four weeks beginning today, remixers can visit Indaba to create their own version of the song. From October 14 to 28, fans and a panel of judges, including Selway, will review the submissions. Indaba will announce the jury’s choices on November 11, as well as the public’s top ten.

Laurie Anderson will be the guest on WNYC's Soundcheck today at 2 PM ET. Tune in to hear Anderson perform live in studio and discuss her latest stage work, Delusion. She will give the New York premiere of the piece at BAM's Harvey Theater in Brooklyn this Tuesday, September 21, kicking off BAM's Next Wave Festival with two weeks of Delusion performances. There's still time to win a pair of tickets at nonesuch.com.

AfroCubism, the long-awaited collaboration between Cuban and Malian musicians, is the subject of an article from Reuters, which spoke with the album's producer, Nick Gold. "Gold has brought the story full circle," says Reuters, "and gathered together the original invitees to make an album mixing the tight rhythms of Cuba with the snaky guitars and desert drums of Mali." Says Gold: "Maybe this huge wait that had taken 14 years. This music seemed to just pour out."

In honor of Stephen Sondheim's 80th birthday this past March, the Roundabout Theatre Company announced that it would rename its Henry Miller's Theatre, on West 43rd Street in New York City, The Stephen Sondheim Theatre. In a public ceremony tonight, the composer lights the marquee renamed in his honor. Among those scheduled to appear are Patti LuPone and librettist John Weidman.

Ben Folds is set to tour the US throughout November in support of Lonely Avenue, a collaboration between him and novelist Nick Hornby, due September 28. Folds’ 13 tour dates feature performances at a number of beloved venues including Chicago’s Riviera and Atlanta’s Tabernacle. The tour concludes with a Thanksgiving weekend homecoming performance at Nashville’s Tennessee Performing Arts Center to benefit the Nashville Symphony. Members of the Ben Folds Fan Club will have advance access to pre-sale tickets and ticket bundle opportunities for Ben’s upcoming tour on September 15 at noon ET. 

Laurie Anderson opens BAM's 2010 Next Wave Festival next week with the New York premiere of her new piece, Delusion. The festival includes 12 performances of the piece from September 21 to October 3. Nonesuch is giving away three pairs of tickets to a weeknight performance. Read more to find out how. Anderson's new album, Homeland, has landed at No. 1 on The Believer's Real Life Rock Top Ten. Consequences of Sound says Homeland "sums up the artistry of Anderson: indefinable yet avant-garde music at its finest."

T Bone Burnett will premiere The Speaking Clock Revue, a multi-artist concert event, in Boston and New York this October. Punch Brothers will perform, as will Elton John & Leon Russell, John Mellencamp, Elvis Costello, Gregg Allman, Ralph Stanley, Jeff Bridges, Karen Elson, The Secret Sisters, Neko Case, and Jim James. The events will benefit The Participant Foundation, supporting music and arts education programming in public schools.