Dr. John's new album, Locked Down, is out now on CD and digitally, with the vinyl to follow on April 21, and is streaming in full all week at MSN Music. Dr. John and producer Dan Auerbach perform on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon tonight. They spoke to NPR's Morning Edition about the album's more personal side. The LA Times gives Locked Down a perfect four stars: "As Bob Dylan did with Time Out of Mind and Tom Waits did last year with Bad as Me, Dr. John does here ... creating something magical, the embodiment of everything he’s done but pushed in a clear new direction." The Seattle Times calls it "stunning." The Boston Globe says: "It's Dr. John in full splendor." The Independent on Sunday, Observer, and Financial Times all give it four stars. The Sunday Times calls it a "tour de force."

Punch Brothers will be the musical guests on The Late Show with David Letterman Wednesday night. They'll soon be hitting the road again with the next leg of their US tour, kicking things off with a live broadcast performance of A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor on Saturday, April 14. The band and fellow guests Renée Fleming, Aoife O'Donovan, and Heather Masse join Keillor and crew live at New York's Town Hall, where Punch Brothers headline later this month. Punch Brothers are featured in the latest installment of the A.V. Club's A.V. Undercover, performing The Cars' "Just What I Needed." Watch it here.

Folila, Amadou & Mariam's first studio album since 2009's acclaimed Welcome to Mali, is due out in the US next week, and is streaming in full all this week as an NPR First Listen. The album features contributions by Santigold, TV on the Radio, Nick Zinner, Theophilus London, Bassekou Kouyate, and others. "The result is richly textured," says NPR. The Daily Telegraph gives the album five stars. The Independent says the album shows "how adeptly Amadou & Mariam straddle both local and global, with a truly 'world' music." The Sunday Times of London says the collaborations "all serve the song and all are there only to enhance the unfathomably brilliant guitar work of Amadou and the effortlessly beautiful voice of Mariam."

Following the release of their critically acclaimed new album El Camino and a sold-out European tour earlier this year, The Black Keys have announced new European dates in November and December 2012. The tour includes concerts in Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, Holland, and Germany. Tickets go on sale on Wednesday. As the NME wrote of the band’s recent UK tour, "The Black Keys have slowly but surely become one of the biggest bands in the world—and going by this wonderfully charged performance, it’s not difficult to understand why."

Dr. John, who launched his three-week residency at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) last night, is the subject of a feature article in the New York Times that looks at his career and the unexpected turn it takes on his new album, Locked Down, produced by Dan Auerbach. They are featured in the Wall Street Journal, which says the "incendiary new album ... both harks back to [Dr. John]'s past and breaks new musical ground." Locked Down earns four stars from the Independent and the Times of London, which says Auerbach "has brought out the best in a true American original." The Guardian gives a perfect five stars to this "inspired" album: "[N]o one makes music like this: the Night Tripper rampages inimitably through swamp blues, voodoo funk and Afrobeat, with his trademark piano ... Terrific stuff."

Dr. John can be heard across the BBC this week, on the BBC Radio 4's Front Row and the BBC World Service's The Strand; his new album, Locked Down, is the BBC 6 Music Album of the Day. It's Album of the Month in Uncut, earning a nine out of ten. "Hugely successful," the magazine exclaims. "Weird, powerful rock ‘n’ roll ... enormously funky." Rolling Stone, MOJO, and the NY Daily News all give Locked Down four stars: "Full of muscled, vintage R&B grooves, fevered soloing, psychedelic arrangements and oracular mumbo jumbo," says Rolling Stone, "it's the wildest record he's made in many years." The Daily News calls it "one of the smokiest, funkiest, sexiest works of the legend’s career." MOJO says: "Dr. John teams up with Dan Auerbach and the gumbo is bubbling once again ... This is definitely right place, right time."

Timothy Andres will make his London debut at Wigmore Hall on Friday, June 8, with a concert that marks the opening of the venue’s latest summer Late Night Series. The solo recital will focus on Andres’s own music and that of his contemporaries, as well as some of his major influences, like Brahms and Schumann. Before then, Andres has a number of US performances ahead, including a concert with the Brad Mehldau Trio in Denver.

With March Madness heading into the final stretch, Dr. John will play a free set in New Orleans' Woldenberg Park this Sunday as part of the NCAA Big Dance Concert Series. Dan Auerbach, the producer of his new album, Locked Down, plays on Saturday with The Black Keys. Both Dr. John and Auerbach will premiere music from the album at BAM the following weekend as part of Dr. John's three-week BAM residency, which begins tomorrow. Dr. John will be featured on BBC Radio 4's Front Row tonight.

Sun Midnight Sun, the second solo album from acclaimed singer, songwriter, and fiddle player Sara Watkins, will be released May 8 on Nonesuch Records. Produced by guitarist, singer, and songwriter Blake Mills, co-founder of the band Simon Dawes, the album features special guest appearances by Fiona Apple, Jackson Browne, Taylor Goldsmith (Dawes), Benmont Tench, and Sean Watkins. The album is available to pre-order on in the Nonesuch Store with an exclusive print signed by Watkins. In celebration of the album's release, Watkins will embark on a nationwide tour this spring and summer, including a series of special tour dates with Dawes.

Chris Thile joined the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra for the New York premiere of his Mandolin Concerto at Carnegie Hall on Saturday. The New York Times wonders if the mandolin is "about to have its moment as a classical solo instrument" and calls Thile "the instrument’s brightest star at the moment." Thile "knows how to surprise," says the Times' Allan Kozinn. "As fresh as the music sounded, it also had an appealing naturalness." The mandolin's solo line "is built on Mr. Thile’s more subtle brand of virtuosity—a blend of fluid melody, dazzling speed and a command of timbre ..."

Timothy Andres's music was featured on a number of concert programs in Los Angeles this weekend, including a piece from his debut album, Shy and Mighty, at Beyond Baroque, and Andres himself joining the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra on piano for the world premiere of his Old Keys and the West Coast premiere of his re-composition of Mozart's "Coronation" Concerto. "What is most original about Andres’ music so far is its extraordinary pianistic character," says the Los Angeles Times review. "He is a superb pianist with a highly evolved rhythmic sense and a quirky sense of humor."

Mac Rebennack, a.k.a Dr. John, whose new album, Locked Down, is due out next week, was the guest on today's episode of WNYC's Soundcheck. He performs a live solo piano version of "Big Shot," a song off the new album, and talks about working with producer Dan Auerbach on the album. He also gives preview of his three-week residency at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), which launches this week with a tribute to Louis Armstrong, followed by the premiere of new music from Locked Down with Auerbach (April 5–7), and a celebration of New Orleans music (April 12–15). Listen to the show here.