Ben Folds launches a month-long tour of Australia, Indonesia, Japan, and South Korea this week in Canberra. He returns to the US to tour this summer. Folds recently recorded Ke$ha's "Sleazy," a tour favorite, to support the Japan tsunami relief efforts. He has now released a video for the song. MTV describes Folds as "a musician's musician: someone who knows everything one needs to know about the craft of songwriting" and calls the cover "a welcome experiment." Perez Hilton says: "This is just flat-out EPIC." Watch it here.

The Low Anthem perform songs from their new album, Smart Flesh, on KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic in LA this morning, in advance of their show at The Autry tonight. The LA Times calls the album "a gorgeous, inventively arranged set of reverb-rich roots ballads in which the music's frayed edges add emotional weight." LA Weekly says "These four aim for timelessness with a brand of Americana that nods as much to high-energy gospel and gritty blues as it does to rustic, autumnal hues." The split 12" vinyl of The Low Anthem's Daytrotter Sessions, with Iron and Wine on the flip side, is now available for pre-order.

Chris Thile and Michael Daves, whose debut duo album, Sleep with One Eye Open, is due out on Tuesday, have premiered the fourth and final video in a series of performance videos captured live at New York's Rockwood Music Hall: the traditional tune "Rabbit in the Log." Watch it here. "This ain’t your grandparents’ bluegrass hootenanny," says Time Out New York in a preview of the duo's tour kick-off at Rockwood next week.

Randy Newman's Songbook Vol. 2 is out on Nonesuch next week."Newman never sounds more quintessentially Newman than when experienced, as here, alone at the piano," says the Independent four-star review, "with the lyrical intricacies and ironies of his songs dependent on just his laconic delivery and trenchant accompaniment for their effect." Newman appeared on BBC One TV's The One Show, where sand artist Jamie Wardley designed the sand rendering of Newman pictured here.

k.d. lang and the Siss Boom Bang performed two songs from their new album, Sing it Loud, on Jimmy Kimmel Live! earlier this week: "I Confess" and "Sugar Buzz." Watch them here. Also this week, lang appeared on The Monocle Weekly. The BBC says the album is "instantly striking," with songs that are "rich, masterful and seductive." The LA Times, reviewing last weekend's Stagecoach festival, describes lang as "wondrous," and her "performance provided an eminently satisfying conclusion."

James Farm, the collaborative band featuring Joshua Redman, Aaron Parks, Matt Penman, and Eric Harland, is the subject of a feature article in Spinner, which spoke with Harland and Parks about the project and their new album. "Yes, many will call James Farm an all-star band," says Spinner. "[T]he band certainly has some of the leading lights of today's jazz scene. But to hear Harland and Parks speak about the band's origins, James Farm seems something organically grown rather than a self-conscious assembly of heavy hitters."

Kronos Quartet will give the European premiere of Steve Reich's WTC 9/11—the composer's musical response to the attacks of September 11, 2001—at London's Barbican Hall this weekend, following Saturday's NY premiere at Carnegie Hall. The New Yorker's Alex Ross writes: "It is a dark, raw, haunting piece, its detached fury indicative of the undiminished powers of a great American artist who will celebrate his 75th birthday in October." Nonesuch will release the first recording of WTC 9/11 in September. You can listen to an excerpt of the recording here. [Ed: Excerpt no longer available.]

Nonesuch Records releases What’s It All About—a solo acoustic album from guitarist and composer Pat Metheny—on June 14, 2011. After nearly 40 recordings under his name, this marks the first time there is not a single Metheny composition represented. Rather, What’s It All About comprises 10 classic songs, some very well known, that hold personal meanings for the guitarist. (The double-LP edition includes two additional tracks.) It is available for pre-order in the Nonesuch Store with a limited-edition photographic print, a number of which will be signed, and a free instant download of the album track “Alfie."

Randy Newman's Songbook Vol. 2 is out next week. He sat at the piano to discuss the album and his career on BBC Radio 4's Front Row. The Daily Telegraph gives the album a perfect five stars. "Known for the clever orchestral arrangements on his album work, the stripped-down feel of the Songbook series allows the sharp craftsmanship of Newman’s playful writing to shine through," says the Telegraph. The new album "is an invigorating celebration of the joys of great songwriting and proof of the power of one man and his piano."

Audra McDonald helps Carnegie Hall celebrate its 120th birthday as part of an all-star gala benefit concert tonight featuring the New York Philharmonic, performing songs by Duke Ellington. Pianist Emanuel Ax, violinist Gil Shaham, and cellist Yo-Yo Ma join the Philharmonic as guest soloists in Beethoven’s Triple Concerto, and the orchestra performs Dvorák’s Carnival Overture and Gershwin’s An American in Paris. The concert will air on PBS’s Great Performances on May 31.

Laurie Anderson launches an international spring and summer tour at the Donau Festival in Austria tonight. The tour includes performances at venues and music festivals in Germany, the UK, Spain, Portugal, Greece, the Netherlands, Israel, Norway, and Ireland. Anderson returns to her home city of NYC to perform at the River to River Festival and Lincoln Center Out of Doors later this summer. She recently spoke with the BBC about technology in music. "The Laurie Anderson sound has evolved as she grasped new technologies," says the BBC, "adapting instruments and software to suit her genre-defining artistic vision."

Emmylou Harris performed two shows in Norway over the weekend, at which she proved why she is the "Queen of Country Rock," says the Bergens Tidende. Harris appeared on Steve Earle's Hardcore Troubadour Radio show; you can watch their very special duet on rollingstone.com. Watch a web-exclusive performance of John Lennon's "Imagine" from the Late Show with David Letterman here.