The Low Anthem—fresh off a string of shows with Emmylou Harris and just as the band launches a five-date tour with the Carolina Chocolate Drops this weekend—has confirmed an initial run of 2011 worldwide tour dates in support of the band's forthcoming album, Smart Flesh, due out February 22. The band is offering the song "Ghost Woman Blues," from Smart Flesh, as a free download beginning today. You can download it here.

Jessica Lea Mayfield's Tell Me, due out February 8 and available for pre-order in the Nonesuch Store, is among Stereogum's picks of the 50 Most Anticipated Albums of 2011. USA Today's Pop Candy blogger Whitney Matheson calls it the "Best thing I heard" this week. "I'm already a fan," she writes. "Love her." In addition to her previously announced tour dates with Justin Townes Earle, Mayfield has signed on for the 35 Conferette taking place March 10–13.

Congratulations to all the Nonesuch artists who were nominated for the 53rd Annual Grammy Awards, announced last night by The Recording Academy: The Black Keys, Laurie Anderson, Carolina Chocolate Drops, Punch Brothers, Stephen Sondheim, and World Circuit / Nonesuch Records artists Ali Farka Touré and Toumani Diabaté. Together, these artists' 2010 releases garnered an impressive 11 nominations, including a remarkable six nominations for The Black Keys' latest Nonesuch release, Brothers. Hear music from all the nominees on Nonesuch Radio.

Just in time for the holidays, John Adams will conduct the San Francisco Symphony in three performances of his Nativity oratorio, El Niño, at San Francisco's Davies Symphony Hall, starting tonight, launching Adams's two-week residency there. Dawn Upshaw will reprise the role she originated and performed on the Nonesuch recording, tonight and Saturday. Jessica Rivera, who starred in Adams's A Flowering Tree, will perform the soprano role on Friday. Michelle DeYoung and Jonathan Lemalu will appear in all three performances.

Ben Folds and Nick Hornby's Lonely Avenue is CD of the Week at Minnesota Public Radio's The Current. Folds will appear on A Different Spin with Blink 182's Mark Hoppus on Fuse tonight. On Friday, Folds, an accomplished photographer, will present some of his images in the series Music on ... Photography at the National Geographic Society's Washington, DC, headquarters. Season 2 of NBC's The Sing-Off gets under way on Monday, with Folds returning to judge the a cappella competition; he has begun blogging about it at nbc.com.

The Black Keys' and Carolina Chocolate Drops' latest releases—Brothers and Genuine Negro Jig, respectively—have made NPR's 50 Favorite Albums of 2010 and Paste's 50 Best Albums of 2010. "While Brothers marks a turning point for The Black Keys," NPR explains, "it also reaffirms the duo as an important fixture in contemporary blues-rock." NPR says of the Chocolate Drops: their "energy is so infectious, it's virtually impossible not to be drawn in."

Steve Reich's latest album, which pairs eighth blackbird's performance of the composer's Pulitzer Prize–winning piece Double Sextet with Bang on a Can's performance of 2x5, has now been named among the Top 10 Classical Albums of 2010 by NPR. "Steve Reich may be labeled a 'minimalist' composer," says NPR, "but the works on this recording are far more 'maximal' than simple repeating chords and mutating melodies."

Brad Mehldau's Highway Rider has made the Jazzwise list of the Top 10 Albums of the Year for 2010. "Brad Mehldau doesn’t do things by halves," says Jazzwise, which sees the new album as notable both for reuniting Mehldau with producer Jon Brion and for "showing another side to the increasingly influential Mehldau." Mehldau and the featured artists on Highway Rider recently performed the piece in the US and Europe and will do so again at LA's Walt Disney Concert Hall in January.

Wanda Jackson's new album, The Party Ain't Over, produced by Jack White, is due out January 25, and is now available for pre-order in the Nonesuch Store. The first 250 pre-orders include an exclusive, limited-edition poster autographed by Jackson, and all orders include high-quality album MP3s, available for download release day. What's more, with the current Nonesuch Store sale, all CDs and LPs are 33% off the standard retail price.

Celebrations of Steve Reich's 75th year in 2011 continue to mount, with Sweden's Royal Philharmonic Orchestra kicking things off in January with Tonsättarfestivalen: Steve Reich, a five-day festival of Reich's music in Stockholm, and the Sónar festival's just-announced all-Reich Opening Night concert in Barcelona in June. Already on tap are musical celebrations at Carnegie Hall, the Barbican, the Sacrum Profanum festival in Kraków, Cité de la Musique, and more.

Carolina Chocolate Drops kick off the latest leg of their world tour, this time back in the US, following their recent tour of Europe. The band will soon be joined by The Low Anthem for a five-show swing through the South, after which The Low Anthem will join Emmylou Harris on the Grand Ole Opry at Nashville's Ryman Auditorium. The Charlotte Observer includes the Carolina Chocolate Drops' Genuine Negro Jig in its 2010 Holiday Gift Guide.

Timothy Andres's debut album, Shy and Mighty, has made the New York Times Holiday Gift Guide for 2010. Traces of the composer's eclectic influences "show in this melodic, richly contrapuntal, often muscular 10-movement work," says the Times. "But what comes through most clearly is the inventiveness and originality of Mr. Andres’s own compositional voice." Andres will be featured on a special “Where Are They Now?” episode of NPR's From the Top this week; this “Alumni Musical Mavericks” program explores the different musical avenues five performers have taken since they first appeared on the show.