Shawn Colvin joins Nanci Griffith at a concert to benefit The Morton Arboretum outside of Chicago ... Carolina Chocolate Drops begin their tour in Baltimore and DC ...  Bill Frisell Trio's in Michigan for the Hoxeyville Music Fest ... Allen Toussaint plays free Lincoln Center Out of Doors set in NYC ... Sara Watkins solos at Wisconsin's Lake Superior Big Top ... Wilco concludes European festival tour ... and more ...

After taking Europe by storm earlier this summer, Ry Cooder and Nick Lowe have announced a month-long tour through Japan, Australia, and New Zealand for late this year, beginning November 4 in Nagoya, Japan, and winding up in Perth, Western Australia, December 1. As he did on the European tour, Ry's son Joachim Cooder will join the tour on drums, and singer Juliette Commagere will return as special guest vocalist.

The Carolina Chocolate Drops, after a few months at home to welcome into the world "the newest Droplet," Rhiannon Giddens's daughter Aoife Armentha Laffan, and prepare the group's Nonesuch debut, are set to hit the road once again for a 29-date US tour, beginning this Friday at Rams Head Live in Baltimore and running through November. And now, you can help spread the word by joining the band's new street team.

Kronos Quartet closes season close to home at Art in the Redwoods and Rancho Nicasio ... John Adams conducts A Flowering Tree at Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart ... Shawn Colvin headlines Oakland's Art & Soul Fest ... Bill Frisell goes solo at Oslo ... Richard Goode performs Beethoven at Marlboro Music closer ... Low Anthem plays VA and PA ... Brad Mehldau comes home to NY's Smoke ... Joshua Redman Trio plays Scandinavian fests ... Wilco does too ... and more ...

The Low Anthem, after having spent the greater part of the year touring with acts like Elvis Perkins in Dearland, Joe Pug, Ray Lamontagne, Josh Ritter, and Langhorne Slim in support of its Nonesuch debut, Oh My God, Charlie Darwin, is gearing up for yet another stretch on the road, this time with the Portland group Blind Pilot. This run of 21 club and theater dates runs from October 15 through November 12 and includes the band's West coast debut.

John Adams's latest opera, A Flowering Tree, described by The New Yorker as "one of the most lush and beautiful of his works," receives its New York premiere as part of Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart festival tonight. The composer, the festival's artist-in-residence, conducts. He'll lead the International Contemporary Ensemble in an all-Adams program there next week.

Wilco's Glenn Kotche and John Stirratt joined Neil Finn and members of Radiohead for an Oxfam benefit concert at Dingwalls in London last night; the Daily Telegraph gives it a perfect five stars. It stemmed from Finn's new 7 Worlds Collide album, on which Wilco performs. Kotche recently spoke with LiveDaily about the new Wilco album; the Lexington Herald-Leader picks the track "You Never Know" as a song that will forever conjure the summer of 2009.

Dan Auerbach and The Low Anthem each performed sets in Chicago last weekend, both at Lollapalooza and in the city's clubs, where, says Rolling Stone, "Auerbach slayed a lucky crowd with tunes from his solo debut, Keep It Hid." Paste reports that Dan's festival set was "top-notch"; the Chicago Tribune says he "unfurls grooves that are as thick as the beard on his face"; and Time Out says he proved he's "got a soulful, lived-in voice that speaks to his promise as one of the great songwriters of his generation."

David Byrne is the subject of a recent profile in the The Times in anticipation of this weekend’s UK performances at the Edinburgh Playhouse and the Big Chill Festival, the last on his year-long world tour. The article also discusses Byrne’s new book, Bicycle Diaries, describing it as “a disconnected travelogue recording his cycle journeys around various cities," and his Playing the Building installation at London’s Roundhouse.

Dan Auerbach, The Low Anthem head to Chicago for Lollapalooza, club shows ... David Byrne's Songs of David Byrne & Brian Eno tour closes out at England's Big Chill Fest ... Toumani Diabaté heads south and north with Béla Fleck, from Virginia to Alberta ... Joshua Redman's Double Trio celebrates Newport Jazz's 55th ... Allen Toussaint plays "supple, easy-rolling piano" at San Jose Jazz Fest ... Sara Watkins joins Robert Earl Keen in Ohio ... and more ...

Sara Watkins recently stopped by the Rolling Stone offices to perform three songs off her self-titled Nonesuch debut for the "Smoking Section," which praises her "gorgeous voice and killer fiddle." She is joined for the performances by her brother Sean and keyboardist Benmont Tench (of the Heartbreakers), both of whom are featured on the album as well.

By any measure, it would seem that The Black Keys helped turn the muddied fields of New Jersey's Liberty State Park into a memorable closing day for the 2009 All Points West festival. Rolling Stone says their "primal power" of "one of America’s most respected bands" served them well. Esquire says the band's set stood out from the rest of the pack, making everything "whole again," and gives a "Daily Endorsement" to drummer Pat Carney.