Randy Newman, who performed with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra over the weekend, concludes his Australian tour with two shows with the Sydney Symphony at the Sydney Opera House this week. The Age and Sydney Morning Herald laud Newman as "one of the greatest songwriters of the past 50 years," whose "work proves yet again that on the big questions, all too often the artists can illuminate the truth better than the essayists, the journalists and, perhaps less surprisingly, the politicians." His recent appearances on ABC Radio National's The Music Show and 702 ABC Sydney Afternoons are now online.

This past weekend, the Newport Folk Festival offered the sold-out crowd two beautiful summer days of music from performers including the Carolina Chocolate Drops, Emmylou Harris, Wanda Jackson, and Chris Thile & Michael Daves. You can now listen to all of those sets online at NPR Music, from the ever "vital and contemporary" Harris to the "blazingly intense music" of Thile & Daves. The Boston Globe says that all the music proved "compelling and indebted to what preceded it."

The Flynn Center for the Performing Arts in Burlington, Vermont, has announced its 2011–12 season, and on the schedule are four Nonesuch artists: k.d. lang and the Siss Boom Bang open the venue's concert season on September 23, Laurie Anderson follows with her piece Delusion in October, Cheikh Lô joins a multi-artist celebration of James Brown in November, and the Carolina Chocolate Drops play the Flynn in January.

Malian singer Oumou Sangare concluded her North American tour this weekend with shows in Brooklyn and Maine. "Regal, righteous and funky," exclaims New York Times music critic Jon Pareles, "the Malian singer and songwriter Oumou Sangare commanded the stage of Celebrate Brooklyn! on Friday night at the Prospect Park Bandshell." Through her music and lyrics, this longtime champion of women's rights took on "the traditional West African singer’s role as community conscience while delivering her messages with a modern kick."

The Newport Folk Festival features sets from Emmylou Harris, Carolina Chocolate Drops, Wanda Jackson, Chris Thile, Michael Daves, plus Sara Watkins with The Decemberists and a special Low Anthem benefit performance ... Kronos Quartet performs Steve Reich's WTC 9/11 at Northern Ireland's Walled City Music Fest ... k.d. lang has three shows in California ... Jessica Lea Mayfield heads South ... Brad Mehldau, Joshua Redman close out duo tour at Marciac Jazz Fest ... Randy Newman continues Australian tour in Melbourne ... Donnacha Dennehy's Grá agus Bás closes out Cork's Reich festival ... Oumou Sangare plays free Brooklyn show ... Dawn Upshaw continues at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Fest ... and more ...

Sara Watkins will join Garrison Keillor and the cast of public radio's A Prairie Home Companion on another cross-country tour that will take them from Alaska to Alabama this August and September on their second-annual Summer Love Tour. The concert tours will consist of "evenings of passionate duets, hot jazz, Catchup, English Majors and Poesy" and such favorite Prairie Home Companion elements as Guy Noir Private Eye, the Cowboys Dusty and Lefty, and all the latest News from Lake Wobegon.

Newport music festival season gets under way this weekend, when the Newport Folk Festival returns, featuring several Nonesuch artists: Carolina Chocolate Drops, Emmylou Harris, Wanda Jackson, and Chris Thile & Michael Daves, plus Sara Watkins with the Decemberists and a special benefit performance by The Low Anthem. James Farm will play the following weekend's Newport Jazz Festival. NPR Music will be broadcasting and webcasting full concerts throughout each event.

Chris Thile and Michael Daves are set to tour the UK and Ireland in September in support of their debut album, Sleep with One Eye Open. The tour begins in London on September 13 and includes concerts in Dublin, Cork, Liverpool, and Sheffield. Thile will also join Brad Mehldau in a special concert at London’s Wigmore Hall on September 16, where they will perform as a duo. Before then, Thile and Daves have a few duo performances in the States, starting with this Sunday's performance at the Newport Folk Festival.

Celebrations of Steve Reich's 75th year continue with The Reich Effect, a five-day festival presented by the Cork Opera House in Cork City, Ireland, starting today. The composer will participate in a number of events at the festival, which also features performances of more than a dozen of his works, including the Irish premiere of his WTC 9/11, performed by Kronos Quartet. Reich's influence "on contemporary music is layered into almost every genre," says the Irish Times. "His minimalist innovations have certainly gone far beyond the confines of classical composition."

Randy Newman kicked off his two-week tour of Australia Friday night in a one-night-only performance with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra in Brisbane. "Everyone is swept along by Newman's charm," reports The Australian. "This was live performance at its best, spontaneous and heartfelt, with one of America's greatest songwriters at the helm." The Brisbane Times gives this "night of perfect tone" five stars. The Age says: "For more than 40 years, his hallowed name has comprised a two-word rebuttal to the clueless cliche that 'Americans don't get irony."

Emmylou Harris, Ben Folds play the XPoNential Music Fest, broadcast live via XPN ... Bang on a Can pays tribute to John Adams at MASS MoCA ... Carolina Chocolate Drops are in NY and PA ... Shawn Colvin hits Strings Music Fest ... Kronos Quartet plays Poland and Germany ... k.d. lang, Punch Brothers play Calgary Folk Music Fest ... Jessica Lea Mayfield headlines out West ... Randy Newman kicks off Australia tour ... Oumou Sangare launches North American tour ... Philip Selway plays Truck Fest ... Dawn Upshaw sings in Santa Fe ... and more ...

Oumou Sangare launches a rare North American tour this weekend with a free set at the Festival International Nuits d'Afrique in Montreal tonight before heading to the States and the Caramoor International Music Festival in Katonah, New York. The tour includes additional stops in Boston, Manhattan, Maine, and Brooklyn. The Boston Globe says: "A visit from this charismatic queen of Malian music and fierce combatant for women’s rights is always an occasion, not least because, as seen on her most recent album, Seya, she’s at the summit of her art."