The Carolina Chocolate Drops will appear on NPR's Fresh Air today to talk about their recent Nonesuch debut, Genuine Negro Jig. The trio is currently on a US tour, which stopped at Schubas in Chicago last night. "It’s easy to enthusiastically recommend Carolina Chocolate Drops," said Time Out Chicago. "They’re extremely talented and original musicians, proving that youthful old-time music is not an oxymoron."

As the world's Olympic athletes bid farewell to Canada, Wilco too will soon say adieu as the band's TransCanada Tour concludes this week. The next leg of the tour begins soon, and new dates have just been added to the European tour in September. Before then, Glenn Kotche will join Mario Batali for an event to benefit eighth blackbird. And a song from Wilco's 2009 tour stop at Bonnaroo is available for free with your support of the current climate change bill.

Punch Brothers play Paducah ... Alarm Will Sound joins Dirty Projectors in LA ... Laurie Anderson does Delusion at Williams College ... Carolina Chocolate Drops tour the Midwest ... Christina Courtin opens in Arizona ... Bill Frisell's at Blue Note ... Richard Goode is in Italy ... Kronos completes four nights in SF ... Low Anthem opens for Avett Brothers ... Magnetic Fields do Noise Pop ... Pat Metheny plays Poland, where Orchestrion is gold ... Joshua Redman opens SFJazz spring season ... Wilco conquers Quebec ... and more ...

The Magnetic Fields have been in the Pacific Northwest all week performing for sold-out crowds in Portland and Seattle. Seattle Weekly called the first Seattle show "a night filled with uncommonly brilliant artistry." The band heads next to the Bay Area for two Noise Pop festival shows in Oakland and San Francisco, a DJ set from Stephin Merritt at Amoeba, and a sneak preview of the documentary on the band, Strange Powers.

The Low Anthem began its ten-city tour with The Avett Brothers last night at Ohio University. The band is the subject of a feature article in the Boston Phoenix, on the front cover of the Providence Phoenix, giving a tour of the pasta sauce factory where they're recording their new album and a taste of what's to come, with a song the paper calls "a jaw-dropper ... complete with a rumbling finale unlike anything in the TLA catalog."

Today marks the start of the Carolina Chocolate Drops' US tour, featuring music from the band's Nonesuch debut, Genuine Negro Jig, which landed at No. 1 on Billboard's Bluegrass chart. "To paraphrase Rakim’s immortal words," says Paste, "these Drops ain’t no joke." They are, in a phrase, "the genuine article." There's also a Q&A with band members in North Carolina's Yes! Weekly and a recent appearance on BBC Radio 3's World on 3.

The 2010 South by Southwest festival is set to get under way March 12 through 21 in Austin, Texas, with a number of Nonesuch artists—The Low Anthem, Christina Courtin, and the Carolina Chocolate Drops—have already been tapped to perform. Also, SXSW will screen Ride, Rise, Roar, a new concert film following David Byrne on his 2008-09 tour The Songs of David Byrne & Brian Eno.

Dawn Upshaw has renewed her artistic partnership with The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra for the next three seasons. She began her partnership with the orchestra in the 2007-08 season and will now continue through the 2012-13 season. In the 2010-11 season, Upshaw joins the SPCO for a world premiere by Gabriela Frank plus works by Berio and Mahler. Also next season, Brad Mehldau will join the SPCO for the world premiere of his Highway Rider.

Philip Glass's seminal 1980 opera Satyagraha returns to English National Opera tonight for a nine-performance run at the London Coliseum through March 10. This follows the production's 2007 London premiere and a 2008 run at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. The Times of London called the production "a masterwork of theatrical intensity and integrity." The Guardian called it “a thing of wonder."

Kronos Quartet begins its four-night residency at San Francisco's Z Space @ Artaud tonight. Each of the four performances offers a different program, featuring Jon Rose's Music from 4 Fences plus works by Terry Riley, a piece by composers from the Kronos: Under 30 Project, and other commissioned works. Plus: Kronos buttons aplenty (pictured). SF Weekly recommends tonight's show as "a rare treat indeed."

The Low Anthem began its months-long North American tour last night at Club Cafe in Pittsburgh last night. The quartet is at Ohio University's Memorial Hall tonight for the first of ten tour dates opening for the Avett Brothers, including shows in upstate New York, Ohio, Indiana, Missouri, Oklahoma, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Michigan, before The Low Anthem begins its first headlining tour.

The Carolina Chocolate Drops begin their US tour in Danville, Indiana, this Thursday, playing music from their Nonesuch debut, Genuine Negro Jig, and have now added a number of new dates, including a return to the Black Banjo Gathering, where they first met in 2005. The AP says, "The Carolina Chocolate Drops rise above easy classification ... using the blues as filtered through the unique Piedmont string band movement as a stepping stone to something more," calling Rhiannon Giddens' voice "a revelation, both modern and timeless."