Sara Watkins launches a US tour this weekend with two sets at the Bluebonnets & Bluegrass festival in College Station, Texas. The tour celebrates the forthcoming release of Watkins' new album, Sun Midnight Sun, which is due out on May 8. The nationwide tour includes headlining shows, a series of special tour dates with Dawes, a number of summer festival sets, and a special acoustic set and signing celebrating the Record Store Day release of a limited-edition 7” of a rendition of The Everly Brothers classic “You’re the One I Love,” on which Fiona Apple duets with Watkins.

The Black Keys will be headlining the 2012 Lollapalooza festival, which runs from August 3 to 5 in Chicago's Grant Park. Their fellow headliners include the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Black Sabbath, and Jack White. Also performing are Amadou & Mariam, whose new album, Folila, is out in the US this week. The Black Keys headline Coachella this week and next then launch the next leg of their North American arena tour with special guests Arctic Monkeys.

Senegalese singer-songwriter Cheikh Lô has returned to North America to play a series of venues and festivals featuring music from his critically acclaimed fifth album, Jamm. This will be the first opportunity for North American audiences to hear Lô performing songs from the album since its release in July 2011. Its "easy rhythms underpin music of warmth and grace," says the Washington Post. The tour begins in Washington, DC, tonight and includes a performance at Carnegie Hall in New York, sets at the New Orleans Jazz Fest and Louisiana International Festival, and shows in St. Louis, Ann Arbor, Chapel Hill, Ithaca, Montreal, and Toronto.

Billy Bragg will launch a tour of Europe and North America this spring and summer in celebration of the 100th anniversary of Woody Guthrie's birth. The tour, titled The Ain't Nobody That Can Sing Like Me Tour, follows the Nonesuch release of Mermaid Avenue: The Complete Sessions, on April 21, and will feature songs from that collection, in which Bragg and Wilco's Jeff Tweedy set Guthrie's words to music. The tour will take Bragg to concert halls and summer festivals, including the Woody Guthrie Folk Festival in Okemah, Oklahoma. The North American leg of the tour begins at the Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago on June 22.

A new production of John Adams's groundbreaking first opera Nixon in China, led by director Chen Shi-Zheng, receives its premiere performance at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris tonight. Musical director Alexander Briger leads the Orchestre de Chambre de Paris, the Châtelet choir, and a cast featuring baritone Franco Pompini as President Richard Nixon. Performances begin tonight and run through next Wednesday, April 18. Watch a preview of the new production here. Nonesuch Records reissued the Grammy-winning original cast recording of Nixon in China last year.

Dr. John was joined by Dan Auerbach and the band from his new album, Locked Down, for the live premiere of Locked Down at BAM last week. "Physical and spiritual, earthly and supernatural, a memento mori and a promise of transcendence—all were aspects of Dr. John’s music for the night," reports the New York Times. Rolling Stone says the "band's potent sound and focused energy pushed the New Orleans legend into new sonic territory." The Times-Picayune calls the new album "timeless." The Morton Report says: "This is prime time light-up-your-eyeballs sound, complete with twisting rhythms, curvalicious horn lines, croaky vocals, and irresistible freedom at the heart of what the players are putting down." The Star Telegram calls it "one of 2012's great albums thus far." The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel calls it "phenomenal."

The Public Theater in New York City has announced its 2012-2013 Season, which includes the world premiere of the David Byrne and Fatboy Slim musical Here Lies Love, directed by Alex Timbers. The musical explores the life of former Filipino First Lady Imelda Marcos. Performances begin April 2, 2013. Nonesuch released the song cycle recording of Here Lies Love in 2010, featuring Florence + the Machine, Natalie Merchant, Santigold, St. Vincent, and more.

Carolina Chocolate Drops brought their US tour to California over the weekend for three stops with special guest David Wax Museum: at UCLA's Royce Hall on Friday, Slim’s in San Francisco on Saturday, and the Mystic Theater in Petaluma on Sunday. "These are not only obsessive music-historians but also expert players whose fret-board fingers traveled miles over the course of the night," reports the Los Angeles Times. "The Carolina Chocolate Drops didn’t just manifest this music but proved how much energy remains within these songs." The band heads next to New Mexico and Arizona.

Dr. John is joined by The Black Keys' Dan Auerbach and the band behind his new album, Locked Down, for the centerpiece of his BAM residency: the premiere of music from Locked Down ... John Adams leads the LA Phil in his Violin Concerto, Philip Glass's Symphony No. 9 (West Coast premiere) ... Björk brings Biophilia to Buenos Aires ... Carolina Chocolate Drops are in California ... Joshua Redman and Brad Mehldau play Savannah Music Festival, two nights in St. Louis ... Chris Thile goes solo in San Francisco ... Dawn Upshaw sings at Emory ... and more ...

Joshua Redman and Brad Mehldau head out for a duo tour of North America, beginning with a concert at Orchestra Hall in Detroit tonight. From there, the two make stops in Georgia, Missouri, North Carolina, Indiana, Illinois, Ontario, New Jersey, and Massachusetts. Amidst the duo tour dates, Redman and his Trio have a week’s residency at NYC's Village Vanguard, April 17–22. The Brad Mehldau Trio tours the US starting next month with a Denver concert featuring Timothy Andres.

Nonesuch Records will release London–based singer, songwriter, and guitarist Lianne La Havas’s debut LP this summer, following its release by Warner Bros. in the UK (exact dates TBD). The album was recorded in Brooklyn and Los Angeles last summer and was produced by Matt Hales (Aqualung). La Havas, whose first US dates were opening for Bon Iver on the band’s late 2011 Midwestern tour, made her NY debut in March at a sold-out show at the Mercury Lounge. Her first Los Angeles show will be May 22 at Bootleg Bar (tickets go on sale Friday, April 6). Additional US dates will be announced soon.

Punch Brothers will be the musical guests on The Late Show with David Letterman Wednesday night. They'll soon be hitting the road again with the next leg of their US tour, kicking things off with a live broadcast performance of A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor on Saturday, April 14. The band and fellow guests Renée Fleming, Aoife O'Donovan, and Heather Masse join Keillor and crew live at New York's Town Hall, where Punch Brothers headline later this month. Punch Brothers are featured in the latest installment of the A.V. Club's A.V. Undercover, performing The Cars' "Just What I Needed." Watch it here.