T Bone Burnett and the Raising Sand tour with Robert Plant and Alison Krauss have made their way to New York City for two shows at Madison Square Garden. While in New York, T Bone stops by WNYC's Soundcheck to discuss Tooth of Crime, his recent Nonesuch release, and his efforts to improve sound quality in the digital age.

k.d. lang's extensive tour of Canada with songs from her latest Nonesuch release, Watershed, continues this week, after several stops across the expanse of her native land, which recently announced that she would be among the newest inductees to Canada's Walk of Fame. "Still thrills, this voice," says the StarPhoenix's Joanne Paulson, after last week's show in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

The Black Keys have closed out the UK leg of their Attack & Release tour and will soon be heading south for stops in Australia and New Zealand in mid-June. Reviewing the new album, JamBase describes it as music that "crawls into your marrow and disturbs your rest. It's not the blues but it's gone drinking with them. For sure, it's rock 'n' roll but with a haunted echo behind even the good time pronouncements ... [T]he imagination and talent gathered on Attack & Release make it a shoe-in for Best of 2008 lists everywhere. Often that sounds like hype but in this case it's just a statement of fact. Once in a while quality just shines out in a way that can't be denied."

Punch Brothers had a packed schedule over the long weekend: they performed at the first annual Delfest in Cumberland, Maryland, on Sunday; The Mauch Opera House in Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania, on Saturday; and The Birchmere in Alexandria, Virginia, on Friday. The Washington Post says The Blind Leaving the Blind, the centerpiece of the group's Nonesuch debut, Punch, was the "most adventurous number" of a live set "that packed a powerful ... well, punch." The AV Club calls it "a tour-de-force." 

k.d. lang has returned to Canada for several dates on her Watershed tour, including tonight's performance at Centennial Hall in London, Ontario. Across the Atlantic, in the elder London, k.d. was the subject of a feature profile in the Mail on Sunday this past weekend. She talks at length with the Mail's Liz Jones about life, love, religion, and her career. Jones prefaces the discussion by admitting: "I love the new album, Watershed, which is turning out to be her best performing album in the UK in a decade and, in fact, one of the best performers of her 25-year career."

Steve Reich is the featured composer for Tokyo Opera City's Composium 2008, part of the Contemporary Music Festival beginning today and running through Sunday. Ensemble Modern and Synergy Vocals perform in two sold-out, all-Reich concerts at the Opera's Concert Hall, with Brad Lubman conducting, including the Japanese premiere of Daniel Variations as well as a performance of the seminal work Music for 18 Musicians featuring the composer as guest performer. The event also includes a discussion with the composer and the selection of the 2008 Toru Takemitsu Composition Award.

While Wilco's next scheduled tour date is a couple months away, folks are still talking about the band's May 14 show that took over the streets of downtown Lawrence, Kansas. The venue was a makeshift stage set up where 10th Street meets New Hampshire, and JamBase's Nathan Rodriguez writes that it was a "cause for celebration" among the locals.

Wilco set in for a three-night residency at the The Pageant in St. Louis starting last Thursday. The sold-out shows marked the last tour dates from the band till the end of July, and, reports Daniel Durchholz in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, "Thursday's set dipped deep into Wilco's catalog and demonstrated the emotional depth and musical breadth of one of America's great bands."

Punch Brothers began the next leg of their US tour last night at the Sellersville Theater in Sellersville, Pennsylvania, and performs at the Satellite Ballroom in Charlottesville, Virginia, tonight. Leading to tonight's show, Chris Thile spoke with the Charlottesville weekly The Hook about his career, the new band, and their Nonesuch debut record, Punch. Says The Hook's Vijith Assar, Chris has gone from being "the world's premiere young hotshot mandolin player" expected to be "the savior of bluegrass," to moving in "a new, decidedly more progressive route."

When faced with the conundrum of deciding between two shows by The Black Keys over consecutive nights at Washington, DC's 9:30 Club, DCist's Valerie Paschall looked to Dan Auerbach's promise in Monday's first-night set: "We'll play better tonight and we'll play more songs tomorrow night."

Tune in to NPR.org tonight at 10 PM ET to hear The Black Keys perform songs from their new album, Attack & Release, live from Washington, DC's 9:30 Club---their second sold-out show there in two days. Pat and Dan bring what NPR calls "a timeless mix of roots and riff-rock" to the show. NPR calls the new album "The Black Keys' richest and most diverse recording to date."