Ry Cooder's new album, Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down, receives perfect five-star reviews from the Guardian and the Independent. "Magnificent," exclaims the Guardian. "Cooder returns with a solo project that is as refreshing, brave and original as his early recordings in the 70s." The Independent says he offers "the modern-day equivalent of the kind of dust-bowl ballads with which Woody Guthrie once hymned the poor and skewered the wealthy." The Boston Herald finds it's "just what America needs in these uncertain times." The Morton Report says "it's obvious there isn't anything he can't do ... and the way Cooder builds his own musical world continues to thrill." The San Francisco Chronicle, reviewing Cooder's two sold-out shows there this week, says "Cooder is a true master of the guitar."

Wanda Jackson, who recently joined British songstress Adele on her tour, launches her own headlining tour that will take her to venues and festivals across the United States, Europe, and the UK through the fall. The Queen of Rockabilly's sets are sure to include songs from her Jack White-produced Third Man / Nonesuch Records debut album, The Party Ain't Over, along with favorites from throughout her decades-long career.

Concert listings are subject to change due to severe weather expected along the US East Coast this weekend ... Punch Brothers, Jessica Lea Mayfield are due to share a double bill at the Belleayre Music Festival in upstate NY ... Carolina Chocolate Drops' show in Raleigh has been canceled ... Emmylou Harris joins Daniel Lanois' Harvest Picnic in Ontario ... The Low Anthem plays LouFest in St. Louis ... Pat Metheny concludes his Summer Music Workshop ... Joshua Redman joins The Bad Plus at Austria's Saalfelden Jazz Fest ... Sara Watkins closes out tour with the Decemberists, launches tour with Garrison Keillor ... and more ...

Sara Watkins closes out her months-long tour as a guest band member with the Decemberists outside the band's hometown of Portland, Oregon, at McMenamins Edgefield Amphitheatre's Concerts on the Lawn tonight. But there's not much in the way of down time for Watkins, as she heads straight into her next set of performances on Sunday: with Garrison Keillor and the cast of public radio's A Prairie Home Companion for their cross-country Summer Love Tour.

Chris Thile and Michael Daves, while in Newport for what NPR called a "sizzling set" at the Newport Folk Festival last month, took some time out to perform two songs for Paste—"Roll in My Sweet Baby's Arms," off their album Sleep with One Eye Open, and another traditional tune, "Darlin' Corey"—now available to watch in the latest issue of Paste's online mPlayer. Thile and Daves are on the road again next month, touring the Midwest, UK, and Ireland, following Thile's current tour with Punch Brothers.

Steve Reich's 75th birthday celebrations continue with a free concert in Chicago's Pritzker Pavilion at Millennium Park tonight. The concert features performances by Chicago's own eighth blackbird and Third Coast Percussion and an all-Reich program comprising what the Chicago Tribune counts among "some of his finest pieces": Double Sextet, Mallet Quartet, and Music for 18 Musicians. Chicagoist calls it "the most anticipated show of the summer." Catch a video preview here.

The cover art for The Black Keys’ 2010 breakthrough album Brothers, along with its designer, Michael Carney, was praised for its simple power in a New York Times article about a new trend in the music industry to use designs that stand out on digital devices. The band performed a blistering set at San Francisco's Outside Lands Festival this weekend, "dominating the stage with its energetic, classic rock ’n’ roll," according to the SF Examiner.

The Outside Lands Festival hits San Francisco's Golden Gate Park with sets from The Black Keys and Sara Watkins with the Decemberists ... Shawn Colvin heads South ... BBC Proms feature Jonny Greenwood's Norwegian Wood suite ... Wanda Jackson joins Adele in Seattle and LA ... k.d. lang plays in the Pacific Northwest ... The Low Anthem, Allen Toussaint head to the European summer festivals ... Jessica Lea Mayfield tours NY, VT, and OH ... and more ...

Steve Reich performed at London's Royal Albert Hall last night as part of an all-Reich program with Ensemble Modern for the BBC Proms. The concert is now available online. "There could be no better way of celebrating Steve Reich’s 75th birthday than with a performance of his Music for 18 Musicians," says the Independent in its five-star review, "and the packed hall for this late-night Prom testified to the size and devotion of his fan-club." The Guardian says the concert helped mark Reich's "ongoing acceptance into the pantheon of the greats of the western classical tradition."

Jessica Lea Mayfield launches a late-summer US tour that will include headlining dates, summer festivals, a supporting set with John Prine, and a double bill with label mates Punch Brothers. The tour kicks off tonight when she headlines a show at Mohawk Place in Buffalo, New York, and continues with additional stops in upstate New York, Vermont, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, New Jersey, Maryland, Washington, Indiana, Tennessee, Illinois, and California. Consequence of Sound says that "seeing Mayfield live makes you understand her songs even better."

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, the free annual outdoor music festival held in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, returns for its 11th run this September 30 through October 2. The line-up has now been announced and include four Nonesuch artists: perennial favorite Emmylou Harris, returning performers Punch Brothers and Jessica Lea Mayfield, and, making their Hardly Strictly debut, The Low Anthem.

Steve Reich performs at London's Royal Albert Hall tonight as part of an all-Reich program with Ensemble Modern for the BBC Proms. The concert, which marks the composer's 75th birthday year, will be broadcast on BBC Radio 3. "His work using looped taped voices was not only original," writes the Guardian, "but created stunning, fluid sounds which still impress today ... In a Proms season that contains many treasures, Reich's performance ... stands out." MusicOMH gives Reich's forthcoming album four stars, calling its WTC 9/11 "a stark and fascinating addition to his oeuvre."