The Carolina Chocolate Drops' Nonesuch debut, Genuine Negro Jig, is out now. The Sunday Times says to "file under quality music." After a Boston show, the Boston Herald said "an evening spent in this young trio’s exciting presence proves they are really about one thing: entertainment." The reviewer described Rhiannon Giddens voice as "among the most dynamic, startling instruments" he has ever heard.

Chris Thile's Mandolin Concerto gets its California premiere ... Carolina Chocolate Drops concludes the first leg of its US tour ... Bill Frisell Trio plays the Pacific Northwest ... Richard Goode plays Bach, Haydn, Schumann in San Francisco ... Glenn Kotche joins Bang on a Can All-Stars at Emory ... NPR's Fresh Air remembers Kate McGarrigle ... Brad Mehldau performs two solo sets in California ... Stephen Sondheim revisits his alma mater, Williams College, to talk with Frank Rich ... and more ...

As reported yesterday in the Nonesuch Journal, Natalie Merchant is set to make her Nonesuch debut with the April release of Leave Your Sleep. Tonight, fans in the UK can catch Natalie on the inaugural episode of the new BBC arts and culture discussion television program The Review Show, which airs live on BBC Two at 11 PM. She'll be the show's first music guest. Next week, Natalie performs live in Dublin and Glasgow.

Rokia Traoré's latest Nonesuch release, Tchamantché, was released in early 2009 and made a lasting impression, finding its way to year-end best-of lists, including that of the New York Times's Jon Pareles, who remarked on Traoré's "preternatural grace." She now prepares to take her music on the road, as she announces a spring tour of the United States and the United Kingdom set for April and May.

The Carolina Chocolate Drops have added a special performance to their tour schedule: an Emergency Benefit Concert for Haiti at New York's City Winery this Wednesday with Patti Smith, The Swell Season, John Wesley Harding, Yo La Tengo, Young People’s Choir of New York City, Joshua Bell, and others. Proceeds go to Doctors Without Borders, Partners in Health, and the Jewish Renaissance Medical Center's emergency mobile hospital unit.

NY Phil performs Adams's The Wound-Dresser ... Laurie Anderson previews new piece at MASS MoCA ... Carolina Chocolate Drops bring "electrifying show" to Dartmouth, Birchmere ... Richard Goode gives free concert in Florida ... Kronos Quartet gives West Coast premiere of A Chinese Home at Stanford ... The Low Anthem joins Dave Douglas for NY's Festival of New Trumpet Music ... Punch Brothers play three shows in Colorado ... Joshua Redman's new quartet plays Paris ... and more ...

Laurie Anderson is at MASS MoCA in North Adams, Massachusetts, this weekend as part of a weeklong residency to develop her new work, Delusion. On Saturday afternoon, she will speak about her creative process and discuss the piece, which will premiere on February 16 and run for a week at the Vancouver Playhouse as part of that city's Cultural Olympiad.

Brad Mehldau performs solo sets at New York City's Highline Ballroom tonight, with proceeds going to benefit JazzReach, a non-profit organization dedicated to the promotion, performance, creation, and teaching of jazz. "Mehldau has established himself as one of the standout jazz voices of his generation," says the New York Times, "partly through a run of intensely lyrical solo piano recitals." The Village Voice calls Mehldau's solo work "sublime."

k.d. lang will join Tony Bennett on stage again to headline the San Francisco Symphony’s 2010 Black & White Ball on May 22. The concert will include duets as well as individual performances at San Francisco's Davies Symphony Hall with all proceeds going to support the Symphony’s Adventures in Music education program. The pair's 1994 duet "Moonglow" will be part of Recollection, the forthcoming k.d. lang career retrospective, out February 9.

The Low Anthem performed at Saturday's multi-artist Hot Stove Cool Music benefit concert in Boston; the Boston Globe included the set among the event's highlights, calling the group "a dazzlingly talented bunch." Now comes word that the band will be headlining its first North American tour this spring and making its US television debut on the Late Show with David Letterman this Thursday. It will also spend much of February supporting The Avett Brothers on the road.

David Byrne presents a short video/audio lecture called Creation in Reverse at The Bell House in Brooklyn, New York, tonight. The program looks at the ways that venue and context shape artistic creation and will be followed by an audience Q&A. The event is free, and admission is available on a first-come, first-served basis. Byrne's collaboration with Fatboy Slim, Here Lies Love, is due out on April 6.

The Low Anthem performs in Boston to benefit the Red Sox Foundation's Foundation to Be Named Later ... Carolina Chocolate Drops kick off tour in Georgia and South Carolina ... Steve Reich joins So Percussion for Clapping Music at Stanford ... Allen Toussaint plays Kansas City and debuts on Austin City Limits ... Sara Watkins returns to A Prairie Home Companion ... and more ...