Wilco's set at the Troxy in London last night was the first of three sold-out shows with Blitzen Trapper in Britain and Ireland this week (and marked Jeff Tweedy's 42nd birthday). The Evening Standard gives the show four stars, praising "the quality of the tunes" from throughout the group's seven-album repertoire, Tweedy's "bittersweet vocal and the band’s brilliant musicianship."

Wilco has been in Europe all month stopping at the major summer festivals. After Sunday's Green Man Festival in Wales, The Independent praised the band's "masterful performing" in a set that "proved why they are one of the best live acts around." Wilco closes out its European tour this week with three sold-out shows, tonight's at The Troxy in London and two later this week at Vicar Street in Dublin.

Bill Frisell's Disfarmer features music inspired by the work of the late photographer Michael Disfarmer. Chuck Helm, the Director of the Performing Arts at the Wexner Center in Columbus, Ohio, first introduced the guitarist to Disfarmer’s work hoping for such a result. Frisell tells the Columbus Dispatch, in an article about the local connection, "Your imagination can really go far with any of them ... There are so many stories."

Allen Toussaint brought his inimitable style to both coasts of North America over the past few days, including sets in Boston, New York, and Vancouver. At Thursday's shows at Scullers in Boston, "the 71-year-old New Orleans icon used," says the Boston Herald, "the power of music to smother us Yankees in Big Easy love," including a "jaw-dropping" medley of tunes. "The audience ate it up."

Wilco is on the road in Europe, but US fans are getting some close-up time as well: a feature profile of the group is slated to air on CBS Sunday Morning this weekend. With the Europe tour closing next week in Dublin, Jeff Tweedy spoke with the Irish Times about the joys of making music, concluding: "Music is part of your life, and it enriches your perspective and appreciation for being alive."

Shawn Colvin joins Nanci Griffith at a concert to benefit The Morton Arboretum outside of Chicago ... Carolina Chocolate Drops begin their tour in Baltimore and DC ...  Bill Frisell Trio's in Michigan for the Hoxeyville Music Fest ... Allen Toussaint plays free Lincoln Center Out of Doors set in NYC ... Sara Watkins solos at Wisconsin's Lake Superior Big Top ... Wilco concludes European festival tour ... and more ...

After taking Europe by storm earlier this summer, Ry Cooder and Nick Lowe have announced a month-long tour through Japan, Australia, and New Zealand for late this year, beginning November 4 in Nagoya, Japan, and winding up in Perth, Western Australia, December 1. As he did on the European tour, Ry's son Joachim Cooder will join the tour on drums, and singer Juliette Commagere will return as special guest vocalist.

The Carolina Chocolate Drops, after a few months at home to welcome into the world "the newest Droplet," Rhiannon Giddens's daughter Aoife Armentha Laffan, and prepare the group's Nonesuch debut, are set to hit the road once again for a 29-date US tour, beginning this Friday at Rams Head Live in Baltimore and running through November. And now, you can help spread the word by joining the band's new street team.

Kronos Quartet closes season close to home at Art in the Redwoods and Rancho Nicasio ... John Adams conducts A Flowering Tree at Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart ... Shawn Colvin headlines Oakland's Art & Soul Fest ... Bill Frisell goes solo at Oslo ... Richard Goode performs Beethoven at Marlboro Music closer ... Low Anthem plays VA and PA ... Brad Mehldau comes home to NY's Smoke ... Joshua Redman Trio plays Scandinavian fests ... Wilco does too ... and more ...

The Low Anthem, after having spent the greater part of the year touring with acts like Elvis Perkins in Dearland, Joe Pug, Ray Lamontagne, Josh Ritter, and Langhorne Slim in support of its Nonesuch debut, Oh My God, Charlie Darwin, is gearing up for yet another stretch on the road, this time with the Portland group Blind Pilot. This run of 21 club and theater dates runs from October 15 through November 12 and includes the band's West coast debut.

John Adams's latest opera, A Flowering Tree, described by The New Yorker as "one of the most lush and beautiful of his works," receives its New York premiere as part of Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart festival tonight. The composer, the festival's artist-in-residence, conducts. He'll lead the International Contemporary Ensemble in an all-Adams program there next week.

Wilco's Glenn Kotche and John Stirratt joined Neil Finn and members of Radiohead for an Oxfam benefit concert at Dingwalls in London last night; the Daily Telegraph gives it a perfect five stars. It stemmed from Finn's new 7 Worlds Collide album, on which Wilco performs. Kotche recently spoke with LiveDaily about the new Wilco album; the Lexington Herald-Leader picks the track "You Never Know" as a song that will forever conjure the summer of 2009.