Randy Newman kicked off his two-week tour of Australia Friday night in a one-night-only performance with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra in Brisbane. "Everyone is swept along by Newman's charm," reports The Australian. "This was live performance at its best, spontaneous and heartfelt, with one of America's greatest songwriters at the helm." The Brisbane Times gives this "night of perfect tone" five stars. The Age says: "For more than 40 years, his hallowed name has comprised a two-word rebuttal to the clueless cliche that 'Americans don't get irony."

Emmylou Harris, Ben Folds play the XPoNential Music Fest, broadcast live via XPN ... Bang on a Can pays tribute to John Adams at MASS MoCA ... Carolina Chocolate Drops are in NY and PA ... Shawn Colvin hits Strings Music Fest ... Kronos Quartet plays Poland and Germany ... k.d. lang, Punch Brothers play Calgary Folk Music Fest ... Jessica Lea Mayfield headlines out West ... Randy Newman kicks off Australia tour ... Oumou Sangare launches North American tour ... Philip Selway plays Truck Fest ... Dawn Upshaw sings in Santa Fe ... and more ...

Oumou Sangare launches a rare North American tour this weekend with a free set at the Festival International Nuits d'Afrique in Montreal tonight before heading to the States and the Caramoor International Music Festival in Katonah, New York. The tour includes additional stops in Boston, Manhattan, Maine, and Brooklyn. The Boston Globe says: "A visit from this charismatic queen of Malian music and fierce combatant for women’s rights is always an occasion, not least because, as seen on her most recent album, Seya, she’s at the summit of her art."

Randy Newman kicks off his two-week tour of Australia tomorrow night in a performance with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra in Brisbane, followed by two nights with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and two more at the iconic Sydney Opera House with the Sydney Symphony. In the 1970s, Newman's "edgy, narrative-rich songs were part of an explosion of youthful talent bursting from the US west coast," says The Australian. "So much music from the era has been forgotten but Newman is still going strong ... He's long been acknowledged as a master songwriter: critics applaud the musical depth, edge and literary quality of his lyrics."

Chris Thile and Michael Daves will be the guests on WNYC's Soundcheck today at 2 PM ET, performing songs from their debut duo album, Sleep With One Eye Open, before a live audience at the Greene Space in downtown Manhattan. Also performing are the Del McCoury Band and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. The show is sold-out and will be webcast live. The New Yorker, in a preview of their show at The Bell House in Brooklyn tonight, says: "Expect the pair to deliver a high-spirited bluegrass-infused performance full of inspired harmonies."

Emmylou Harris is the musical guest on tonight's Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. Tune in to see Harris and her band perform "New Orleans," off her new album, Hard Bargain. Harris performed in NY's Central Park on a double bill with the legendary Levon Helm last night and joined in on the finale: The Band's "The Weight." She recently spoke with the A.V. Club, which says: "Her voice has a mournful quality that reaches back before the West was won, a sound that’s come to the fore over the last couple of decades as she’s definitively departed from the land of fiddles and pedal steel."

The Low Anthem announces new US headlining dates for September and October 2011 in support of their latest album, Smart Flesh. The band will also rejoin Iron & Wine on October 13 to open their show at NY's Terminal 5. Tickets for the fall headline shows are available for pre-sale beginning today at 10 AM ET and include a free download of two versions of the Smart Flesh outtake “Glitter." Hear those tracks here.

Jessica Lea Mayfield is featured on SPIN magazine's tribute to the 20th anniversary of Nirvana's Nevermind. She performs the album track "Lounge Act" on Newermind, on which SPIN asked some of its "favorite contemporary artists to cover the influential album's 13 songs, in their original order." Newermind is available as a free download till July 25 on SPIN's Facebook page. Mayfield concludes her tour with the Avett Brothers in Oakland tonight, then continues her own headline tour. Tune in to hear her perform on KFOG this afternoon.

Emmylou Harris brings her North American summer tour to NYC for a special performance, in which she joins the Levon Helm Band for a concert in Central Park to benefit SummerStage. She performs on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon Tuesday night. "The Road," the opening track on her new album, Hard Bargain, is the Free MP3 of the Day today at MP3.com. The New York Times, recommending tonight's show, calls Harris "the reigning queen of smart, fluent Americana."

Carolina Chocolate Drops, Wanda Jackson, Emmylou Harris celebrate the Green River Festival's 25th ... Cleveland Orchestra pairs John Adams with Bruckner at Lincoln Center Festival ... Björk closes out Manchester Biophilia residency ... Ben Folds plays Vegas ... Kronos Quartet, Brad Mehldau, Joshua Redman are in France ... k.d. lang hits the Appalachian Summer Fest ... Jessica Lea Mayfield goes Northwest with the Avett Brothers ... Punch Brothers perform in Winter Park ... Allen Toussaint celebrates Louisiana in Denver ... Sara Watkins joins the Paul F. Tompkins Show in LA ... and more ...

Emmylou Harris is the subject of a feature interview in Relix magazine, in which she discusses her new record, Hard Bargain, and the many unforgettable artistic collaborations Harris has made over the years, not least with Gram Parsons, about whom she wrote the album's opening track, "The Road." She is currently touring North America. Of her set at the Dave Matthews Band Caravan, the Chicago Tribune writes: "Achy, sympathetic and warm, Harris' quivering whippoorwill voice was the most effortlessly beautiful sound heard at the festival."

Chris Thile and Michael Daves have a number of live performances in the coming weeks, starting with a set at the Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival this Thursday. Audiophile Audition gives their album Sleep with One Eye Open a perfect five stars, saying: "If the O Brother Where Art Thou soundtrack raised the mainstream awareness of bluegrass, then Sleep with One Eye Open delivers on its promise." Sequenza21 calls it "beautifully simple ... an object lesson in how to do it right."