James Farm kicked off its four-night residency at New York's Jazz Standard last night with two stellar sets featuring songs from their self-titled debut album. The band stopped by WNYC's Soundcheck earlier this week to discuss and perform songs off the new record. You can listen to the segment and watch the band perform "Polliwog" in a video from the show here. You can also listen to a bonus web exclusive performance from the session of "Bijoux."

The 38th Annual Telluride Bluegrass Festival got under way yesterday 8,750 feet up in bucolic Telluride, Colorado. The music-making continues through the weekend with sets to come from Chris Thile and Michael Daves, Emmylou Harris, and Punch Brothers, plus Sara Watkins sits in with the Decemberists as part of her ongoing tour with the group.

Emmylou Harris kicks off her North American spring and summer tour with a return to the Telluride Bluegrass Festival in Telluride, Colorado, tonight. The tour will feature songs from Harris's recent Nonesuch release, Hard Bargain, as well as favorites from throughout her career. The tour includes several festival sets like the Dave Matthew Band Caravan, Newport Folk Festival, and Canada's Harvest Picnic; an Austin City Limits Live performance; a show with the Levon Helm Band in New York's Central Park; and stops at more than a dozen indoor and outdoor venues across the US.

k.d. lang and the Siss Boom Bang kick off their North American tour at the Eastman Theatre in Rochester, New York, tonight for the 2011 Rochester Jazz Festival. "k.d. lang's voice hovers in the twilight somewhere between heartache and desire," says the Rochester City Newspaper, citing her voice's "elastic range, creamy tone, power, and seduction," and calling her "one of the finest crooners of this generation." Spinner spoke with lang and says her new album, Sing it Loud, "easily stands up amongst her best." Tune in to NYC's WFUV 90.7 FM tonight to hear lang and the band, and watch a video from that session here.

Chris Thile and Michael Daves's debut duo album, Sleep with One Eye Open, released last month on Nonesuch, is available for just $3.99 at Amazon for today only. The album track "My Little Girl in Tennessee" is also available for free as Amazon's Free Song of the Day. Thile and Daves are in Colorado this weekend to perform at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival, as is Thile's band Punch Brothers.

The Low Anthem recently performed a session for Crawdaddy! featuring songs from their latest Nonesuch release, Smart Flesh. You can watch the performances here. "There’s a reason why Low Anthem is getting a lot of buzz these days," says Crawdaddy! The band's "vintage sensibility is lifted by pristine vocals and a collaborative energy among them that draws from their respective strengths." The band performs in Brooklyn tonight, followed by shows in Connecticut and at the Clearwater festival in upstate New York.

James Farm, featuring Joshua Redman, Aaron Parks, Matt Penman, and Eric Harland, is today's guest on WNYC's Soundcheck. The quartet sets up shop at the NY's Jazz Standard this week for a four-night residency. The New York Times says the band members "share a fondness for sleek convolution and introspective groove. As on their impressive new debut, self-titled and on the Nonesuch label, they’ll reach here for a cohesive and conscientiously eclectic sound."

Kronos Quartet will be the featured guests on CBC radio arts program Q Wednesday morning. Kronos will be joined on the program by pipa virtuoso Wu Man, who also joins the group in the fourth and final concert of its residency at the Luminato Festival in Toronto Wednesday night. The concert features the Canadian premiere of the multimedia piece A Chinese Home. The Toronto Star says of Sunday's free outdoor concert from Kronos: "This is what makes Luminato special."

Among the more memorable moments of this weekend's Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival were sets from The Black Keys, Jessica Lea Mayfield, Wanda Jackson, and The Low Anthem. Whether performing on the festival’s largest What Stage, or in one of three intimate festival tents, Nonesuch artists conquered the infamous Bonnaroo dust and heat to deliver noteworthy performances. Among the highlights was what Rolling Stone called a "supersized and stunning" main-stage debut from The Black Keys, "the perfect soundtrack as the sun was setting.”

Bonnaroo is under way all weekend in Manchester, Tennessee, and includes sets from Jessica Lea Mayfield, Wanda Jackson, The Low Anthem, The Black Keys, Dan Auerbach, and Allen Toussaint ... Laurie Anderson brings Delusion to Amsterdam ... Christina Courtin celebrates LPR's anniversary in NYC ... Philip Glass performs at the Met ... Gidon Kremer receives Lifetime Achievement Award in Istanbul ... Kronos Quartet launches Luminato residency ... Joshua Redman Trio plays São Paulo ... Dawn Upshaw performs at Ojai ... and more ...

Kronos Quartet begins its residency at the Luminato Festival in Toronto today. The residency features four concerts reflecting the Quartet's global musical journey. Kronos is "one of the world's finest—and definitely most adventurous—chamber ensembles," says the Toronto Star. "Every one of their nearly four-dozen albums—which have earned every industry award imaginable—have introduced their growing legion of fans and audiences to a new piece of a global musical puzzle."

Dawn Upshaw helps kick off the 2011 Ojai Music Festival tonight. She is the music director of this year's festival, which runs through Sunday, June 12, and marks the soprano's fourth appearance at the Southern California festival. Festival highlights include Upshaw's performance of Crumb’s The Winds of Destiny and the world premiere of Maria Schneider's Winter Morning Walks. The Los Angeles Times says "her voice is like a ray of light in a forest. Its luminous tone is proof that some things in the world can never be manufactured."