The Low Anthem's West Coast tour will begin one day later than planned, at LA's Bootleg Theatre tomorrow. Now comes word that The Low Anthem will return to the Newport Folk Festival for the third year in a row, playing the main stage on July 31. Label mates Punch Brothers perform the next day. Discounted tickets are available through Friday. Chris Thile performs at the Savannah Music Festival tonight and will join up with Punch Brothers in Portland, Maine, this weekend.

The Magnetic Fields' Realism tour made its way through England and continues on the Continent for the next week. BBC Manchester spoke with Stephin Merritt, "a brilliant songwriter," for "one of the most honest interviews from a songwriter about how hard it is to work on the art of it." The band's set at London's Barbican Centre elicited "well earned applause," says the Evening Standard's four-star review. The Arts Desk called it "a delightful show ... what a great band; and what a lovely, sad, funny evening."

The Low Anthem's headlining tour of the US is in full swing again following a five-concert run at SXSW in Austin last week. The band performs along the West Coast, starting at Largo in LA. Today is release day for the special limited-edition vinyl 7-inch single of "Charlie Darwin," featuring the Oh My God, Charlie Darwin track plus new and unreleased material. The LAist says the album "spans the gamut of everything you'd want in Americana inspired music." The San Jose Mercury News calls it "hauntingly beautiful."

The Carolina Chocolate Drops, a smash hit at SXSW last week, have returned to their home state of North Carolina and to their roots: the Black Banjo Gathering in Boone, North Carolina, where the band first met back in 2005. The Drops will join in on workshops and performances all week. Rolling Stone says that, as a result of their SXSW performances, "Their newgrass cover of 'Hit ‘Em Up Style' has been upgraded from 'must hear' to 'must experience.'"

Wilco begins its 16-concert run of Eastern US cities at The Filmore Miami Beach at the Jackie Gleason Theater tonight. The concerts, presented as An Evening with Wilco, will feature extended, varied sets exploring material from each of the sextet’s seven studio albums. You can relive the live experience with the 2005 live album Kicking Television in a new deluxe, four-LP box set, due out April 17 and now available for pre-order in the Nonesuch Store.

The Low Anthem, Carolina Chocolate Drops continue confab at SXSW ... John Adams is in Paris for Cité de la Musique Forum John Adams ... Laurie Anderson airs Amelia Earhart in Basel ... Louis Andriessen gets honorary doctorate in Birmingham ... Kronos closes Carnegie Hall Perspectives with Young Artists Concert ... The Magnetic Fields bring Realism to the UK ... Brad Mehldau solos in Netherlands ... Pat Metheny plays Orchestrion in Italy ... Signature Theatre celebrates Sondheim's 80th ... Chris Thile performs Mandolin Concerto in Delaware ... Allen Toussaint plays Rome ... Dawn Upshaw, Emanuel Ax perform in San Francisco ... and more ...

Natalie Merchant, whose Nonesuch debut album, Leave Your Sleep, is due out on April 13, will perform songs from the album at the PEN World Voices Festival's PEN Cabaret at New York City's (Le) Poisson Rouge on May 1. This year's PEN Cabaret will also include appearances by Booker Prize winner Ben Okri, Chilean story master Ariel Dorfman, and Georgian writer and performance artist Irakli Kakabadze. The PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature takes place April 26 through May 2.

The 2010 South by Southwest Music and Media Conference (SXSW) gets under way in Austin, Texas, today, with several performances by Nonesuch artists slated during the festival's run through the weekend from The Low Anthem, Carolina Chocolate Drops, and Christina Courtin, who kicks things off with a set at St. David's Sanctuary tonight. Also at SXSW this week are world premiere screenings of The Magnetic Fields documentary Strange Powers and the David Byrne tour film Ride, Rise, Roar.

John Adams led the LSO in the European premiere of his City Noir at London's Barbican Hall last week, to which the Times (UK) gives four stars and calls "brilliant." Adams and the LSO bring to Salle Pleyel in Paris to launch Domain privé John Adams, an 11-day celebration of the composer's music there and at Cité de la musique, with six concerts, three premieres, and a forum with the composer. The Vancouver Sun describes last weekend's Canadian premiere of Adams's Nixon in China as “brilliantly effective.”

Remember: Daylight Savings Time ... Carolina Chocolate Drops bring "playful bent" to NYC's Bowery Ballroom ... Vinicio Capossela concludes US tour in California ... Perspectives: Kronos Quartet continues at Carnegie Hall ... The Low Anthem headline ... The Magnetic Fields play third sold-out set at NYC's Town Hall ... Brad Mehldau goes solo in France ... Pat Metheny's Orchestrion tour of Europe continues ... Nicholas Payton is in residence at Village Vanguard ... Chris Thile plays his Mandolin Concerto with Winston-Salem ... Jeff Tweedy performs solo benefit shows at Chicago's Vic Theatre ... Dawn Upshaw, Emanuel Ax perform Chopin, Schumann at Barbican Hall ... and more ...

John Adams led the LSO in the European premiere of his City Noir at London's Barbican Hall last night. The Evening Standard gives it four stars, calling the new piece "a dazzling showpiece." Adams's first opera, Nixon in China, receives its Canadian premiere at the Vancouver Opera tomorrow for the 2010 Cultural Olympiad. Next week, Long Beach Opera presents the first LA staging in two decades. Los Angeles Times' Mark Swed reflects on the opera's history, calling it a "classic" and "a marvelous, ever interesting" work.

Brad Mehldau and his forthcoming Nonesuch release, Highway Rider, were slated to be featured on tomorrow's episode of NPR's Weekend Edition Saturday, but the segment has been postponed to a future date. The Guardian, in a five-star review of the album, calls it "the real deal," saying: "Highway Rider's contrasts and dramatic entries spring constant surprises, and show how much progress the mesmerising improviser has made as a big-ensemble composer."