Kronos Quartet begins its four-night residency at San Francisco's Z Space @ Artaud tonight. Each of the four performances offers a different program, featuring Jon Rose's Music from 4 Fences plus works by Terry Riley, a piece by composers from the Kronos: Under 30 Project, and other commissioned works. Plus: Kronos buttons aplenty (pictured). SF Weekly recommends tonight's show as "a rare treat indeed."

The Low Anthem began its months-long North American tour last night at Club Cafe in Pittsburgh last night. The quartet is at Ohio University's Memorial Hall tonight for the first of ten tour dates opening for the Avett Brothers, including shows in upstate New York, Ohio, Indiana, Missouri, Oklahoma, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Michigan, before The Low Anthem begins its first headlining tour.

The Carolina Chocolate Drops begin their US tour in Danville, Indiana, this Thursday, playing music from their Nonesuch debut, Genuine Negro Jig, and have now added a number of new dates, including a return to the Black Banjo Gathering, where they first met in 2005. The AP says, "The Carolina Chocolate Drops rise above easy classification ... using the blues as filtered through the unique Piedmont string band movement as a stepping stone to something more," calling Rhiannon Giddens' voice "a revelation, both modern and timeless."

Wilco's Trans-Canada tour, a.k.a. the Tundra Tour, is under way with a performance in Hamilton, Ontario, tonight, and is being marked with the poster at left. The band has also added five tour dates in Germany this September. Last weekend's trio of sold-out sets in the Midwest included Wilco's being named an honorary Duluth band by the city's mayor and a show in Madison that The A.V. Club says confirmed: "This version of Wilco is simply the most reliable working rock band we have today."

Nonesuch Records will release Natalie Merchant’s new album, Leave Your Sleep, on April 12 (April 13 in the US). The album is the culmination of six years of research and collaboration and is, in Merchant’s words, “The most elaborate project I have ever completed or even imagined.” It is her first studio album since 2003 and her first for Nonesuch. To coincide with the release, she has announced a European tour in May–her first in eight years–including seven dates in the UK.

Randy Newman spends an evening at Royce Hall ... Alarm Will Sound supports Dirty Projectors at the Allen Room ... Laurie Anderson is in Vancouver's Cultural Olympiad ... Colvin keeps close to home in Austin ... Courtin tours with Mike Doughty ... Frisell is in Austria with Iva Bittová ... Glass talks Brainwaves ... Goode joins NDR Symphony in Hamburg ... Magnetic Fields play Portland ... Metheny stops in Spain ... Punch Brothers play the South ... Redman Trio plays outside DC ... Sara Watkins opens for John Prine ... Wilco plays sold-out trifecta ... and more ...

Wilco will stream a live webcast from its sold-out show at Overture Hall in Madison, Wisconsin, Saturday night at 8:30 PM CST. The band is in Duluth, Minnesota, tonight, and East Lansing, Michigan, on Sunday. The Lansing State Journal says, "Fifteen years and seven albums since getting together, Wilco's music still sounds edgy and alive." The documentary Ashes of American Flags is showing at the Screenland Armour in Kansas City, Missouri.

The Joshua Redman Trio performs at the University of Maryland's Clarice Smith Center on Sunday. The trio appears on Compass, Redman's latest Nonesuch release, which the Washington Post says "easily ranks among his most rewarding." DCist says, "The music is challenging, but remains accessible even to the untrained ear." The Washington City Paper insists the trio has "one of the surest and most intoxicating sense of melody you’ve ever heard."

Laurie Anderson unveiled her latest multimedia piece, Delusion, at the Vancouver Playhouse Theatre this week as part of the 2010 Cultural Olympiad. "Delusion ranks with Anderson’s best," says the Georgia Straight. It is, above all, "smart, funny, emotionally engaging, and flat-out beautiful—in short, everything you’d expect from an artist of Anderson’s stature and reputation."

The Low Anthem will release a special limited-edition vinyl 7-inch of its single "Charlie Darwin" on March 2 [now March 23], featuring "Charlie Darwin," off the band's Nonesuch debut, Oh My God, Charlie Darwin, and two staples from the band's live show, the previously unreleased "Sally Where'd You Get Your Liquor From" and "Don't Let Nobody Turn You Around." The band is preparing for its first headlining tour and will hit this year's SXSW and Sasquatch festivals. Before that, the band will support The Avett Brothers for ten dates.

Vinicio Capossela, one of Italy’s most celebrated and best-selling artists, releases his latest album, The Story-Faced Man, now available digitally from the Nonesuch Store. This compendium offers American audiences an introduction to the music of the man described by the Sunday Times as "Italy’s greatest rock star" and by Mojo as "Italy’s most intriguing musical traveler." Renowned for concerts that fuse rock, theatre, and performance art, Capossela brings the show to North America for one week in March.

Laurie Anderson's Delusion received its world premiere in Vancouver last night as part of the Cultural Olympiad. In an interview with the CBC, she jokingly refers to the piece as "a poor man's Avatar." She tells the Globe and Mail it's "a collection of stories about identity ... and ancestors and relatives and where you come from, where you’re going. Those small questions." The Vancouver Sun calls her "one of those rare artists who have moved from the avant-garde into the world of pop culture and celebrity while still retaining her creative and experimental edge."