Laurie Anderson has began a short tour of the East Coast with music from her new album, Homeland, in two shows at Philadelphia's World Cafe Live, one at New York's (Le) Poisson Rouge, and one at The Birchmere in Alexandria, Virginia. She was recently featured on PRI's Studio 360 and appears on PRI's Echoes today. The Philadelphia Inquirer says Anderson's "current projects suggest that, at 63, she's at a late-middle-age creative peak."

Ben Folds and Nick Hornby, whose music and words, respectively, come together on the forthcoming Nonesuch release Lonely Avenue, appeared on the Saturday edition of BBC Radio 2's Jonathan Ross show. Folds and Horby discussed the new album and perform their song "From Above," with Ben on acoustic guitar, and Hornby helping out on the singing—undoubtedly a world exclusive event.

On the latest edition of NPR's All Songs Considered, host Bob Boilen and his regular cast of contributors sort through the "crush of great new music" coming out this summer, choosing "some of the upcoming albums they're most looking forward to." Robin Hilton, the show's producer, chooses Familial, the forthcoming debut solo album from Philip Selway.

The film I Am Love features the music of John Adams, which plays an important role in the "sumptuous, operatic, and swooning" film, says NPR's Fresh Air. Director Luca Guadagnino "suffuses everything with beauty, be it Yorick Le Saux's fluid cinematography, the richly textured music by John Adams or the outfits especially designed for Swinton by Jil Sander and Fendi." Variety features an article about the director's love of Adams's music. The Epoch Times praises the soundtrack as a "collection of some powerful music by an important voice in American music."

The Barbican joins the Theatre Royal Stratford East in presenting a two-week run of performances of John Adams's 1995 music theatre piece I Was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky at the Theatre Royal, opening tonight. The BBC previews the production, saying: "John Adams is arguably America's unofficial national composer." The London Philharmonic performs his Doctor Atomic Symphony at London's Royal Festival Hall.

Laurie Anderson's new album, Homeland, was the subject of a feature profile in the Sunday New York Times, which states, "Homeland may be the most frankly emotional record Ms. Anderson has ever made," and on NPR's Weekend Edition Saturday, which calls her performances "the stuff of legend." Homeland receives four stars from the Financial Times, Metro, Irish Independent, and Irish Times.

Punch Brothers are back in their adopted hometown of New York City, where they first crafted the songs on their new album, Antifogmatic, for a show at the Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn. There's much to celebrate: the album debuted at No. 1 on Billboard's Heatseekers Chart of new artists. The band will discuss and perform songs from Antifogmatic on WNYC's Soundcheck this afternoon.

With the year at its halfway point, NPR's jazz sampler, Take Five, has picked its choices for the Best New Jazz of 2010 (So Far). Two of the five come from Nonesuch: Orchestrion, on which Pat Metheny "makes every instrument an extension of his guitar skills, technical knowledge and sheer artistic willpower," and Highway Rider, on which Brad Mehldau "shows how much he's grown as a composer, and not just a renowned pianist."

Ry Cooder will appear on New York public radio station WFUV, 90.7 FM, on Thursday to premiere his latest effort, "Quicksand," a new song he wrote in response to Arizona's recent immigration law, SB 1070. The track will be available exclusively on iTunes beginning June 29, with all proceeds going to support MALDEF, the Mexican American Legal Defense & Education Fund.

The BBC World Service arts program The Strand headed to New Orleans for a look at how the city's arts community had been recovering in the five years since Hurricane Katrina struck and in light of the current BP oil disaster. The show features New Orleans legend Allen Toussaint, whose album The Bright Mississippi showcases the work of New Orleans jazz greats. "The spirit here is alive and well," he says.

The Carolina Chocolate Drops are featured on the latest episode of PRI's Studio 360 with Kurt Anderson. The show caught up with the trio when they "returned as stars" to the site of their first meeting, the Black Banjo Gathering, and delves into the history of that gathering's focal instrument, the banjo. The band performs two sets at the Bonnaroo festival next week.

Timothy Andres's debut album, Shy and Mighty, recently released on Nonesuch, is a Pick of the Week from WNYC's Soundcheck. Says host John Schaefer: "He’s a young composer but he seems to have already worked through his influences—the rock ones and the classical ones like Brahms, Mahler, and Philip Glass—and developed a personal voice. It’s an impressive debut from the composer Timothy Andres."