Tune in to hear Steve Reich today on WNYC's Soundcheck. The composer will discuss his latest piece, WTC 9/11, which will be given its NY premiere in a performance by Kronos Quartet this Saturday at Carnegie Hall, in an all-Reich concert celebrating his 75th birth year. (Listen to a recent Q2 program on the Carnegie Hall concert here.) Also on today's Soundcheck is a live set from Timothy Andres, who was recently named one of the top 100 Composers Under 40 by NPR and Q2. Soundcheck names Emmylou Harris's Hard Bargain a Pick of the Week. 

With a week to go before the May 3 release of Irish composer Donnacha Dennehy's Grá agus Bás, you can now listen to the album in its entirety till release day on npr.org as an NPR First Listen. The title piece "is full of sounds and textures that are at once haunting and exhilarating," says NPR, with a performance by Irish singer Iarla O’Lionáird that creates "one of the best and most satisfying listening experiences of the year so far." Dawn Upshaw's performance of Dennehy's "ravishing song cycle" That the Night Come "shows off her tremendous range."

Emmylou Harris's will appear on PBS's Tavis Smiley tonight to discuss her career and her new album, Hard Bargain, out Tuesday. "Harris is admired as much for her straightforward songwriting as for her expressive singing," says the show. "Forty years into her career, she's still doing both with ... Hard Bargain." She performs on three BBC Radio shows in the coming days. The Daily Mail gives the album four stars, calling it " a wonderfully immediate collection." Billboard says she still "a still-luminous voice that can make the phone book sound like Puccini." Fans in the US can enter to win an Epiphone EJ-200 signed by Harris.

k.d. lang and her new album, Sing it Loud, were featured on NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday this past weekend. lang spoke with host Liane Hansen about the making of the album and collaborating with co-writer and producer Joe Pisapia. "The second everybody walked into the room, the energy was palpable. It was an amazing session," says lang, of the July 4th recording session, with her band in Nashville with her band, the Siss Boom Bang. k.d. lang is currently in London celebrating the local release of Sing it Loud, with live interviews on television, and a review in the Observer describes the album as "jazz and country-flecked songs [that] brim with confidence."

k.d. lang and the Siss Boom Bang round out a week of celebrations marking the release of their new album, Sing it Loud, with a performance of the album's opening track, "I Confess," on ABC's The View this morning; watch it here. The song is today's Free Song of the Day at Amazon. They stop by WFUV to talk with host Rita Houston this evening and head next to the UK for a week of appearances marking the release of the new record there.

The Low Anthem began their US spring tour last night with the first of several sold-out shows with Iron and Wine. This weekend, The Low Anthem can also be heard on NPR stations across the country as their recent performance on Mountain Stage premieres; Lucinda Williams is also on the show. The band closed out its European tour at a sold-out show at Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, to which the Guardian and the Independent both gave four stars. You can now watch the video for "Boeing 737" here.

Legendary AfroBeat drummer Tony Allen will be the guest on WNYC's Soundcheck today. He will talk with the show's host, John Schaefer, and perform songs from his album Secret Agent. "The great Nigerian bandleader Fela Kuti had a not-so-secret weapon when he was creating the funk-infused style known as Afrobeat in the 1970s," says WNYC. "That weapon was drummer Tony Allen. A legend among drummers of all styles, Allen is still going strong." Allen launches a North American tour this week with special guest Amp Fiddler.

Before they left for their current European tour, The Low Anthem visited NPR member station WFUV in New York to discuss their latest release, Smart Flesh, and perform a number of songs off the album. You can hear the performances on WFUV's Words and Music from Studio A and their conversation with host Claudia Marshall on npr.org. The Low Anthem's music "is at times a rowdy stomp, at others a breathless, hymn-like hush," says Marshall, "always compelling, inventive and fresh. Welcome to folk music 3.0."

k.d. lang and the Siss Boom Bang are heading Down Under this week to celebrate this Friday's Australian release of their new album, Sing it Loud, due out in North America on April 12. Fans in Australia can catch lang and the band on TV starting release day and throughout April. They'll be able to watch them live in concert later this year on k.d. lang and the Siss Boom Bang's just-announced tour of Australia this November. Watch an excerpt of their recent performance at the John Varvatos 8th Annual Stuart House Benefit here.

SXSW is in full swing today in Austin, with countless showcases, performances, parties, events, and radio broadcast on tap. Emmylou Harris and Jessica Lea Mayfield are among today's SXSW performers who can be heard around the world when their sets stream live online: Harris via NY public radio station WFUV, Mayfield on the Waterloo Records site. "Our Hearts Are Wrong," off Mayfield's album Tell Me, has been named NPR Song of the Day.

Wanda Jackson's new album, The Party Ain't Over, "secures Jackson's place as a 21st-century entertainer," says a new review from NPR's All Things Considered. Producer Jack White "cleverly matches Jackson's infamous vocal growl with huge arrangements, creating an instant party on the first track," says NPR. "White coaxes a performance from Jackson that fits her as well today as it did in 1958." Tune in to CMT's Insider this weekend for a look at the collaboration. Jackson performs at the Robson PAC in Claremore, Oklahoma, tonight to benefit the Akdar Shrine Center.

The Carolina Chocolate Drops' and Luminescent Orchestrii's performance of "Knockin'," off their self-titled, four-song EP, has been named Song of the Day by NPR. "Knockin'' is the perfect song to capture the two groups' individual and combined gifts," says NPR. It "offers a new way to hear the Carolina Chocolate Drops. The group has long bridged the sounds of American roots music for modern audiences, but between 'Knockin'' and 'Hit 'Em Up Style,' it's exciting to hear [Rhiannon] Giddens sing with so much verve and conviction."