Ry Cooder's monthlong tour with Nick Lowe through Japan, New Zealand, and Australia came to a close last night in Perth. The Age, in its review of the Melbourne show, describes Cooder as "the slide-guitar messiah." The Sydney Morning Herald reports from the Sydney set that his "guitar playing was of subtle beauty and effortlessness. Elegance and class all round on stage, actually." Cooder performs next as a guest of The Chieftans at Glasgow's Celtic Connections festival in January.

Three Nonesuch albums have made the list of the Best Albums of 2009 from David Dye, host of NPR's World Cafe: Wilco's Wilco (the album) ("a masterpiece that felt both ambitious and lived-in"), Dan Auerbach's Keep It Hid, and Allen Toussaint's The Bright Mississippi. Dye also picks "You and I," Jeff Tweedy's duet with Leslie Feist off Wilco (the album), among his choices of the year's best songs.

Gidon Kremer and Kremerata Baltica's Nonesuch recording of the complete Mozart violin concertos has received the Silver Award at the Record Academy Awards published by Japan's The Record Geijutsu. Australia's ABC Radio National's Breakfast has chosen the recording as Album of the Week, saying, "played true to the style of when they were written, the music sounds fresh and appealing."

BlakRoc, the collaboration between The Black Keys, Damon Dash, and some of the biggest MCs in hip-hop, was released on Friday; NPR marked the event on Morning Edition. The Washington Post describes the Keys' contribution as "a mix of gritty, jazzy and psychedelic beats that ... often resemble those of Wu-Tang Clan." The Wall Street Journal says unlike some earlier efforts to bring rock and hip-hop together, the Keys offer "the credibility needed to attempt such alchemy." The Village Voice says that here, "they actually improve one another." The Observer gives the album four stars.

Bill Frisell unveiled a new piece with Mike Gibbs and the BBC Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican in London last Friday. The London Jazz Festival performance will be broadcast on BBC Radio 3's Afternoon on 3 today. "Each year, the London Jazz Festival marshals orchestral resources for landmark special events," writes the Financial Times in a five-star review. "This year’s centrepiece was a platform for Bill Frisell." The Guardian gives it four stars, saying "the graceful balance of order and open jamming in Gibbs's orchestral score let most of this unique artist's character glow through."

The latest episode of Studio 360 celebrates the 150th anniversary of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species, including word from The Low Anthem's Ben Knox Miller on the origin of the title of the band's Nonesuch debut, Oh My God, Charlie Darwin. The Rough Trade staff puts the album at No. 2 of the year's best, calling it "essential." After the band's show in London last week, Uncut calls it "the year's breakout album," not least for its "supernaturally beautiful title track."

The Low Anthem is set to close out its tour with Blind Pilot at the Paradise in Boston tonight. Earlier this week, during a stop in Charlottesville, Virginia, the band taped a performance of "To Ohio" for WNRN now on YouTube. The Boston Herald tracks the band's rise to larger venues while retaining the "crackling Americana ethos" fans and critics have come to appreciate. The band has contributed a track to Hard Rock's benefit album to fight hunger and poverty.

Dan Auerbach brings his tour to New York City's Webster Hall tonight. Things kicked off last week in Columbus, Ohio, with what UWeekly calls "a very intimate show and one that you should be kicking yourself for if you missed it." The Boston Herald calls Monday's set at the Paradise in Boston an "exhilarating" show, at which "Auerbach opened the sonic floodgates."

As Wilco’s European tour continues, the vinyl reissue of the band's catalog is now complete with today's release of Being There, the band's second studio album. Upon its original release, The Independent's Andy Gill compared it favorably to the Rolling Stones’ Exile on Main Street. Today, Gill praises Wilco's recent London show, which closed with a special take of a song off Being There, "a magical, moving conclusion to one of the best gigs of the year, by one of the best bands in the world."

The Carolina Chocolate Drops were in California last week for a number of shows, including a small session at Santa Monica's Village Studios, where a select few got a taste of what's to come on the band's forthcoming Nonesuch debut, out early next year. "Boing Boing will be all over it like gravy on grits," says the site. "They were amazing." Boing Boing Video also shot some post-concert jamming with band member Dom and special guests.

Kronos Quartet performed at Carnegie Hall on Tuesday as part of Kronos's Perspectives series, the only artist to be given such a focus this season. It also happens to coincide with the Hall's current festival of Chinese music, and, says the New York Times, "Of the many Western ensembles trooping into Carnegie to play Chinese music (or music about China) the Kronos is by far the most adept at cultural crossing over."

Just as Wilco begins its tour through Europe in the UK tonight, the band's 2002 album Yankee Hotel Foxtrot has nabbed the No. 2 slot on the list of the 50 Best Albums of the Decade according to Paste magazine and claims the No. 1 spot in a poll of the magazine's readers. "Through its circuitous provenance and runaway success," says Paste, "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot proved that great art—even in difficult times—will find the light of day."