Jeff Tweedy performed two solo sets this past weekend, at the Calvin Theater in Northampton, Massachusetts, Friday night, and at Beacon High School in upstate New York, in a fundraiser for the Clearwater organization co-founded by Pete Seeger, who also performed. Rolling Stone says "Tweedy, like Seeger, engaged the crowd throughout his set ... He also sang with crisp vocals and rich vocal inflection on 'Passenger Side' and played haunting harmonica lines on 'Via Chicago.'” The Republican says Tweedy was equally humble and successful with the sold-out crowd at the Calvin: "Tweedy was magnificent over the course of his 25-song set, recounting the Wilco catalog in acoustic form."

Sara Watkins's self-titled debut is set for its Nonesuch release next Tuesday, April 7, and the new album "is quietly authentic as it mesmerizes," says the Huffington Post. "Sara's strong yet sometimes whispered vocal approach on these tracks conveys all it needs to without one ounce of overkill ... picture Emmylou Harris with touches of Edie Brickell and Rickie Lee Jones." Sara offers her own interpretation of songs by a diverse range of writers and as many of her own self-penned tunes, which the review calls "musically engaging, and they also reveal Sara as a serious lyricist with a mission ... Sara Watkins firmly establishes the woman as folk's newest herald, and a future force of nature to be reckoned with." Q magazine lists the album track "Give Me Jesus," arranged by Sara and Chris Thile, among the Top 50 Essential Tracks of the month.

Amadou & Mariam's Welcome to Mali, just out in the US on Nonesuch, is a Pick of the Week on WNYC's Soundcheck, which calls the album "another strong showing of their cosmopolitan sound." New Jersey's Star-Ledger says that, with the new album, the couple "show they have opened up to a new era of musical possibilities," featuring "a sophisticated but rough-edged sound that can evoke African village griot storytellers as well as psychedelic garage bands ... By album's end, they have held master classes in rock, funk, reggae and rap, not to mention African styles," concludes the Star-Ledger, and "crowned a long career with an album that effortlessly blends Africa and the West."

Amadou & Mariam are good at what they do, says NPR music critic Robert Christgau in an All Things Considered album review, and "never better than on their brand-new Welcome to Mali." He says the Damon Albarn–produced opening track, "Sabali," is "terrific" and shows that "Amadou and Mariam absorb ideas from anywhere and sound like they're having a ball." Entertainment Weekly says Albarn's "splendidly atmospheric keyboards and production" move the couple "beyond their comfort zone—much as globalist rocker Manu Chao did for the duo's 2005 breakthrough, Dimanche à Bamako." The Chicago Tribune says the new album "is bolder still" than their last, calling Welcome to Mali "an album that throws its arms around the world, and invites everyone to dance. It succeeds joyously." Flaunt says Amadou & Mariam "capture a feeling absent from many releases in the early 2000s: genuineness."

Amadou & Mariam's Welcome to Mali was released in the States yesterday, and the complete album is streaming today on spinner.com. On the new record, says Vanity Fair , "traditional African beats and melodies underly everything from electronic synth-pop to hip-hop tracks featuring Somali rapper K’Naan." The Root calls the couple "global pop’s band to watch—M.I.A. be damned—as heirs to the storied West African musical throne and as embodiments of the worldly, cosmopolitan flair that defines 21st century hipness ... Before it’s done, the album moves through hip-hop, R&B, rock, traditional Malian and more—often simultaneously." It's all mixed "with an accessible poppy feel," says The Root, "and the result is just plain cool."

Dan Auerbach "broadens his style" on Keep It Hid, says NPR's Fresh Air, "to include folk, country and even psychedelic elements." Rock critic Ken Tucker says that, while the solo disc offers Auerbach space to change things up from the full-throttle sound of The Black Keys—the album being "all about creating intimacy"—that's not to say Dan has shied away from his blues-rock roots. Even so, Tucker says it's easy "to appreciate the floating, airy atmosphere of Keep It Hid." Rolling Stone's Smoking Section calls the album "unbelievably awesome ... We can’t stop playing it, top to bottom."

Amadou & Mariam's Welcome to Mali makes its US debut with its Nonesuch release today. Details cites "the mind-blowing" Damon Albarn–produced opening track as "a soulful and modern masterpiece"; Time Out New York calls it the album's "jewel in its crown." Blurt describes the album as one of "pure sensual joy, a raft of infectious-rhythmed, ebulliently performed funk-rock-desert-electro-dance songs ... in a music so generous, so inclusive and celebratory that you cannot help feeling a wave of optimism." And in difficult times, "It's just what you need ... really ... Welcome to Mali is for the good times, even in bad times."

Joshua Redman and one of two trios featured on his recent Nonesuch release, Compass, bassist Reuben Rogers and drummer Greg Hutchinson, played a three-night residency at Ronnie Scott's club in London through last weekend. The Guardian gives the sets four stars, describing Redman as "a compelling builder of extended stories, and his pacing is masterly." The Trio gave the audience, which "howled their appreciation," "a demonstration of peerless sax mastery and group empathy." The Financial Times gives four stars as well, asserting: "Redman’s trio deliver an intense and fiery chamber jazz ... The fractured breaks, snatches of improv and twists and turns seemed as spontaneous as the applause they immediately won."

Amadou & Mariam's latest album, Welcome to Mali, is set for US release on Nonesuch tomorrow. The duo is the subject of a number of feature-length articles about changing perceptions in the West of African musics beyond "world music." The New York Times places them "among the world’s most renowned African musical acts" and says the new album is "less an abandonment of the group’s culture than an updating of it." The Los Angeles Times cites the success of Amadou & Mariam, who "helped define the current African shift," and of Youssou N'Dour, Oumou Sangare, and Rokia Traoré, as examples that "the American cliché of African music is falling apart—or, really, exploding." Detroit Free-Press gives Welcome to Mali four stars, calling it "a spirited invitation to dance away those recession-induced blues and welcome spring ... This is a feel-good album. Don't miss it."

In an interview on ABC's World News webcast, Amadou & Mariam discuss having met at Mali's Institute for Young Blind People more than 30 years ago and explain the central role of music in their relationship's success. Also featured on ABC's site is a Pitchfork video review of the duo's new album. "Welcome to Mali is a brilliantly eclectic album," says reviewer Joe Tangari. "They have it all, really ... This is the kind of album that makes you feel more connected to the world you live in." "It’s hard to go wrong with Amadou and Mariam," concurs Dusted magazine. "[They] make great pop music, and their new album gives us more of it." The Boston Herald gives it an A.

John Adams conducts the Pittsburgh Symphony with Leila Josefowicz; San Francisco Ballet dances to Adams in Mark Morris program ... Afro-Cuban All Stars tour the Midwest ... Laurie Anderson performs a new collection at the Guggenheim ... Dan Auerbach closes out US tour, makes the Very Short List ... David Byrne launches European spring tour ... Bill Frisell tours the South with Greg Leisz ... Philip Glass launches four-week series in NYC ... Richard Goode joins Boston Symphony Orchestra ... Kronos reaches Rotterdam's RedSound Festival ... Brad Mehldau Trio makes festival rounds in Australia, Singapore ... Mandy Patinkin, Patti LuPone play Delaware's DuPont ... Joshua Redman Trio play sets in Sweden, Switzerland ... Steve Reich featured at the Salzburg Biennale ... and more ...

Amadou & Mariam's new album, Welcome to Mali, receives its US release on Nonesuch in less than two weeks. Time magazine calls the album "a joyous, hook-filled guitar album with impressive range." The review notes that the blend of influences from Western rock to traditional African instrumentation provides "a thrilling sense of dislocation." The duo are also featured in the CMJ.com Spotlight, which insists that "Welcome to Mali is not to be cast off as cultural art du jour, but rather hailed as a global pop phenomenon."