Emmylou Harris's US tour is now heading down the West Coast, bringing songs from her latest album, All I Intended to Be, and throughout her varied career, from Seattle to San Diego. After her recent performance in Seattle, the Seattle Times wrote: "Emmylou Harris proves on her latest release that she still has one of the best voices in the business ... The grace of her vocals and the restraint of her songwriting and song choices is what we've come to expect from Harris. The fact that she continues to deliver makes it even more impressive ..."

Randy Newman performed every song off his forthcoming Nonesuch release, Harps and Angels, this past Wednesday in a special, intimate showcase at the new LA venue Largo at the Coronet. Variety's Steven Mirkin writes that "both the concert and the wonderful new album ... show Newman to be at the height of his powers, writing some of the most acerbic and heartfelt songs of his career."

Laurie Anderson gave the first of five performances at Lincoln Center of her latest piece, Homeland, last night. The New York Sun's Joy Goodwin calls it "the work of a consummate artist at the highest level of her craft" and "the natural extension of what Bob Dylan and the Byrds were doing" in the 1960s, "taking on the establishment with words and melodies, and holding an audience in the palm of their hand."

The Magnetic Fields recently complete a sold-out, five-night stint at London's Cadogan Hall to which The Independent gives a perfect five stars, calling the band "masters of the pocket symphony" and finding the roots of Stephin Merritt's songwriting in Cole Porter and Tom Lehrer. NME asserts that with the concerts, the group "proved themselves the greatest band in operation today without even breaking a sweat."

k.d. lang is back in the British Isles to close out her European Watershed tour with a string of dates that began last night in Oxford and continue from tonight in Sheffield through Dublin, Ireland, on Monday to the last stop, Brighton, a week later. The Guardian features an extensive interview with k.d. that asserts: "First and always foremost, there was her voice, as pure and wide and open as Canadian skies."

Ry Cooder spoke with Associated Press writer John Rogers about his most recent release, I, Flathead, the third in his trilogy of albums about often overlooked aspects of 20th-century California history. Rogers asserts that with the trilogy, which also includes Chavez Ravine (2005) and My Name Is Buddy (2007), "Cooder has, nearly single-handedly, been keeping alive" the unique sound of mid-century Los Angeles.

Punch Brothers, fresh off a successful tour of Ireland and the UK, are back in the States and set to play tonight in downtown New York City as part of the River to River Festival of free summer concerts. After last week's London show, the Financial Times called the group among the "foremost practitioners" of "progressive bluegrass," and their music "Americana played with adventure and accomplishment." Please note: due to tonight's inclement weather forecast, the concert has been moved inside, to Stuyvesant High School, across the street from Rockefeller Park.

Ry Cooder's I, Flathead, the third and final album in his "California trilogy," receives "wild applause" from the San Francisco Chronicle. "Of course, Ry Cooder really is all that," writes reviewer David Wiegand. "People toss the word 'genius' around far too often and too easily, but Cooder has more than earned that distinction with a long and consistently adventurous career."

On I, Flathead, as with the previous two discs in his California trilogy, Ry Cooder addresses a number of often overlooked topics in the history of mid-20th century, multi-ethnic California, and, says the Knoxville News Sentinel, "he delivers them with subtlety and humanity." The Boston Globe calls the new trilogy album "the best of the lot ... a fascinating journey by a maverick who won't be harnessed."

Orchestra Baobab's Made in Dakar tour of the States culminated last night with a concert at the intimate Dakota Cafe in Minneapolis that lead Minneapolis City Pages reviewer Peter S. Scholtes to exclaim: "Orchestra Baobab is the kind of band that makes critics (at least this one) resort to hyperbole and sociology: They sound like God ..."

Ry Cooder's latest Nonesuch release, I, Flathead, receives four stars from The Independent (UK). The Philadelphia Daily News gives the album an A, with reviewer Jonathan Takiff finding Ry "really in his element," and the Hartford Courant's rock critic Eric R. Danton says Ry's "outdone himself." Pasadena Weekly sums up the new album and the accompanying novella as "a juicy celebration of hot rods, desert rats, sci-fi, and So Cal culture."

Randy Newman's forthcoming release, Harps and Angels, is featured in the latest edition of NPR's All Songs Considered: the Summer Music Preview. The show's host, Bob Boilen, says Randy's new record reminds him of the Newman records he first new and loved, like Good Ol' Boys and Sail Away. Harps and Angels, he says, "just made me smile," bringing to mind, as it does, a "languid Southern summer." He praises Newman for his use of the blues form "to tell a tale in such a great way."