Dan Auerbach's US tour, featuring music from Keep It Hid, his recent Nonesuch solo debut, continues tonight at Wonder Ballroom in Portland, Oregon. The Portland Mercury says Dan's new record "uncovers new corners of his talents. It's an instant classic ..." and expects he'll "give us a rock 'n' roll show of the highest order." Willamette Week says the album "emits sincerity and genuineness" and says "Auerbach’s poignant, emotionally charged lyrics and precise guitar work shine ...'" Dan's recent interview and performance at Minnesota Public Radio's The Current is now available online.

On Tchamantché, Rokia Traoré's recently released album, the Malian-born singer-songwriter "strikes out in a new direction while staying true to her African roots," says Dusted magazine. "The results are strikingly creative," producing "Traoré’s best work so far, and absolutely not to be missed." She performed last night at Sydney's Enmore Theatre in what Australian Stage describes as "two solid hours of groundbreaking, extra-African music ... by turns, startling, beguiling, seductive, spellbinding, exquisite, refined, rocking, intimate, infectious, affecting and 'funktional.' But, most of all, exciting, stirring the blood, vigourously."

Amadou & Mariam are gearing up for Nonesuch's March 24 US release of their latest album, Welcome to Mali. They're also preparing for a US tour that will include a number of dates opening for Coldplay. Spinner says the pair will have no trouble rocking out for the arena crowds, citing Amadou's love of rockers like AC/DC and suggesting "this shouldn't surprise anyone who has followed the rise of the couple in recent years from obscurity to international sensations. There was always a broad rock and pop consciousness in even their most straightforward music." "People can get into our music because they can hear the rock in it, the pop in it," Amadou tells Spinner. "People can find things they know in it. Maybe that's why it touches them."

Elliott Carter: A Nonesuch Retrospective, a four-disc set featuring the recordings of the composer's works made for the label from 1968 to 1985, was recently released in celebration of the Carter's 100th birthday. "Among tributes to the centenarian master," says the Sunday Times (UK) in its four-star review, "few are as nicely judged as this set of recordings made for Nonesuch." The Buffalo News gives three stars to "this exceptional four-disc box," asserting that the performances it features "give the music its optimal opportunity to be heard."

John Adams's two most recent operas were performed in opposite hemispheres this past weekend: A Flowering Tree (2006), in its Australian premiere at the Perth International Arts Festival Friday and Saturday, and Doctoc Atomic (2005) in English National Opera's continuing London production. Western Australia Today describes the former's score as "complex, occasionally challenging and often beautiful," eliciting an enthusiastic response from the audience and multiple curtain calls. The Australian suggests, in light of the festival's success, "Adams might have come away reassured that appetites for high-quality artistry can survive, even thrive, in a recession."

Rokia Traoré was the closing act at this year's WOMADelaide, the Adelaide, Australia, leg of the global World of Music and Dance festival, last night. The Australian says that with her "distinctive, soulful voice" in full effect, "Traoré rocked the park. Traoré has successfully forged her Malian roots with western blues, funk and jazz elements and at times the energy was electrifying ..." The paper's review of her new album, Tchamantché, calls it "the epitome of intelligent, minimalist music, with sparse accompaniment, thoughtful arrangements and subtle percussion."

Dan Auerbach brings the music from Keep It Hid, his recently released sol debut, back home to Ohio tonight for a concert at the Beachland Ballroom in Cleveland with Hacienda and Those Darlins. The Boston Globe reports from Sunday's show that "the sold-out crowd certainly got what it came to hear: 90 minutes of blissfully loud, fiercely focused rock 'n' roll with heart and soul." Dan's "guitar solos were compact, penetrating bursts of roughed-up chords that chopped predictable blues-rock cliches to ribbons. And while easy to overlook, [his] voice proved an invaluable asset."

Steve Reich & Musicians' performance capped off a marathon concert at Lincoln Center's newly renovated Alice Tully Hall Tuesday night for the Hall's Opening Nights Festival. Starting the concert off was Alarm Will Sound, followed by Bang on a Can All-Stars with Glenn Kotche, whose Mobile the New York Times describes as a "bright-edged, vigorously syncopated" piece. The Times says Reich and his ensemble gave "a supple account" of the composer's Music for 18 Musicians, "a pivotal work in Mr. Reich’s canon and a score that helps define the boundary between Minimalism and post-Minimalism."

Dan Auerbach plays the second of two New York area shows tonight at the Bowery Ballroom in downtown Manhattan, with openers Hacienda, which will also form his backing band, and Those Darlins. They performed last night at the Williamsburg Hall of Music in Brooklyn and the night before at Boston's Paradise Club. There, the Boston Herald says, he took "the ragged, groovy, electrified vibe of a classic Fillmore set" and fit it "with a post-grunge, post-punk, post-Black Sabbath fury," to create "original, jagged, fire-spitting guitar workouts fit for today."

David Byrne, fresh off two stellar performances at New York's Radio City Music Hall this past weekend, stopped by the Colbert Report last night to chat and perform live in the studio. "You've always been sort of an innovator," offered Stephen Colbert. "When is being on the cutting edge, being innovative and fresh and new and interesting gonna get stale? Because, wouldn't it be more surprising if David Byrne did something ordinary?" Vanity Fair reports from Radio City that it's not likely to be any time soon. Staying "tuned in" is the key to his success, and "If it keeps David Byrne young, just think what it can do for you."

Dan Auerbach plays the first of two New York City shows tonight at the Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn, with openers (and backing band) Hacienda plus Those Darlins. They'll all head into Manhattan to play Bowery Ballroom Tuesday. Dan is featured in a profile in the New York Times that examines the influences behind his solo debut, Keep It Hid. American Songwriter says the album's stand-out tracks are those "that flirt with folk and emphasize Auerbach’s unique voice," declaring: "Auerbach’s first forays into folk are successful ones."

Bill Frisell is gearing up for a tour of the South with Greg Leisz, starting March 15 in Austin. Leisz is featured on a number of tracks from Frisell's recently released Nonesuch retrospective, The Best of Bill Frisell, Volume 1: Folk Songs. All About Jazz asserts that for listeners new to Frisell's work, Folk Songs "is a perfect entry point," and even for Frisell aficionados, its "sequencing makes it stand on its own." What surfaces is that Frisell has maintained "an appreciation for the beauty of a simple melody"; his many influences are "re-contextualized into a nexus point of beauty and ethereality."