Natalie Merchant and Carolina Chocolate Drops performed at the 45th annual Cambridge Folk Festival in England last summer to great acclaim. The Guardian said "Merchant was on classic form." The Daily Telegraph described the Carolina Chocolate Drops as "Cambridge naturals, playing their banjo and jug-band music with such irrepressible joy you can well imagine they’ve arrived on the main stage direct from last night’s camp fire." Now, a two-hour DVD of the 2010 festival has been released, capturing songs from these performances.

Steve Reich's WTC 9/11 recently received its world premiere in a performance by Kronos Quartet, which will give the West Coast premiere this week in Irvine, California. The Los Angeles Times spoke with the composer about this "signature Reich piece" and with Kronos, "the pied pipers of innovative music," about the collaboration. Kronos will give the NY premiere later this month in an all-Reich program at Carnegie Hall. Kronos and other performers on the concert talk about performing Reich's music in new short videos you can watch here.

Pat Metheny and his Orchestrion were featured on CBS Sunday Morning this past weekend. The guitarist-composer explained the inner workings of the cutting-edge instruments and performance methods he used on his latest Nonesuch album and subsequent world tour. Watch it here. Metheny will lead a five-day workshop this summer in Connecticut with his trio, featuring Christian McBride and Antonio Sanchez, that also includes nightly concerts.

Wanda Jackson was featured on the CBS Evening News last night in a look at her five-and-a-half decades of music making. "You're as hot now as you've ever been," says CBS's Anthony Mason. Watch the segment here. The Denver Post, reviewing a recent Jackson concert, says "her signature rock ‘n’ roll bad girl growl sounds just as sexy at 73 as it must have at 17." KDHX says of another: "It was truly a pleasure to watch one of the first and feistiest ladies of rockabilly (really it's hard to place Wanda Jackson in just one category) work her magic."

Sing it Loud, the new album from k.d. lang and the Siss Boom Bang, was released earlier today in Australia, and lang and the band celebrated with a number of early morning TV appearances there. They kicked things off with a performance on Sunrise, offering their own take on an Aussie classic: the Little River Band's hit "Reminiscing," which you can watch here. That was followed by interviews on Today and One Plus One, with a Weekend Sunrise performance to come this weekend.

k.d. lang and the Siss Boom Bang's new album, Sing it Loud, hits stores Friday morning in Australia, where lang and the band will appear on Sunrise, Today, and One Plus One and the album is now streaming on the Sydney Morning Herald website. And now, for the whole world to enjoy, comes the music video for the album's opening track, "I Confess," which premiered today on perezhilton.com. Watch it here.

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.

While at SXSW last week, Emmylou Harris performed songs from her forthcoming album, Hard Bargain, at the IFC Crossroads House. "The legendary singer's crooning countrified voice swirled over the scene like a cloud," says IFC, "entrancing everyone who heard it." The show will be broadcast soon on the IFC cable channel. In the mean time, IFC.com has posted three videos from the event, including an interview with Ted Leo and a performance of a song off Hard Bargain, all of which you can watch here.

The Low Anthem, currently on tour in Europe, brought its winter US tour to a close earlier this month with an unforgettable gathering at the Rhode Island pasta sauce factory where the band recorded its new album, Smart Flesh. ABC News was there, capturing an up-close look at the space for the latest episode of Amplified, in which Matt Pinfield talks with the band about the new record and more. Watch it here.

As Japanese recovery efforts continue, people from all walks of life and countries around the world have responded in support of those efforts. One such response came from SXSW last weekend: SXSW 4 Japan, a 12-hour telethon, organized by the band Hanson and streamed live online, which raised more than $100,000 for the Red Cross. Ben Folds performed via his home in Nashville. You can watch his performance here and donate at redcross.org.

The 2011 SXSW Music Conference, which brought more than 2,000 bands to Austin, Texas, is now a thing of the past, but its stand-out performances will continue to resonate for some time to come. Among the performers to make such lasting musical memories happen were Emmylou Harris, Jessica Lea Mayfield, and Wanda Jackson. Here, in video, photos, and reviews, we look back at some of the highlights from their time at SXSW.

k.d. lang and the Siss Boom Bang performed what Variety calls "a sublime set" outside the John Varvatos boutique in West Hollywood on Sunday for some 1,500 attendees at the John Varvatos 8th Annual Stuart House Benefit. Last month, lang and the band were in San Diego to give a performance at Sunset Sessions, which included five songs from their forthcoming album Sing it Loud, as well as some classic hits. The complete set was captured on video, which you can watch here.