k.d. lang and the Siss Boom Bang's new album, Sing it Loud, is out today. To celebrate, lang and the band performed the album opener "I Confess" on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno last night. Watch the complete episode here. The Los Angeles Times says: "The big, beautiful voice of k.d. lang swoops, purrs and soars through the 10 songs on Sing it Loud.” With her new band, lang "has found her guitar groove again." The Ottawa Citizen calls the album "a torch-and-twangtinged stunner."

The official music video for The Low Anthem's "Boeing 737," off the band's new album, Smart Flesh, has premiered on SPIN. In the video, the band goes "1800s retro," says SPIN's Dan Jackson, "as members of an oddball circus, who battle a group of high-wire walkers. It's totally weird yet totally poignant." The new video was directed by End of the Road Pictures, which created the beautiful animated video for The Low Anthem's "Charlie Darwin." Tickets are now on sale for the band's spring and summer tour.

Chris Thile and Michael Daves's debut album, Sleep with One Eye Open, is a collection of 16 traditional tunes by bluegrass legends like The Monroe Brothers, The Louvin Brothers, Jimmy Martin, and Flatt & Scruggs. The duo recently performed a number of songs from the album at Rockwood Music Hall in New York City, where they kick off their East Coast tour next month. Check out their performance of the title track in a new video posted to Facebook. It's the first in a series of performance videos that will be unveiled in the coming weeks leading up to the album's release.

Nonesuch releases John Adams’s Son of Chamber Symphony / String Quartet on May 31, 2011. Son of Chamber Symphony (2007) is performed by the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), led by the composer, and Adams’s String Quartet (2008) is performed by the St. Lawrence String Quartet, the ensemble for which the piece was written. This is the first recording of both works. The album is now available for pre-order in the Nonesuch Store.

The Low Anthem has contributed the latest addition to the A.V. Club's Undercover series: their take on the classic Wilco tune "A Shot in the Arm." Says the A.V. Club: "Though there are plenty of heirs apparent to Wilco's crossover-Americana charm, TLA seem like particularly strong candidates based on an already-impressive discography." The Low Anthem recently performed several songs off their new album, Smart Flesh, at NPR member station WFUV; watch the videos here.

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.