Ry Cooder's three-week tour through Europe with Nick Lowe came to a close in Liverpool on Saturday with "an understated concert of music that captured an air of simplicity, honesty and restrained virtuosity," says the Liverpool Daily Post. "Ry, it’s great to see you back playing live where you belong." The Guardian gives four stars to last week's concert in Gateshead, asserting, "Cooder belongs to the elite group of guitarists, Eric Clapton and BB King among them, whose style can be identified by a single note." The Scotsman gives a perfect five stars to Thursday night's set in Edinburgh: "Cooder showed why he's considered the best slide player in the world." The Herald gives rates it five stars as well, saying the set "confirmed Cooder's status as the king of slide guitar."

Malian songstress Oumou Sangare’s Sunday performance at the Central Park SummerStage concert series in New York City is the subject of a review in Tuesday’s New York Times, in which critic Ben Ratliff writes that “the ancient lived with the new” in her set, which “started at a run and yanked you in.”

Wilco is back on the road in New England ... Amadou & Mariam begin their US tour opening for Coldplay ... Joshua Redman plays the Netherlands at the North Sea Jazz Festival, as do fellow labelmates Bill Frisell, Brad Mehldau, Allen Toussaint, Nicholas Payton, and Fred Hersch ... In Canada, the Punch Brothers perform in Canada at the Ottowa Blues Fest, and Oumou Sangare visits the Winnipeg Folk Fesitval in Manitoba.

All Songs Considered host Bob Boilen made an appearance on All Things Considered to discuss his favorite songs from the past six months. First on his list was The Low Anthem’s “Charlie Darwin,” from their recent Nonesuch release, Oh My God, Charlie Darwin. “I get chills the moment I hear this guy’s voice,” said Boilen, referring to band member Ben Knox Miller. 

Joshua Redman wraps up a three-day engagement at the Montreal International Jazz Festival tonight at the Théâtre Maisonneuve, featuring the band from his recent Nonesuch release, Compass. In anticipation of the performance, Redman was profiled in the Montreal Gazette, which describes Compass as "a refined experience," featuring "sound sculptures straddling the line between freedom and formalism."

Shawn Colvin, Emmylou Harris conclude the Three Girls and Their Buddy tour ("a delight," Seattle Times) ... Ry Cooder, Nick Lowe play London's Drury Lane ... Bill Frisell's Quartet is in Iowa City for free Jazz Fest ... Gidon Kremer closes Sigulda Festival with Gala Concert ... Kronos Quartet play pieces from Floodplain at the Traumzeit (Dreamtime) Festival ... The Low Anthem opens for M. Ward in Utrecht, plays in London's Hyde Park ... Brad Mehldau solos in Italy ... Joshua Redman has a hatrick at the Montreal Jazz Fest ... Oumou Sangare joins Béla Fleck at Caramoor and SummerStage ... Allen Toussaint plays Joe's Pub ... Wilco's at Red Rocks with Okkervil River ... and more ...

Jeff Tweedy is the subject of a feature article in this Sunday's New York Times, about the making of the new record, the band's story, life as a family man, and the much healthier, more content place in which he now finds himself. The Times calls Wilco (the album) a "splendid" record from "one of alternative rock’s most consistent and respected bands." It's a sign that, "unlike the rock trope that only chronic agony produces important music, the absence of mayhem has been good for the work." To that end, the record serves as "a kind of compilation of a band at the height of its powers." Jeff also answers a very eclectic set of questions in the Times Magazine.

Oumou Sangare begins a two-week tour of North America tonight in Chicago's Millennium Park, performing songs from her latest album, Seya. She heads next to the Caramoor Festival to meet up with Béla Fleck and his Africa Project for the first of several performances together. "Of all Mr. Fleck’s endeavors, his Africa Project may be the most ambitious," says the New York Times. "Among the most fruitful of his interactions has been one with the Malian diva Oumou Sangare." The two perform at New York's SummerStage on Sunday. Says the Village Voice, "Her music is surging and propulsive, a shimmying pitter-patter of guitar, violin, percussion, and vocal chorus." Time Out calls her "Africa's answer to Aretha Franklin—silky smooth one moment, and capable of soaring power the next. Her current album, Seya, translates as 'joy,' a perfect summation of her music."

Wilco's Jeff Tweedy is front and center on the cover of American Songwriter's 25th Anniversary issue out now. In an interview with Tweedy, the magazine says the story of the band since 2002's groundbreaking Yankee Hotel Foxtrot "has been a fruitful one," describing its latest, Wilco (the album), as "another great record from a band who seems incapable of making a bad one." BBC 6 Music has named it Album of the Day for Friday. Aquarium Drunkard asserts that it "not only succeeds but stands near the top of Wilco’s extremely distinguished catalogue ... And if the sound of six of the world’s best musicians banging out spangled and bejeweled pop-rock doesn’t get you off, then you may want to reconsider your record collection."

Steve Reich's latest creation, 2x5, premieres tonight on a double bill with pioneering electronic music group Kraftwerk, in a sold-out concert to open the Manchester International Festival. Bang On A Can performs the piece with the composer in the sound booth. The piece builds on the framework of Reich's 2009 Pulitzer Prize-winning work, Double Sextet. The Star-Ledger writes of a recent performance of Double Sextet that "both the piece itself and the sense of lifetime achievement came through in full glory." The Guardian, in a feature on the composer, writes, "Reich has been composing for more than 40 years. In that time, he has seen the music he is most closely associated with ... seemingly emerge from nowhere to become one of the dominant musical forms of the age."

k.d. lang has been selected as a "Gay Icon" in the new exhibit at London's National Portrait Gallery opening today. For Gay Icons, ten notable gay and lesbian figures were asked to select their "icons," people who influenced or inspired them. The image of k.d.—a 1992 print by photographer Jill Furmanovsky—was chosen by broadcaster Sandi Toksvig, who chaired the selection committee that included the likes of Elton John, Billie Jean King, and Ian McKellen. The Times (UK) gives the exhibit four stars, calling it "colourful, intimate and moving. It ranges widely and touches on many lives, famed and unknown."

The Low Anthem is the subject of an extensive article in BlackBook magazine that examines the group's recent Nonesuch debut, Oh My God, Charlie Darwin, and its ties to its titular English scientist's theory of natural selection. “Darwin and this idea of survival of the fittest is an illuminating way of thinking about almost any question," says the band's Ben Knox-Miller. "[T]he guy is in love with every little detail of the world ... It’s a beautiful, inspiring story." BlackBook calls the band's own efforts "a winning formula." Q magazine names "To Ohio" its Track of the Day. Aquarium Drunkard says the band "offers glimpses into the past, present and future like a great American novel."