Audra McDonald, who has wowed Boston-area audiences and critics alike as Bess in the A.R.T. production of The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess this month, launches her own North American fall concert tour this weekend. The two-month tour includes stops at Boston's Symphony Hall, Carnegie Hall, and The Kennedy Center, among others. Update: Tomorrow's Kimmel Center performance has been rescheduled to November 30. McDonald and Porgy and Bess head to Broadway in December. She discussed the play and the tour on NPR's Tell Me More.

Ry Cooder appeared on the latest episode of BBC Radio 2's Mike Harding show to discuss his latest album, Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down, which Harding describes as "totally brilliant." BoingBoing places the album "in the tradition of the great titles of Woody Guthrie and Haywire Harry McClintlock ... As you'd expect from Cooder, the songs are musically tight and eminently singable and danceable."

Fatoumata Diawara, whose debut EP, Kanou, was released in North America this week, was a guest on Later ... with Jools Holland on BBC Two in the UK. On Tuesday's half-hour show, she performed her song "Clandestin," another live version of which is featured on the EP. You can watch the Later performance here. Fans in the UK can see Diawara perform again on this week's hour-long Later show Friday night.

Laurie Anderson's new exhibition Forty-Nine Days in the Bardo has opened at the Fabric Workshop and Museum in Philadelphia. The exhibition uses the structure of a diary and The Tibetan Book of the Dead—also known as The Great Liberation Through Hearing in the Bardo—to explore the themes of love and death, the many levels of dreaming, and illusion. This two-floor exhibition include texts as well as drawings, sculptures, projections, and sound and are made from materials including mud, foil, iron, chalk, and ashes. Anderson will perform at the museum on October 13.

Laurie Anderson has brought her latest performance piece, Delusion, to Boston for a six-night residency at the Paramount Center Mainstage. "With her trademark imagery and music," says the Boston Globe, "celebrated performance artist Laurie Anderson offers a blend of stories, memories, and dreams as she meditates on everything from her mother’s final days to a lawsuit about the ownership of the moon." "Laurie Anderson isn’t the kind to sit still," says the Boston Herald. "Versatile doesn’t even begin to cover it."

Jessica Lea Mayfield is set to support Ryan Adams on his North American tour this December. The tour starts in Philadelphia on December 2 and runs through December 13 in Minneapolis, with stops in Baltimore, New York City, Boston, Toronto, and Chicago. Tickets go on sale Friday, September 30, at 10 AM. Mayfield recently added new headlining tour dates in November and opens for John Prine, the Avett Brothers, and Drive-By Truckers along the way.

Fatoumata Diawara makes her North American recording debut with today's release of the digital EP Kanou. Inspired by Wassoulou tradition, jazz, and blues, Diawara has created her own unique contemporary folk sound, giving a distinctly African spin to the concept of the female singer-songwriter. "Like her mentor [Oumou] Sangaré," says the Financial Times, "Diawara combines feminist social conscience with effortless melodic charm." The Kanou digital EP includes four tracks plus the video for the song "Bissa." Watch the video here.

Punch Brothers are set to support legendary singer-songwriter Paul Simon on his tour of the United States this November. The nearly three-week tour starts in New Orleans on Friday, November 4, and runs through Wednesday, November 23, in Akron, Ohio. Punch Brothers open for Ray LaMontagne in New York City's Central Park tonight and in Pittsburgh tomorrow night before heading to the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park this weekend.

Björk continues to unveil Biophilia with the release of the video for "Moon," the latest single off the forthcoming album, due out October 11. The video was directed, produced, and art directed by Björk, Inez and Vinoodh, M/M Paris, and James Merry. Watch the video here. "Moon” is available now as a single and as a special feature of the Biophilia App. Both are available exclusively at iTunes and the App Store.

Ry Cooder spoke with BBC Radio 4's Today about his new album, Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down; the interview was broadcast in the US on PRI's The Takeaway. The Philadelphia Inquirer gives the album a perfect four stars, likening it to "the scrappy populism of Woody Guthrie ... set to an incredibly rich melting pot of folk, blues, country, rock, and norteno." The Chicago Sun-Times too calls him "a modern-day Woody Guthrie." Canada's North Shore News says: "Brilliant stuff."

The Low Anthem, which is currently on a headlining tour of the United States with music from its latest Nonesuch release, Smart Flesh, will support City and Colour on tour of Canada and the northern US in January and February 2012. The tour starts in Portland, Oregon, on January 16 and ends in St. John, New Brunswick, on February 24. The Low Anthem's current tour makes stops this week in Minneapolis, Denver, and Salt Lake City, before hitting San Francisco's Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival this weekend.

The Low Anthem and Jessica Lea Mayfield almost overlap at Nashville's Soundland festival and Cincinnati's MidPoint Music Festival ... Laurie Anderson performs Transitory Life at the Transart Festival ... The Black Keys play Atlanta's Music Midtown fest ... Carolina Chocolate Drops are in Harrisburg, PA ... Emmylou Harris joins Don Henley in Santa Barbara ... Wanda Jackson headlines SoCal Hellbilly Fest ... James Farm tours the East Coast ... Kronos Quartet conclude BAM run ... k.d. lang is in New England ... Pat Metheny tours California ... Punch Brothers are on NPR's Mountain Stage ... and more ...