Chris Thile and Michael Daves kicked off their three-night run of sold-out shows at Rockwood Music Hall in New York City last night, performing songs from their new album, Sleep with One Eye Open, released yesterday. No Depression calls the album "a smartly-paced and well-varied set of tunes, performed with celebratory vigor and and passion for the material." We're happy to announce the winner of the Martin 000X1AE acoustic guitar in the album pre-order contest: Morgan Mecaskey of Cleveland Heights, Ohio. Congratulations!

The Metropolitan Opera's premiere production of John Adams's Nixon in China, conducted by the composer and staged by director Peter Sellars in their Met debuts, will air on PBS on Wednesday, June 1, at 9 PM ET, as part of THIRTEEN's Great Performances at the Met series. Watch a preview here. To coincide with the Met premiere of Nixon in China, Nonesuch Records reissued the Grammy-winning original cast recording in a newly redesigned three-CD set, available now.

Sleep with One Eye Open, the debut album from Chris Thile and Michael Daves, is out today. They kick off their US tour with a sold-out, three-night run at NYC's Rockwood Music Hall tonight. It's "a rip-roaring partnership," says the New York Times. "Bluegrass, in their hands, gets roughed up in the best possible way, with skill and fervor, and a touch of abandon." The Independent on Sunday says it's "a pleasure to hear such virtuosic types giving themselves over to high-end ribaldry." Metro gives the album four stars, citing "an up-all-night intensity and a technical virtuosity." Watch the duo perform "20/20 Vision" here.

Randy Newman's Songbook Vol. 2 is out today on Nonesuch. On the new album, Newman takes a fresh look at both classic and more recent work in new solo takes on 16 of his celebrated songs, surveying 40 years of recordings. MusicOMH calls it "an invigorating celebration of the power of music, and a delicate declaration of the power of one man and his piano." Newman performs on Later ... with Jools Holland this Friday and on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon on Monday.

Steve Reich was the guest of honor at the Barbican in London for Reverberations, a weekend-long music marathon exploring his music and influence, featuring Kronos Quartet in the European premiere of his WTC 9/11. The Daily Telegraph gives Reverberations a perfect five stars, saying that while Reich's "influence has been massive ... it was the innocence and shy ecstasy of Reich’s own music that left the deepest impression." The Times and Evening Standard give the festival four stars. Kronos gives the Scottish premiere of WTC 9/11 this Friday for the weekend's Kronos in Glasgow festival.

Irish composer Donnacha Dennehy's Nonesuch debut, Grá agus Bás, was released last week. The album includes the title piece, which was inspired by sean-nós "old style" Irish vocal music, as well as the composer’s song cycle That the Night Come, comprising six settings of poems by W.B. Yeats. Dennehy spoke with the Irish Times about his music, which, the Times says, "is predicated on classical training, but very much a hybrid of new classical and experimental," and the inspirations behind the works on the new album.

Ben Folds launches a month-long tour of Australia, Indonesia, Japan, and South Korea this week in Canberra. He returns to the US to tour this summer. Folds recently recorded Ke$ha's "Sleazy," a tour favorite, to support the Japan tsunami relief efforts. He has now released a video for the song. MTV describes Folds as "a musician's musician: someone who knows everything one needs to know about the craft of songwriting" and calls the cover "a welcome experiment." Perez Hilton says: "This is just flat-out EPIC." Watch it here.

The Low Anthem perform songs from their new album, Smart Flesh, on KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic in LA this morning, in advance of their show at The Autry tonight. The LA Times calls the album "a gorgeous, inventively arranged set of reverb-rich roots ballads in which the music's frayed edges add emotional weight." LA Weekly says "These four aim for timelessness with a brand of Americana that nods as much to high-energy gospel and gritty blues as it does to rustic, autumnal hues." The split 12" vinyl of The Low Anthem's Daytrotter Sessions, with Iron and Wine on the flip side, is now available for pre-order.

Steve Reich is the guest of honor at the Barbican in London for Reverberations, a weekend celebration of his music and influence; Kronos Quartet gives the European premiere of Reich's WTC 9/11 ... David Byrne introduces a discussion of "The Sustainable City" in NYC ... Carolina Chocolate Drops perform in the South ... Wanda Jackson plays the Pacific Northwest ... The Low Anthem is in Arizona ... Jessica Lea Mayfield is out West ... Punch Brothers, Allen Toussaint join Jazz Fest ... Sara Watkins joins John Prine ... and more ...

Chris Thile and Michael Daves, whose debut duo album, Sleep with One Eye Open, is due out on Tuesday, have premiered the fourth and final video in a series of performance videos captured live at New York's Rockwood Music Hall: the traditional tune "Rabbit in the Log." Watch it here. "This ain’t your grandparents’ bluegrass hootenanny," says Time Out New York in a preview of the duo's tour kick-off at Rockwood next week.

Randy Newman's Songbook Vol. 2 is out on Nonesuch next week."Newman never sounds more quintessentially Newman than when experienced, as here, alone at the piano," says the Independent four-star review, "with the lyrical intricacies and ironies of his songs dependent on just his laconic delivery and trenchant accompaniment for their effect." Newman appeared on BBC One TV's The One Show, where sand artist Jamie Wardley designed the sand rendering of Newman pictured here.

k.d. lang and the Siss Boom Bang performed two songs from their new album, Sing it Loud, on Jimmy Kimmel Live! earlier this week: "I Confess" and "Sugar Buzz." Watch them here. Also this week, lang appeared on The Monocle Weekly. The BBC says the album is "instantly striking," with songs that are "rich, masterful and seductive." The LA Times, reviewing last weekend's Stagecoach festival, describes lang as "wondrous," and her "performance provided an eminently satisfying conclusion."