Happy Birthday to Brad Mehldau, who turns 40 years old. Mehldau celebrated a few hours early when he joined John Mayer on stage at the Hollywood Bowl last night. Mehldau's next performs with his Trio at the Chicago Jazz Festival over Labor Day weekend, the last Trio date before the November premiere of Highway Rider with Joshua Redman, Matt Chamblerain, and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra.

Kronos Quartet plays the Edinburgh International Festival ... Shawn Colvin plays Denver Botanic Gardens with Loudon Wainwright ... Richard Goode performs a BBC Prom ...  The Low Anthem tours Europe's festivals ... Natalie Merchant does Texas two-stop ... Jeff Tweedy headlines Philadelphia Folk Fest ... Dawn Upshaw joins BSO at Tanglewood ... Sara Watkins continues Summer Love tour with A Prairie Home Companion ... and more ...

Familial, Philip Selway's debut solo album, is due out in just over a week, on August 31. You can now listen to four tracks off the album here. Selway is the subject of a feature profile in the Irish Independent, which calls Familial "a gentle, comforting, whisper-in-the-ear sort of album with pleasing echoes of Nick Drake." The BBC says the album is "full of sweet sentiment and honest meditations."

Punch Brothers performed two songs off their latest album, Antifogmatic, for Relix magazine, now available online at Relix TV. Today's Sun gives the album four stars, saying, "You’re left thinking this is a new and thrilling form of music. Jazzgrass, anyone?" Maverick magazine also gives it four stars: "Notes buzz like a bee in a jar, scales leap from high to low like a crazed man on a cliff top, and a visceral drama exudes from every playful flourish."

Natalie Merchant's performance at the Cambridge Folk Festival earlier this month will be featured on the UK's Sky Arts TV Saturday night, which also includes interviews with Natalie and with Carolina Chocolate Drops, plus performances from the Drops and Rokia Traoré. Merchant's US tour stops in Texas this weekend. The Arizona Republic says: "Her ambitious touring and recording project shows an artist who continues to evolve and push herself."

Laurie Anderson will be the guest on NPR's World Cafe today to talk about her latest album, Homeland, which the show describes as "hard-hitting yet humorous," and perform songs from the album. Listeners around the world can tune in online at 2 PM ET on xpn.org.

Carolina Chocolate Drops are featured on the latest episode of BBC Radio 2's The Mike Harding Show, which includes songs off the album Genuine Negro Jig and an interview with the band from the Cambridge Folk Festival. "The Carolina Chocolate Drops went on an absolute storm at the Cambridge Folk Festival this year," Harding reports, "with their blend of banjo, jug, and fiddle and their fire and showmanship."

Rhys Chatham's A Crimson Grail, due out September 14, is now available for pre-order in the Nonesuch Store. This outdoor version of the piece—featuring 200 guitarists, 16 bassists, five conductors, and one percussionist—was performed for the Lincoln Center Out of Doors Festival. As with almost all Nonesuch Store CD orders, A Crimson Grail includes downloads of the complete album as high-quality, 320-kbps MP3s, starting release day.

Though Punch Brothers have a few weeks off from their tour, Chris Thile takes the stage for a solo set at New Yorks' Rockwood Music Hall this Saturday. The band was featured on the BBC World Service's The Strand. Noam Pickelny tells host Mark Coles, "We really are just trying to create something new and bring all of our favorite styles and influences to the table and just throw them into a melting pot."

The Black Keys have a few weeks off from their North American tour before hitting the road for several weeks with the Kings of Leon in September. A recent home-state performance "brought the audience to a fist-pumping fever," reports the Columbus Dispatch, which says the band's new album, Brothers, "casts its essence in musical gold." The band shares the secret of their success in a new CNN interview: "Turn everything up really loud."

Ben Folds has announced the first two fan interviewers in his series of live online video interviews leading up to the release of his collaboration with Nick Hornby, Lonely Avenue: Josh Sondock and Lauren Gardier, who will interview Ben Wednesday, August 18. The following day, Ben will speak with the inimitable Mr. Bob Saget. Lonely Avenue is available for pre-order now.

The Times of London has published a profile of Philip Selway, calling his forthcoming album, Familial, "remarkably assured." The Word says: "The whole thing is rather beautiful." MOJO and MusicOMH give the album four stars, the latter calling it "incredibly folky and intimate" and proclaiming: "Selway can sing." Q concurs, saying Selway is "blessed with a warm and gentle voice"; Uncut calls Familial "moving and accomplished."