The Carolina Chocolate Drops are gearing up for their performances at the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival in Manchester, Tennessee, next weekend, after what the Albany Times Union calls a "joyous, raucous and educational" set at MASS MoCA. The Times Union exclaims: "The Carolina Chocolate Drops are just brilliant. Who else could make a straight-up folk festival workshop feel like a hoedown for hundreds?"

The Carolina Chocolate Drops celebrate Memorial Day weekend in Maryland and Massachusetts ... Laurie Anderson launches Vivid LIVE festival in Sydney ... Gidon Kremer, Kremerata Baltica bring the Seasons to Berlin and Moscow ... Brad Mehldau, Anne Sofie von Otter perform his Love Songs in Oslo ... Natalie Merchant continues UK tour ... Sara and Sean Watkins headline the Strawberry Jamboree Music Festival ... Wilco closes out Europe tour ... and more ...

Vivid LIVE, the two-week festival of music, theater, and visual arts curated by Laurie Anderson and Lou Reed in Sydney, Australia, kicked off last night with a special lighting of the iconic Sydney Opera House featuring Anderson's art. Homeland, her forthcoming Nonesuch release, earns four stars in Uncut, which calls it "hauntingly powerful." Q picks the album track "Only an Expert," available now as a 12" vinyl single, as a Q50 Essential Track.

Shy and Mighty, Timothy Andres's debut album, receives four stars from the Guardian. "Andres is unquestionably a distinctive talent, with a fine teasing ear for texture and harmony," reads the review. Even with influences from Adams and Reich to Beethoven and Mahler heard on Shy and Mighty, "It all coheres ... and glides across stylistic boundaries in a totally unselfconscious way."

The New York Times is celebrating the Chopin bicentennial with its critics picks of standout recordings of the composer's works. Times critic Steve Smith selects Ivan Moravec's performance of Chopin Nocturnes, reissued by Nonesuch in 1991. "Even by modern standards the recorded sound is astonishing," says Smith. Moravec's "extraordinary dynamic shading and gracious shaping of each gemlike work lift his account above a crowded field: truly, this is an essential document."

Timothy Andres's debut album, Shy and Mighty, tops the list of Recommended New CDs from Alex Ross, the music critic of The New Yorker, on his site, The Rest Is Noise. The Awl calls the album "gorgeous" and is streaming the track "How can I live in your world of ideas?” Andres will perform the piece next month at New York's Merkin Hall as part of the Tribeca New Music Festival.

Tony Allen's Secret Agent is a "brilliant" and "splendid album," says PopMatters, which rates it a 9 out of 10. Given his seminal role in the creation of Afrobeat, Allen "is a deservedly legendary figure in popular music history," yet remains "very much a figure of the present," as with the new album. Secret Agent "showcases Allen’s distinctive drumming style," says PopMatters, "and represents his considerable skills as a producer and arranger."

Congratulations to The Black Keys, whose latest Nonesuch release, Brothers, sold over 73,000 copies in its first week out. The album debuted at No. 2 on the Current Albums Chart and No. 3 on the Billboard 200—the highest position on the chart ever for the band and the label. The Black Keys follow up last night's spot on The Late Show with David Letterman with a performance on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon tonight on NBC.

Natalie Merchant has kicked off her UK tour and appeared on BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour. The Times of London says: "Merchant’s voice retained a pure, spine-tingling quality that turned the lullabies, fairytales and nonsense rhymes into wonderfully evocative modern folk songs." The Guardian gives a perfect five stars to her show at The Sage Gateshead: "This is an evening of the magical power of words and music ... Merchant may be in her prime."

Tony Allen, who made his World Circuit / Nonesuch Records debut with the release of his new album, Secret Agent, last month, will perform on NBC's Late Night with Jimmy Fallon on June 10, the show has just confirmed. The Late Night performance will kick off the legendary drummer's North American tour, which includes sets in Toronto, Madison, Chicago, Cambridge, New York, City, Brooklyn, Seattle, and Boonville, California.

David Byrne will be honored at the Spring Gala Benefit for The Kitchen, one of New York City’s oldest nonprofit performance spaces, tonight. The Honorary Chairs for tonight’s event include Caetano Veloso and Nonesuch President Robert Hurwitz. Set to perform are Dirty Projectors, Doveman, Nico Muhly, and St. Vincent, a featured vocalist on Byrne’s latest Nonesuch release, Here Lies Love.

Laurie Anderson's latest Nonesuch release, Homeland, is out now. In the month leading up to release day, Nonesuch released one short video clip featuring Anderson's male alter ego, Fenway Bergamot, every Tuesday. In the inaugural clip, Bergamot revisits the early days of the 2008 financial crisis. BAM has announced that Anderson will give the NY premiere of her new work, Delusion, at the Next Wave Festival this fall.