Edgar Meyer and Chris Thile close out their cross-country tour of music from their eponymous debut duo album tomorrow night at Carnegie Hall, for which they will be joined by special guest, violinist Mark O'Connor. Tonight, the pair's penultimate performance takes place at Lisner Auditorium at George Washington University in Washington, DC. Before Meyer and Thile head down to Washington, they'll visit the WNYC studios in New York for a live performance this afternoon on Soundcheck, beginning at 2 PM ET.

Hallelujah Junction, the two-disc collection of select tracks by John Adams, earns four stars in The Independent. The composer's "charming and illuminating memoir" of the same name, says the New York Times Sunday Book Review, "is a cogent account of its author’s escape from the world of ­audience-alienating 'process' music absorbed with its own making and his arrival at a place where intellectual adventurism and robust emotion coexist ... There is no more self-aggrandizement in this wry, smart and forthright memoir than there is in the venturesome but elegiac music of Adams’s maturity. Indeed, Hallelujah Junction stands with books by Hector Berlioz and Louis Armstrong among the most readably incisive autobiographies of major musical figures."

It was 10 years ago that the Buena Vista Social Club took the stage of Carnegie Hall for what Spinner says was "a cultural event as much as a concert" and, the site exclaims, "How fresh it sounds today! ... It's every bit as revelatory as the introductory album had been and arguably even more involving for the concert setting. You can hear the joy of the performers and audience alike." The Times (UK) gives four stars to this recording of "the triumphant" event.

Laurie Anderson gave two performances of Homeland this weekend in Berkeley, California. "Singing, reciting, teasing, exciting and playing electric violin with a dynamic trio," says the San Francisco Chronicle, "Anderson brought the large audience at Zellerbach Hall to its feet for a prolonged and well-deserved standing ovation." The review describes the piece as "Anderson working in top form, engaging, witty, thought provoking and musically inspired ... [with] new songs that rank with Anderson's best work."

Randy Newman is the subject of a Pitchfork interview, posted today, in which Randy talks about his latest Nonesuch release, Harps and Angels; the current state of affairs in the US and abroad; and how they all tie together. "Randy Newman's not the most prolific songwriter," says Pitchfork, "but when he does deign to release a new record, it's because he's got something to say. Harps and Angels is full of the satirical barbs and critical observations Newman fans have come to expect ..."

k.d. lang performs at New York's historic Apollo Theater tonight in Harlem as part of her Watershed tour, which stopped at Birmingham, Alabama's Alys Stephens Center Saturday. The Birmingham News gives the performance four stars, calling k.d. "an awesome talent ... well deserving of her reputation as one of the most unique and powerful vocalists of this generation ... Lang's abundant gifts served her well throughout the evening. Gorgeous vocal tones were a constant, matched by exquisitely expressive interpretations of lyrics."

The Magnetic Fields brought their fall tour to a close yesterday after a full weekend of performances that brought them from Columbus, Ohio, to Philadelphia to Washington, DC. Getting a head start to the weekend's gigs, the band played in Jersey City, New Jersey, on Thursday night, leading The Star-Ledger to write: "As offbeat as he is, Merritt is also a pop purist. His songs were full of graceful melodic twists and clever turns of phrase. There is, simply, a poetry to his words that you rarely hear at a rock show."

Wilco plays Neil Young's Bridge School Benefit Concert ... Kronos Quartet gives John Adams piece its Swedish premiere ... Laurie Anderson speaks at UC Berkeley colloquium ... Sérgio and Odair Assad continue college tour with the Turtle Island Quartet ... David Byrne brings his "mind-blowing, booty-shaking music" to the Midwest ... Shawn Colvin performs there as well ... Bill Frisell's Trio is in Brazil ... k.d. lang plays the Ryman ... The Magnetic Fields close out their fall tour of "dizzyingly catchy songs" ... Brad Mehldau and Joshua Redman play Europe together and with their trios ... Randy Newman finishes his North American tour ... Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker's Steve Reich Evening comes to Brooklyn ... Dawn Upshaw repeats "transfixing" performance in St. Paul ... and more ...

Before Edgar Meyer and Chris Thile take the stage at the University of Chicago's Mandel Hall tonight, the pair can be heard live on WFDU-FM's Lonesome Pine RFD this morning. The Washington Post says the duo's self-titled Nonesuch debut "represents the most substantial music Thile has recorded, for the give-and-take between the high-pitched mandolin and the deeply resounding bass is full of dark drama and rigorous musical architecture." The Kansas City Star says "the duo's world-class musicianship" along with "the highly intuitive communication that exists in the music itself ... provide the album's 12 compositions with heart, humor, precision and warmth."

Isabel Bayrakdarian's tour with songs celebrating Armenia's national composer featured on her recent Nonesuch debut, Gomidas Songs, came to a close earlier this week. Audiophile Audition says the songs on the album are "rendered to perfection by the wonderful Isabel Bayrakdarian ... fabulous, tuneful, bittersweet, and hopeful ..." The review concludes: "[T]his album soars to one of the top song albums of the year, heartily and urgently recommended to all."

Brad Mehldau takes a night away from his Trio tour to play a special duo set with label mate Joshua Redman tomorrow night at the Christuskirche in Mannheim, Germany. The Financial Times, in its review of the Trio's recent show at London's Barbican, says of Brad: "Mehldau creates gently undulating soundscapes of gradually gathering intensity. Starting with the simplest of motifs, he develops an intricate tapestry of melodic details, chordal voicings and dense cross-rhythms." The Guardian calls the Trio's concert take on Sufjan Stevens' "Holland" "a lambent, implausibly lovely improvisation."

Nonesuch Records is happy to announce the signing of singer/songwriter Christina Courtin, a young New York City–based musician with a classical pedigree in violin and a devoted following in New York built over the last several years playing in clubs all over town. Her label debut was recorded this year in New York and Los Angeles with a stellar cast of musicians and will be released in early 2009. "It isn’t hard to decode the allure of this burgeoning local artist," writes Time Out New York. "Her songs are at once old-fashioned, classic pop … and garnished with strange instrumental trimmings. Onstage, she lunges into her music with a spasmodic fearlessness that most vocalists reserve for the shower."