David Byrne, in an op-ed contribution in today's New York Times, reflects on the life of the acclaimed American artist Robert Rauschenberg, who died Monday at the age of 82, recounting his own personal experiences with the man he knew as a friend, a colleague, and an inspiration.

Punch Brothers began the next leg of their US tour last night at the Sellersville Theater in Sellersville, Pennsylvania, and performs at the Satellite Ballroom in Charlottesville, Virginia, tonight. Leading to tonight's show, Chris Thile spoke with the Charlottesville weekly The Hook about his career, the new band, and their Nonesuch debut record, Punch. Says The Hook's Vijith Assar, Chris has gone from being "the world's premiere young hotshot mandolin player" expected to be "the savior of bluegrass," to moving in "a new, decidedly more progressive route."

The Black Keys played a killer set last night at New York City's Terminal 5, leaving more than a few Nonesuch staffers a bit bleary-eyed but all the better for it this morning. While in New York yesterday, the band stopped by the studios at WNYC to talk with Soundcheck host John Schaefer about the making of the new record, Attack & Release, and working with producer Danger Mouse.

John Adams's latest opera, A Flowering Tree, received its Midwest premiere last night in Chicago's Millennium Park, with the composer conducting. The Chicago Opera Theater production stars Natasha Jouhl as Kumudha, a young girl with the power to turn herself into a flowering tree; Noah Stewart as the Prince; and Sanford Sylvan, who has previously originated leading roles in two Adams operas, as the Storyteller.

With Orchestra Baobab's new album, Made in Dakar, due out on Tuesday, the group's co-founder Barthélemy Attisso spoke with Time Out New York about the new album, the forthcoming tour, and the joys of bringing their music to the rest of the world. Time Out's K. Leander Williams writes that Attisso has "been singled out as one of the most distinctive guitarist-arrangers the African continent has produced." In 2002, that singular sound met with another iconic musical ambassador when Youssou N'Dour produced what Williams calls the group's "triumphant reunion album," Specialist in All Styles. N'Dour's guest vocals on the new album leads to the "gorgeous update" of the band's classic song "Nijaay" and proves another example of the band's effort to showcase as many of their musical interests as possible.

When faced with the conundrum of deciding between two shows by The Black Keys over consecutive nights at Washington, DC's 9:30 Club, DCist's Valerie Paschall looked to Dan Auerbach's promise in Monday's first-night set: "We'll play better tonight and we'll play more songs tomorrow night."

Yesterday marked the release of T Bone Burnett's Nonesuch debut, Tooth of Crime, featuring songs based on work he began more than a decade ago for Sam Shepard's play of the same name, about the pitfalls of a fame-obsessed culture. The Dallas News calls it "a fittingly eclectic musical opus" from the multi-talented musician, and the nearby Fort Worth Star-Telegram, T Bone's hometown paper, gives the album four stars and sees in it a decidedly Texan influence, "pulling from the bewitching tangle of influences that indelibly mark the songs crafted by Texas artists---a little rock, a little country, a little psychedelia and a dose of anguish, just for good measure."

John Adams's opera A Flowering Tree receives its Midwest premiere tonight in the Chicago Opera Theater performance at the Harris Theater in Millenium Park. The composer will conduct the opening night performance as well as the second performance, this Saturday. Chicago Tribune critic John von Rhein says the piece offers "the light of hope and renewal" and concludes: "Nobody who loves contemporary opera and music theater can afford to miss it ... Adams' music is luminously beautiful, the entire opera a glorious multicultural paean to the ecology of the soul."

The Black Keys are in New York City today to perform on Late Night with Conan O'Brien. The band will perform "Strange Times" off their latest ablum, Attack & Release, which remains the No. 1 record on college radio for an amazing fifth straight week. Before that show hits the air, Patrick and Dan will be taking taking on fans in a joint gaming session of Grand Theft Auto IV with Xbox LIVE Gold members.

Laurie Anderson recently appeared on Progressive Radio, the weekly broadcast hosted by The Progressive magazine's editor Matthew Rothschild, to discuss her latest project, Homeland, and the many socio-political issues it addresses, most notably the war in Iraq and the challenges of forming a coherent opposition to it when faced with an administration so well-schooled in framing the issue, or as she sees it, story telling. In light of this, her response was to tell her own version of the story, through Homeland.