There are just days to go before the release of Ben Folds and Nick Hornby's album collaboration, Lonely Avenue, this Tuesday, September 28. But wait no further to hear the album the BBC described as "affecting and intelligent" and Monacle has called "this year's singer-songwriter classic": Lonely Avenue is now streaming in its entirety in a MySpace exclusive premiere. Head to myspace.com/benfolds to listen now.

Punch Brothers kick off their fall tour tonight at the Pisgah Brewing Company in Black Mountain, North Carolina. Tour highlights include performing with T Bone Burnett at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass; two shows with Burnett's The Speaking Clock Revue; a show in Los Angeles with support from Jon Brion; and opening slots with Dierks Bentley and Dave Matthews Band. The band will perform with Steve Martin on The Late Show with David Letterman in November.

Carolina Chocolate Drops and The Low Anthem will tour together for six dates over one week this December. The tour will begin December 4 at the Variety Playhouse in Atlanta, followed by stops in Nashville and Knoxville, Tennessee, before heading to the Drops' home state of North Carolina for shows in Asheville, Charlotte, and Raleigh. Ticket pre-sales for Chocolate Drops fans begin on Tuesday.

Laurie Anderson gave the New York premiere of her latest stage work, Delusion, last night at BAM's Harvey Theater, the first of 12 performances there. The New York Times says Delusion shows "the degree to which Ms. Anderson’s scores bring color and shape to her productions." The Village Voice says of Anderson's voice: "As an instrument, it's just perfect: wise and bewildered, cutting and soothing, deadly serious and profoundly amusing."

This fall, Ben Folds will participate in the National Geographic Live series Music on ... Photography at the National Geographic Society's Washington, DC, headquarters. Folds will discuss photos he took of the flooded streets of Nashville with his camera (and camera phone) to help spread the word of the devastation; photographer Mark Seliger will moderate. Also participating in the series are Neko Case, Andy Summers, and music photographer Danny Clinch.

Lonely Avenue, the Ben Folds / Nick Hornby album due out next week, has been described as "an affecting and intelligent record" by the BBC. Folds, whom the BBC calls "a consistently enthralling songwriter," joins Jack Conte and Nataly Dawn of Pomplamoose—recent collaborators on the VideoSong "Things You Think"—for a live online chat Wednesday evening at benfolds.com/chat, as part of the Lonely Interview series.

Tonight marks the New York premiere of Laurie Anderson's Delusion at BAM's Harvey Theatre, launching BAM's Next Wave Festival. Time Out New York includes the concert among today's "must-see shows." The Wall Street Journal previews the festival with a look at Anderson's long history with BAM, having, over the years, "given audiences something profoundly rewarding: an ongoing emotional engagement that, like a good friendship, allows you to think about life from different perspectives."

The Tenth Inning, a new two-part, four-hour documentary by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick that picks up where Burns's landmark 1994 series Baseball left off, premieres on PBS next Tuesday, September 28. In celebration of the new film, the original Baseball soundtrack is available again, featuring music by Natalie Cole, Dr. John, Bruce Hornsby, Branford Marsalis, and Carly Simon, as well as vintage recordings, historic radio calls, and the solo piano playing of Jacqueline Schwab, including "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" and "Hurrah for the National Game."

With just one week to go before the release of the Ben Folds / Nick Hornby collaboration Lonely Avenue, which Monocle magazine says "exceeds the sum of its parts" and has dubbed "this year's singer-songwriter classic," the project is the subject of a feature article in The Observer. The Irish Independent gives the album four stars and finds Hornby "in inspired form." The Scotsman gives it four stars as well, saying: "Two great writers, one great album of 'musical short stories.'"

Allen Toussaint kicks off fall with six solo sets supporting Neil Young. Four of these dates are Gulf Coast benefit shows, for which Young has teamed up with Tyson Foods to fight hunger in Gulf Coast communities affected by the oil spill. Young is asking concertgoers to bring non-perishable food items to the concerts. All donations will be given to the Bay Area Food Bank, which serves communities in Alabama, Florida, and Mississippi.

Kronos Quartet performs two sets at Monterey Jazz ... The Black Keys tour Florida with Kings of Leon ... Carolina Chocolate Drops play festivals in Alabama and Virginia ... Rhys Chatham is at Ontario's LOLA Fest ... Brad Mehldau has solo shows in Osaka ... Allen Toussaint plays Colorado festivals ... Gidon Kremer and Kremerata Baltica are in Innsbruck ... Brussels' Bozar Center brings together music of the gamelan and Reich ... and more ...

Yesterday saw the launch of Philip Selway's search for remix collaborators on the song "Beyond Reason," off his debut solo album, Familial, via Indaba Music. The Boston Herald describes it as the album's "most Radiohead-y cut" and declares of Familial: "This is the coolest solo debut from a drummer in a marquee band ever." Spinner recently named the video for "By Some Miracle," the album's opening track, its Video of the Day. Cincinnati's Metromix describes Familial as "ten tracks of awesomeness."