Punch Brothers return to the road Saturday for the first of several September performances, starting with a set at the moe.down festival in Mohawk, New York. The band's fall tour includes a stop at the Lied Center in Lawrence, Kansas. Punch Brothers guitarist Chris Eldridge spoke with the folks at the Lied Center about the band's unique sound, in a video interview now on YouTube. Watch it here.

Ben Folds and Nick Hornby have taken the collaborative spirit of their forthcoming album, Lonely Avenue, and joined up with another duo, Jack Conte and Nataly Dawn of Pomplamoose, for the VideoSong "Things You Think," featuring music by Folds and lyrics by Hornby. The song is available now on iTunes, and the video is just out on YouTube. Watch it here.

Laurie Anderson and Brad Mehldau are featured on New York magazine's list of The 20 Most Anticipated Events of the Fall in classical music and dance. Anderson tops the list with the New York premiere of her piece Delusion, which opens BAM's Next Wave festival. Brad Mehldau comes to New York as holder of the Debs Composer's Chair at Carnegie Hall, for the New York premiere of Highway Rider.

Björk is in Stockholm to receive the 2010 Polar Music Prize in a gala ceremony at the Stockholm Concert Hall tonight. His Majesty King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden will present her with the prize. The awards ceremony at Stockholm Concert Hall includes performances by Sweden's own Robyn and others and will be broadcast live on Swedish TV4 and via TV4 Play at 5:30 PM CEST / 11:30 AM EST.

Carolina Chocolate Drops tour Midwest ... Bill Frisell joins Paul Motian Trio at Village Vanguard ... Richard Goode plays Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw ... Natalie Merchant brings Leave Your Sleep to Atlanta and Nashville ... Philip Selway plays Osaka ... Chris Thile goes solo in NYC ... Allen Toussaint joins Cyndi Lauper in LA ... Sara Watkins, Garrison Keillor, and A Prairie Home Companion bring Summer Love to Oregon ... and more ...

Philip Selway kicked off his tour in Tokyo last night performing the "warm, tender acoustic nuggets" of Familial, reports SPIN, proving to be a "talented frontman." The Irish Independent hears "pleasurable echoes of the comforting delicate folk of Nick Drake" on the new album, The Independent (UK) "the quieter moments of Talk Talk and Radiohead." The Sun gives 4.5 stars to this "mighty fine" album, featuring "one of the most gorgeous songs you'll hear all year."

Emmylou Harris and The Low Anthem are coming together to tour the US East Coast this fall. Starting at the Byham Theater in Pittsburgh on November 9 and concluding at the Peace Center in Greenville, South Carolina, on November 21, The Low Anthem will open for Harris, with stops along the way in Buffalo and Albany, New York; Northampton, Massachusetts; Wilmington, Delaware; Roanoke and Charlottesville, Virginia; and Frederick, Maryland.

Natlie Merchant's Leave Your Sleep tour brought her to Florida this week. The Sun Sentinel witnessed "a new Natalie Merchant ... burnished with the amber glow of something special," the songs of the new album proved "magical." The Broward New Times calls them "delicate, dreamy songs with multigenerational appeal." Tampa's Creative Loafing says Merchant "made it seem as if the poems had been waiting for her music all along."

The Tenth Inning, a new two-part, four-hour documentary by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick that picks up where Burns's 1994 series Baseball left off, will air on PBS in September. Burns will appear on The Late Show with David Letterman tonight to discuss the new film. The original Baseball soundtrack recording was released on Nonesuch back in 1994 and is available now digitally in the Nonesuch Store; it will be available again on CD September 21.

Ahead of next week's release of Familial, Philip Selway launches a month-long tour of Japan and Europe. Following performances in Tokyo and Osaka, he heads to Ireland and the UK for several shows, including three with Wilco. NME gives Familial an 8, saying "Selway has delivered an album so honest and thoughtful, you'll see not only drummers but yourself in a new light." MOJO concurs, saying it "shows a sensitivity seldom credited to stickmen."

The new album featuring the first recordings of Steve Reich's Double Sextet and 2x5 is due out on Nonesuch in just under three weeks. "Beautifully poised throughout," says the BBC, "Double Sextet stands as arguably one of Reich’s finest works." Sequenza 21 calls the album "an intergenerational summit—minimalist elder statesman meets post-minimal/totalist ace performers—that, in terms of importance, is more or less the Downtown version of Duke Ellington and John Coltrane."

The Ben Folds "Lonely Interview" series of live online video interviews continues this week, following last week's chat with Bob Saget. Up today are Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer at 6 PM ET and Michelle Branch at 7 PM ET; on Thursday, Ben talks to fans Corey Young (6:30 PM) and Nina Jankowicz (7 PM); and Friday at 4 PM, it's UK video blogger Charlie McDonnell. Tune in at benfolds.com/chat.