The Magnetic Fields began the international tour behind their recent Nonesuch release, Realism, last night at George Washington University's Lisner Auditorium in Washington, DC, last night. Next up, the group heads up to Canada for two shows, starting with a sold-out set at the Corona Theatre in Montreal Saturday night, with Toronto to follow on Monday.

Singer-songwriter Stephin Merritt talks with Toronto's NOW magazine about the new album, the last in the band's no-synth trilogy, and plans for a fully synth-allowed future. There's also an interview in the Toronto Star's Eye Weekly that touches on, among other things, the phenomenon of Lady Gaga.

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The Carolina Chocolate Drops close out their tour of the UK this weekend with a show at the Arlington Arts Center in Newbury tonight and one at The Met in Bury on Saturday. The trio kicks off the US leg of the tour at the Royal Theater in Danville, Indiana, on February 25, just days after the US release of its Nonesuch debut, Genuine Negro Jig. The album is available for pre-order now in the Nonesuch Store with seven exclusive bonus tracks recorded live.

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Christina Courtin began her two-night stint opening for Josh Rouse at New York's (Le) Poisson Rouge last night. There's one more show there tonight before the pair, along with Ryan Scott, who's accompanying Christina on guitar, brave the winter storm that's set to hit the area as they travel to Philadelphia to play World Cafe Live.

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Bill Frisell will be at the Walker Arts Center's McGuire Theater in Minneapolis on Saturday, joining Iraqi refugee and oud master Rahim AlHaj and violist and erhu player Eyvind Kang for an adventurous evening of East-meets-West compositions, featuring traditional Iraqi maqams, Americana, and jazz. Frisell will present the premiere of a new work, Baghdad/Seattle Suite. The artists have been in residence together at the Walker refining their compositions prior to the performance. The show is a critics' pick in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, which suggests it "should be a hip string fling."

Back in 2007, the Walker commissioned the work later featured on Frisell's most recent Nonesuch release, Disfarmer. New York magazine recently placed it high on the optimal quadrant of its Approval Matrix: Brilliant and Highbrow.

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Richard Goode and fellow pianist Jonathan Biss come together for a performance at Boston's Jordan Hall Sunday afternoon. As the Boston Globe describes what to expect: "These two elegant pianists collaborate in a duo recital given over to music by Schubert, Schumann, Beethoven, Stravinsky, and Debussy." Previewing the duo's recent show in at the Kimmel Center, the Philadelphia Daily News said "Goode has remained at the keyboard summit for a generation."

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As noted earlier in the Nonesuch Journal, Kronos Quartet performs at the McAninch Arts Center at the College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, outside Chicago, tonight. On the program are works by Terry Riley, Bryce Dessner, John Zorn, Café Tacuba, and pieces from the group's latest Nonesuch release, Floodplain, including works by Ramallah Undergound and Aleksandra Vrebalov. The group performs at the Alexander Kasser Theater at Montclair State University in Montclair, New Jersey, on Sunday afternoon.

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The Low Anthem, which was recently featured in The Guardian and the Irish Times while on tour in Europe, performs two shows with fellow Rhode Islanders Brown Bird opening: tonight at Cultureel Podium Roepaen in Ottersum, Netherlands, and Sunday night at O2 Academy 2 in Birmingham, for which David Ford joins as well.

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Brad Mehldau performs a solo piano set at the Sanders Theatre at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, tonight. The Patriot Ledger includes it among the evening's best, summing it up succintly as "a big deal."

On that note, the Santa Barbara Independent's Josef Woodard picked Mehldau's recent set there as Show of the Week. "Mehldau is one of precious few pianists in jazz who, in solo mode, offers up a full-service, three (or four) dimensional musical intensity when left to his own mental and imaginative devices, not to mention his unusually self-sufficient two hands." Woodard goes on to call Mehldau "surely the finest jazz pianist (and jazz musician, period?) of his generation." Read more at independent.com.

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Pat Metheny's Orchestrion world tour takes on a decidedly Scandinavian bent this weekend as it heads to the Stockholm Concert Hall tonight, the Oslo Concert House on Saturday, and Copenhagen's Tivoli Concert Hall on Sunday. Pat discusses the Orchestrion project and plays from it in an interview on PRI's Echoes. You can listen online at pri.org.

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Punch Brothers join the members of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra string section for a special benefit event at the California Market Center in Los Angeles on Saturday. The orchestra's music director, Jeffrey Kahane, also performs on keyboard with his son Gabriel Kahane on piano & voice. Proceeds from the show go to support LACO's concerts, radio broadcasts, and community outreach programs. Thile and the orchestra recently gave the California premiere of his Mandolin Concerto.

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Joshua Redman continues to tour with his new quartet, James Farm: at IS Sanat Hall in Istanbul, Turkey, on Saturday, and the Blue Note in Milan, Italy, on Sunday. Following the group's tour opener last month at Salle Pleyel in Paris, All About Jazz reviewer David Miller had this to say: "This much is clear: these are absolute professional musicians at the top of their game. Every piece played was tasteful; every was note well-placed." Read the review at allaboutjazz.com.

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Sara Watkins concludes her tour of the UK with Transatlantic Sessions, which began at Glasgow's Celtic Connections festival last month, with a show at Birmingham's Symphony Hall tonight and a final set at Southbank's Royal Festival Hall in London Saturday night.

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Wilco kicks off its world tour this weekend at the University of Montana's Adams Center in Missoula on Sunday. Opening for this show and the coming several dates is Califone. As noted in the Nonesuch Journal, Wilco recently added several European shows to the end of the tour in May.