Rokia Traoré's two-week tour of the United States began earlier this week in California, leading the San Francisco Chronicle to assert that her latest Nonesuch release, Tchamantché, "confirms Traoré's reputation as one of Africa's most sublime artists."

The tour continues tonight at the Cedar Cultural Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and the Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago on Sunday. Reviewing the new album for the Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune, critic Britt Robson describes Traoré's work as "fearless, sophisticated, genre-bending music" and says "there is a unique, graceful quietude about Tchamantché that is both a little spooky and reassuring, like a conversation in the dark. The electrified instruments are often restrained, as are Traoré's gorgeous vocals, which express the nuances of intimacy and emotion with the refinement of a calligrapher."

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Laurie Anderson performs Burning Leaves, a selection of songs and stories from her various solo shows The Speed of Darkness, Happiness, The End of the Moon, and Homeland, at the Playhouse Square Ohio Theatre, on Saturday. She is also a featured artist in the new Guggenheim Museum exhibit The Third Mind, on the influence of Asian among American artists. In the House. In the Fire. Stories 1972–2008, a collection of spoken stories and sounds associated with Laurie's performance work, is included in the exhibit, which runs through April 19.

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The Black Keys have come to conquer New York City's Terminal 5, again. This time around, for two shows, tonight and tomorrow night, they're joined by two supporting group, the Heartless Bastards and Lucero. The Keys then head to nearby Montclair, New Jersey, where they'll play at the Wellmont Theatre with opener Doug Gillard.

The Jersey-based music magazine The Aquarian features an interview with drummer Patrick Carney under the banner The Black Keys: The Faces of Great Music. Pat talks about the tour; the band's recently released concert DVD, Live at the Crystal Ballroom; and the band's upcoming plans to write and record their next album.

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David Byrne continues the Australasian leg of his tour Songs of David Byrne and Brian Eno with a stop at Brisbane Riverstage Saturday night. The Australian's Iain Shedden, reviewing the performance at the normally reserved Sydney Opera House Concert Hall earlier this week, says Byrne was able to move the audience beyond any venue-instilled reservations, and "the night emerged as an exhilarating triumph."

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Emmylou Harris and Shawn Colvin were joined by Patty Griffin and Buddy Miller for the start of a month-long run of their rollicking Three Girls and Their Buddy tour earlier this week with two nights at The Birchmere in Alexandria, Virginia. In an article printed in the Washington Post, Reuters' Mark Felsenthal calls it a homecoming for Emmylou, a former Washington, DC, resident, and spoke with her about her ties to the area and the joys of touring with her fellow singer/songwriters.

"Her recent album All I Intended to Be, which is featured on the new tour, marks a return to a more intimate, stripped-down sound," says Felsenthal. "Harris's artistic vitality, mastery of different styles and enduring success with core fans has provided her with a hard-won independence."

The tour was in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, last night and stays in the state another day for a performance at the Keswick Theatre in Glenside, outside of Philadelphia, tonight. On Sunday, the four head north to play the Music Hall in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

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Fred Hersch will perform two shows in San Francisco this weekend: a free solo concert and conversation at the Community Music Center tonight and a concert at Herbst Theatre with his new Pocket Orchestra Saturday night. He spoke with the San Francisco Chronicle about his recent triumph over a number of life-threatening illnesses and his return to the stage. "Hersch, who plays jazz with uncommon fluency, feeling and invention," says the Chronicle, "has recovered, regaining his strength through intense physical therapy and getting back to the affirming business of making music."

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Punch Brothers continue the Southern leg of their US tour this weekend with two sets in Mississippi: tonight at the Mississippi State University's Riley Center in Meridan and Saturday at the University of Mississippi's Ford Center for the Performing Arts. Tonight's show at MSU is preceded by a Pre-Show Social in the Riley's Grand Lobby beginning at 6:30 PM, with light hors d'oeuvres and wine, beer, or soft drinks from the cash bar.

The Clarion Ledger, out of Jackson, Mississippi, features a Q&A with guitarist Chris Eldridge. "While billed as a bluegrass band," says interviewer Kyle Doherty, "Punch Brothers is a beast of a different nature entirely ... [T]he band has a serious bluegrass background, but delves into more experimental territory, incorporating elements of classical and jazz."

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Steve Reich's participation in Modfest, Vassar's three-week festival of contemporary music, art, poetry, and film, continues this weekend. Tonight, the Vassar Repertory Dance Theatre will perform works set to Reich works at Kenyon Hall's Frances Daly Fergusson Dance Theater. On the program is Features the Clearing, by Katherine Wildberger, a member of Vassar's departments of dance and drama, set to Reich's earliest work, It’s Gonna Rain, and Takehiro Ueyama’s Shabon, set to music from 2004's You Are (Variations). The composer worked with the dance company last weekend in a closed rehearsal session.

Also on Modfest's schedule this weekend, on Sunday night, Vassar music faculty and special guests will perform a concert of works by Elliott Carter and other contemporary composers. The festival concludes with its culminating event next week.

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Following last night's performance and conversation with Allen Toussaint at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles, Toussaint's participation in Grammy week continues. He'll be fêted, along with Elliott Carter, as recipients of the Recording Academy's Trustees Award, at an invitation-only ceremony  Saturday
night. Toussaint will also perform on the live broadcast of Sunday's awards ceremony with an eclectic group of artists Robin Thicke, Terence Blanchard, and none other than Lil Wayne "on the defiant, Katrina-themed 'Tie My Hands,' which segues into a second-line coda with the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, reports USA Today.

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Dawn Upshaw continues her two-week tour of Australia with the Australian Chamber Orchestra. After tonight's performance at the Perth Concert Hall, the group heads east for three shows in Sydney, starting with one at the Sydney Opera House this Sunday and moving to the City Recital Hall Angel for two shows next week.

"There’s a danger when reviewing Dawn Upshaw that you’ll end up smothering your writing in superlatives," writes Alice Allan of Australian Stage in her review of the tour's opening performance in Canberra earlier this week. "It’s easy to throw around words like 'impeccable,’ ‘golden,’ and ‘flawless’ without really considering what they mean ... But rather than get bogged down by hyperbole, let’s sum up Upshaw’s brilliance by noting that during her performance at Llewellyn Hall, the audience were moved to break with classical concert tradition and applauded between songs during a three-song suite."