Emmylou Harris, Ben Folds play the XPoNential Music Fest, broadcast live via XPN ... Bang on a Can pays tribute to John Adams at MASS MoCA ... Carolina Chocolate Drops are in NY and PA ... Shawn Colvin hits Strings Music Fest ... Kronos Quartet plays Poland and Germany ... k.d. lang, Punch Brothers play Calgary Folk Music Fest ... Jessica Lea Mayfield headlines out West ... Randy Newman kicks off Australia tour ... Oumou Sangare launches North American tour ... Philip Selway plays Truck Fest ... Dawn Upshaw sings in Santa Fe ... and more ...
NPR member station WXPN 88.5 FM in Philadelphia hosts the 2011 XPoNential Music Festival, a three-day music festival taking place this weekend in Wiggins Park on the Camden Waterfront, with Emmylou Harris and Ben Folds performing sets on the festival's River Stage on Sunday. Folds takes the stage first, with a 6:40 PM set, and is followed directly by Harris, who closes out the festival stage at 8:35 PM Sunday night. XPN will be broadcasting both XPoNential performances live; head to xpn.org to listen in online.
Emmylou Harris’s latest Nonesuch album, Hard Bargain, has been named XPN’s Featured Album of the Week. "Her elegance as a singer has always been the focal point of her music, and quite frankly she continues to amaze on Hard Bargain, yet her confidence as a songwriter is fully realized on this new collection," writes Mike Vasilikos, host of the XPN Morning Show. "It's hard to not find Hard Bargain an inspiring release. After 40 plus years of making music the desire, the passion and the talent are all certainly still there for Emmylou Harris. But don’t think of this album as an unexpected accomplishment, but as yet another highlight in the career of a legendary artist." Read more at xpn.org.
Prior to her XPoNential set, Emmylou Harris performs at the Atlanta Botanical Garden tonight and at Filene Center’s Wolf Trap in Vienna, Virginia, on Saturday.
Ben Folds precedes his Sunday set with a show at the Warfield Theatre in San Francisco tonight, with Sing-Off contestant Kenton Chen opening. Folds appeared on the Adam Carolla Show earlier this week to discuss the stories behind some of his best-known songs and some shared traits between music and comedy. To download the episode, head to adamcarolla.com.
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Bang on a Can pays tribute to composer John Adams with a full day of events at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA) in North Adams on Saturday, part of the 10th Annual Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival there. First up is an afternoon talk with Bang on a Can co-founder David Lang, followed by a gallery recital featuring a performance of Adams's Road Movies, and capped off with an all-Adams evening concert including Gnarly Buttons, Scratchband, Shaker Loops, and American Standard.
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Carolina Chocolate Drops perform at the GrassRoots Festival in Trumansburg, New York, tonight. They take the stage in the Dance Tent on the Trumansburg Fairgrounds. The following day, the band heads to Austin, Pennsylvania, for a performance at the 2011 Dam Show in Austin Dam Memorial Park.
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Shawn Colvin heads to Steamboat Springs, Colorado, tonight for a performance at Strings Music Pavilion as a part of this year’s Strings Music Festival, which boasts over 85 diverse musical performances.
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Kronos Quartet is on tour in Europe, making two stops this weekend: at Szymanowski Philarmonic Hall in Kraków, Poland, tonight, and at the Theater Ingolstadt in Ingolstadt, Germany, on Sunday. Tonight's program, which is part of the Festival of Polish Music, features works by Henryk Górecki and other Polish composers. Sunday's concert, part of the Audi Summer Concert series, includes a performance of Steve Reich's WTC 9/11. Kronos heads to Ireland next week for an all-Reich program as part of the Cork Opera House's celebration of the composer's 75th year.
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k.d. lang and the Siss Boom Bang remain in lang's homeland of Canada this weekend, first with a set at the Calgary Folk Music Festival at Prince’s Island Park on Saturday, followed by a performance at the Kelowna Community Theatre in Kelowna, British Columbia, Sunday night.
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Jessica Lea Mayfield continues her US headlining tour, following a recent spate of shows with the Avett Brothers, with two shows this weekend: at Pappy and Harriet’s in Pioneertown, California, tonight, and at Compound Grill in Phoenix, on Saturday. Ferraby Lionheart opens both nights.
The Arizona Republic’s Ed Masley, gearing up for her show in Phoenix, calls her Nonesuch debut album, Tell Me, “a stunning sophomore effort, unveiling a talent that's already outgrown labels at the tender age of 21.”
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As announced in yesterday's Nonesuch Journal, Randy Newman begins a round of orchestral performances in Australia tonight with a show at QPAC’s Concert Hall in South Bank, Brisbane. He is joined by the Queensland Symphony Orchestra. This "master songwriter," says The Australian, "is still going strong."
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Punch Brothers join fellow Nonesuch artist k.d. lang on the Calgary Folk Music Festival roster, giving a performance of their own at Prince’s Island Park on Saturday.
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As noted earlier today in the Nonesuch Journal, Oumou Sangare launches her North American tour this weekend, beginning with a free show at the Festival International Nuits d’Afrique in Montreal tonight, performing at the Parterre du Quartier des spectacles. She heads to the United States for the remainder of her tour, starting with a performance, at Caramoor's Venetian Theatre in Katonah, New York, on Saturday.
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Philip Selway, whose new EP, Running Blind, will be released in North America next month, joins the UK Truck Festival in Steventon, Oxon, taking the stage at Hill Farm on Sunday.
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Dawn Upshaw, together with several other artists, performs at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival on Saturday. Her performance is at Santa Fe’s St. Francis Auditorium. On the program are works by Bach, including his Violin Concerto No. 1, his Concert for Two Violins, and his Cantata, “Mein Herze schwimmt im Blut,” which Upshaw unforgettably performed on her 2001 Nonesuch album, Angels Hide Their Faces.
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Sara Watkins continues her tour performing with The Decemberists in a show at Big Sky Brew in Missoula, Montana, tonight.
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