As noted yesterday in the Nonesuch Journal, the Newport Folk Festival is taking place this weekend at Fort Adams State Park in Newport, Rhode Island, where much of the music drifting through the beautiful seaside air will be coming from Nonesuch artists.

Before the festivities kick off on Saturday, Newport's Jane Pickens Theater will host a screening tonight of the documentary How to Grow a Band, which follows Punch Brothers on their first tour. The screening will be preceded by a reception and followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers.

On Saturday, Sara Watkins joins The Decemberists on the main stage, followed by the inaugural Newport Folk Backstage Benefit BBQ, which features a special performance by The Low Anthem with fellow Rhode Islander John McCauley of Deer Tick and Middle Brother.

Sunday is the big day for Nonesuch artists, with sets from Carolina Chocolate Drops and Wanda Jackson on the main stage, followed by a set from Chris Thile and Michael Daves on the Harbor Stage, and Emmylou Harris bringing the show back to the main stage.

The Boston Phoenix includes both the Chocolate Drops and Thile & Daves on its short list of 5 Artists to Watch at the festival. Phoenix writer Jonathan Donaldson places the former "in the 'See It to Believe It' category" and says of the latter: "Thile has finally met his mettle in his new pairing with guitarist Michael Daves ... Thile and Daves balance each other well—both perfectly at home sitting back while the other deliriously tears it up." Read more at thephoenix.com.

Though the festival is sold-out, fans around the world can tune in as NPR Music broadcasts and webcasts full concerts all weekend long, with streaming live video from a number of sets. To listen in online, head to npr.org.

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Before hitting Newport on Sunday, the Carolina Chocolate Drops perform at Blue Ridge Parkway in Floyd, Virginia, tonight as a part of this year's Floydfest.

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Emmylou Harris remains in the Northeast all weekend, with a set at The Music Hall in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, tonight and another at State Theatre in Portland, Maine, on Saturday. She is joined by The Civil Wars each night before heading to Newport on Sunday.

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Wanda Jackson performs at Musikfest Café in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, on Saturday prior to her Newport set on Sunday. Irish rockabilly singer Imelda May opens. Blurt, in its recent profile of Jackson, a.k.a. the Queen of Rockabilly, proclaims: "God Save the Queen."

Jackson and May came together to perform "A Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On" at their show at New York's Central Park on Wednesday. Watch it here:

Kronos Quartet—folllowing last night's Irish premiere of Steve Reich's WTC 9/11 at the Cork Opera House festival celebrating the composer's 75th birthday—travels to Northern Ireland to perform at the Walled City Music Festival, which celebrates world-renowed classical music in Derry-Londonderry, one of the few walled cities left in the world. The group performs WTC 9/11 and works by Bryce Dessner, Michael Gordon, Laurie Anderson and others at the Great Hall of the University of Ulster at Magee Saturday afternoon.

Kronos Quartet recently performed at the Malta Arts Festival, with a show entitled "Around the World with Kronos," which Joseph Camilleri of the Times of Malta called "surely one of the highlights" of the festival

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k.d. lang and the Siss Boom Bang have a full weekend ahead with three shows in California: at the Cascade Theatre in Redding tonight; Robert Mondavi Winery in Oakville on Saturday; and Mountain Winery in Saratoga on Sunday. Justin Jones opens each night.

Canada's Exclaim!, reviewing lang and the band's recent Calgary Folk Music Festival headlining set, writes: "Doubtlessly, k.d. lang showed why she is one of the best singers in Canadian music history."

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The Low Anthem follows its Saturday night Newport Folk Festival benefit performances with a trip up north to Canada for another festival performance, at Montreal's Osheaga Festival on Sunday.

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Jessica Lea Mayfield hits the South this weekend as a part of her current US summer tour, first with a show at Bottletree in Birmingham, Alabama, tonight, joined by Ferraby Lionheart. On Saturday, she plays a set at the Bele Chere Festival in Asheville, North Carolina.

Of her Nonesuch debut album, Tell Me, Phoenix New Times music contributor M. T. Richards writes: "The songs are more polished, more intimidate—less the work of a bedazzled youth and more the work of an indelibly realized adult composer."

Robert Bell of the Arkansas Times agrees, calling Mayfield "one of those wise-beyond-her-years singer/songwriters who might cause nonbelievers to reconsider reincarnation."

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Brad Mehldau and Joshua Redman have two duo shows in France this weekend, which will close out their July round of European performances together, before the duo returns in October. They have a set at the Théâtre de Verdure du Parc du Château de Florans at La Roque d'Anthéron tonight. On Sunday, they play the Marciac Jazz Festival, where Mehldau recorded his recently released solo CD/DVD, Live in Marciac.

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Randy Newman, having kicked off his Australian tour last weekend in Brisbane, remains Down Under for two performances at Melbourne's State Theatre this weekend, accompanied by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, and two at the Sydney Opera House next week with the Sydney Symphony. The Brisbane Times gives Newman's performance with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra five starts, calling it "a night of perfect tone" and "a tender, truthful journey through time."

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The Reich Effect, a five-day celebration of Steve Reich's 75th birthday presented by the Cork Opera House in Cork City, Ireland, continues through Sunday. Among the weekend's highlights are a percussion program at the Cork Opera House and an RTÉ Concert Orchestra proms at City Hall pairing Reich's music with that of Jonny Greenwood, Kjartan Sveinsson of Sigur Rós, and Nico Muhly tonight; a performance of Reich’s seminal Music for 18 Musicians by the London Sinfonietta and Synergy Vocals at the Opera House on Saturday; and a culminating performance at the Opera House on Sunday by Crash Ensemble, featuring Donnacha Dennehy's Grá agus Bás, with singer Íarla Ó Lionáird, and the Irish premiere of Reich's 2x5 and his Pulitzer Prize-winning piece, Double Sextet.

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Oumou Sangare closes out her North American tour this weekend with two shows. She and her band perform a free concert in Brooklyn's Prospect Park as part of the Celebrate Brooklyn! series of free outdoor events, on a co-bill with Bassam Saba. Saturday, Sangare heads to Brownfield, Maine, for a final show at Stone Mountain Arts Center.

Time Out New York chooses tonight's show as a Critics' Pick. "Listen to her fifth and latest album, Seya (translation: 'Joy'), and you'll understand why she’s become so big," says the magazine. "Her voice is strong, lithe and cool, and like Amadou & Mariam and Rokia Traore, Sangare combines rootedness with breezy experimentalism and a yen for pop. Plus, she puts on a hell of a live show."

New York NPR member station WNYC is offering the song "Wele Wele Wintou" from Seya today and promises: "There will surely be dancing in the grass and onstage Friday night at the Prospect Park bandshell." Listen to the track here:

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Dawn Upshaw continues her residency at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival when she joins a wealth of artists in performing at St. Francis Auditorium in Santa Fe, New Mexico, on Sunday. On the program are works by Schubert and Golijov.

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Sara Watkins continues her tour with The Decemberists with shows on Friday and Sunday, in addition to Saturday's Newport Folk Festival set. They take the stage at the Borgata Event Center in Atlantic City, tonight, and at Mountain Park in Holyoke, Massachusetts, on Sunday.