The Low Anthem performs two sold-out shows in Massachusetts this weekend: at the Old South Church in Boston tonight and at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA) in North Adams on Saturday. Bobby and Daniel Lefkowitz join for both performances.

The Boston Herald's Jed Gottlieb spoke with band member Jeff Prystowsky about recording their new album, Smart Flesh, in an abandoned pasta sauce factory in Rhode Island. Gottlieb calls Smart Flesh "an album full of ghostly echoes and haunting folk ballads" and says of the band: "What they’re doing is playing a unique cocktail of folk and rock. Leonard Cohen, Tom Waits and Uncle Tupelo are touchstones, but only hint at the Low Anthem sound."

For the last few shows of The Low Anthem's current US tour—including this weekend's shows, the coming week's stops in Portland and New York, and the following weekend's showstopper in the aforementioned pasta sauce factory—the band's friend Jay Hallstein of The Press Bed will be on site hand-screen printing one-of-a kind shirts (à la the image at left), designed specially for these shows. Fans can also bring a shirt of their own (or any other garment/printable item) to the merch table for Hallsetin to silkscreen.

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John Adams's music is front and center this week at the Toronto Symphony Orchestra's New Creations Festival, which kicked off on Wednesday with a performance of his Harmonielehre and Short Ride in a Fast Machine. Adams, whom the Toronto Star describes as “one of the most successful living composers in the world,” makes his TSO debut when he conducts the orchestra in the Canadian premiere of his City Noir at Roy Thomson Hall on Saturday.

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Timothy Andres will be joined by fellow composer/pianist Gabriel Kahane for An Evening with Charles Ives, a program ranging from songs by Ives and Bach chorale transcriptions by Kurtág to new re-workings of chorales and hymns, as well as their own original compositions, at New York's Merkin Concert Hall on Saturday. It's part of the ongoing Ecstatic Music Festival.

The two performers recently discussed the concert, and its analog in BLT sandwiches, over iChat. You can read the transcript of that conversation on Andres's website, andres.com. A similarly food-themed conversation developed when Kahane spoke with the Huffington Post's Daniel J. Kushner about the concert, which you can read at huffingtonpost.com.

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Carolina Chocolate Drops perform two concerts in Pennsylvania: at the Appalachian Brewing Company in Harrisburg, tonight, and at the Kelly Strayhorn Theatre in Pittsburgh, on Saturday.

Prior to their performance at Phildadelphia's Theater of Living Arts last night, the Phildelphia City Paper called the band "one of the finest interpreters of traditional bluegrass tunes around today. Not only that, but the instrument-switching trio has a knack for rearranging contemporary tunes into older styles. Century-old songs of the Carolinas are played with reverent precision, though the guys and gal have plenty of fun while they’re at it. The Chocolate Drops’ latest album, Genuine Negro Jig, has brought them a heap of well-deserved acclaim, so come see what all the hollerin’ is about."

Band member Dom Flemons spoke with The Hook out of Charlottesville, Virginia, about the band's music and the recent addition of beatboxer Adam Matta to the lineup. You'll find the interview at readthehook.com.

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Shawn Colvin shares a double bill with Loudon Wainwright III at William Paterson University's Shea Center for Performing Arts in Wayne, New Jersey, tonight. Colvin then plays a solo show at The Flying Monkey Performance Center in Plymouth, New Hampshire, on Saturday.

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Ben Folds continues his European tour, giving performances the Independent has called “monumental,” with shows at Muffathalle in Munich tonight and at Museumsquartier Halle E+G in Vienna on Saturday.

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Emmylou Harris, set to release her 21st studio album, Hard Bargain, next month on Nonesuch, performs two concerts with John Prine in Alabama this weekend: at the BJCC Concert Hall in her hometown of Birmingham—as perfect a place as any to hear "Boulder to Birmingham"—tonight and the Von Braun Center Concert Hall in Huntsville on Saturday.

"In the realm of singer-songwriters, these two set a gold standard," says the Birmingham News, which offers a bit of a trivia contest on the performers at blog.al.com in honor of this weekend's shows.

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Fred Hersch and Joshua Redman perform two consecutive duo sets together at the Jazz Standard in New York City Sunday night.

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Wanda Jackson's performance with Jack White and the Third Man House Band on the Late Show with David Letterman, from January, will be rebroadcast tonight on CBS. Her appearance on NPR's World Cafe is now available at npr.org.

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Kronos Quartet gives two performances of Terry Riley's Sun Rings in Taiwan this weekend: at the National Concert Hall in Taipei tonight, as part of the Taiwan International Festival of Arts, and at the Jhihde Hall of Cultural Center in Kaohsiung on Sunday.

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Brad Mehldau holds a pair of master classes on improvisation and collaboration for piano solo and jazz trio at Le Poisson Rouge in New York City, at noon on Saturday and Sunday. The classes are being presented in partnership with Carnegie Hall, where Mehldau is the holder of the Richard and Barbara Debs Composer's Chair.

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As noted earlier today in the Nonesuch Journal, Natalie Merchant performs a special concert at the Fisher Center's Sosnoff Theater at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, Saturday night. Merchant will be joined by the Bard College Conservatory of Music Orchestra and conductor James Bagwell in performing songs from her 2010 Nonesuch debut album, Leave Your Sleep, as well as favorite songs from throughout her career. This special concert is a benefit for the Bard College Conservatory of Music's Scholarship Fund and the Preparatory Division.

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Randy Newman follows his second Oscar win this past Sunday with a full weekend of performances in the New York area beginning tonight at Music Hall in Tarrytown. Newman then performs at The Town Hall in New York City Saturday night and closes out the weekend in Collingswood, New Jersey, with a concert at the Scottish Rite Theatre.

The New Republic's David Hajdu, in an effort to contextualize Newman's Oscar win, describes Newman's music as "grand, smarter than it needs to be, entertaining, and secretly ferocious."

Earlier this week, the Star-Ledger named Newman's "A Few Words in Defense of Our Country," as heard on his previous Nonesuch release, Harps and Angels, the Song of the Day.

The Lexington Herald Leader, reviewing Newman's recent performance at the Lexington Opera House, says it was the "fascinating contrasts, above all the hilarity, drove this extraordinary performance. Sure, laugh and be happy, the music seemed to shout. At least until the rain comes."

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Punch Brothers perform at Peery’s Egyptian Theater at the Weber State University in Ogden, Utah, on Saturday.

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Sara Watkins kicks off the European leg of her tour with The Decemberists with shows at Vicar Street in Dublin tonight and at Barrowlands in Glasgow on Saturday.