Bill Frisell continues to tour Europe with his 858 Quartet, featuring Ron Miles, Hank Roberts, and Eyvind Kang. The group is in Dortmund, Germany, to play the Domicil tonight, and then in Wrocław, Poland, to perform at Wrocław Philharmonic Concert Hall on Sunday.

Frisell's latest Nonesuch release, Disfarmer, was recently described as "one of the year's finest albums" by the Santa Barbara Independent. "At this point, Bill Frisell could settle back on the porch of his sterling reputation as one of America's favorite thinking person's guitarists," says Independent writer Josef Woodard, "but he just keeps stirring up fine and fresh new ideas." The album, says Woodard, "deftly channels the guitarist/composer's creative powers and atmospheric ingenuity." Frisell, having found inspiration for the album in the work of the late American outsider artist Mike Disfarmer, finds musical inspiration in Americana as well, "to
heart-soothing and brain-massaging ends. Makes you proud to be an American." Read more at independent.com.

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John Adams's String Quartet (2008) will be given two performances by the St. Lawrence String Quartet this weekend in concerts at the Des Moines Arts Center tonight and at the University of Michigan's Rackham Auditorium in Ann Arbor on Sunday. "[T]he appearance of a new Adams string quartet," says the Detroit Free Press, "is big news."

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Dan Auerbach continues his tour with Justin Townes Earle and Jessica Lea Mayfield with a stop at the Majestic Theatre in Detroit tonight, followed by two dates north of the border at the Phoenix Concert Theatre in Toronto on Saturday and Le National in Montreal on Sunday. And tune in to CBS tonight at 8 PM ET to hear The Black Keys' "Psychotic Girl," off of Attack & Release, on the latest episode of Ghost Whisperer.
 
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The Carolina Chocolate Drops make three tour stops in California this weekend, performing at UC Santa Barbara's Campbell Hall tonight, then heading north to play the Napa Valley Opera House on Saturday and two shows at San Francisco's Palace of Fine Arts on Sunday as part of the San Francisco Jazz Festival. Previewing tonight's show, the Santa Barbara Independent spoke with band member Don Flemons about the band's place as leading figures in the resurgent old-time string band music scene. You'll find the interview at independent.com.

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Shawn Colvin is in Portland, Maine, to perform at Longfellow Square Saturday night with Anais Mitchell. In the listing for Colvin's recent three-night residency at New York's City Winery, the New York Times describes her as "a heroine in folk circles." The Times's Amanda Petrusich says Colvin's most recent Nonesuch release, Live, "showcases her charm and dexterity with an acoustic guitar."
 
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Ry Cooder's tour of Japan, New Zealand, and Australia with Nick Lowe, Joachim Cooder, and Juliette Commagere got under way earlier this week with a performance at Nagoya's Zepp Hall on Wednesday. It continues tonight with a show at the Grand Cube in Osaka before heading to Tokyo for three nights at Orchard Hall early next week. You can read Ry's program note in a recent Nonesuch Journal post.

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Kronos Quartet, following this week's performance at Carnegie Hall as part of its Perspectives series there, heads to Philadelphia for a concert at the Kimmel Center Saturday night. On the program are works from Floodplain, the group's latest Nonesuch release, as well as Steve Reich's Different Trains, plus works by Bryce Dessner, Sigur Rós, Amon Tobin, and Michael Gordon.

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The Low Anthem's tour with Blind Pilot continues this weekend, but, unfortunately, tonight's scheduled concert at the University of North Carolina in Asheville has been cancelled due to a UNCA booking error. The band sends its sincere apologies for the cancellation and promises to return to the area soon. The Saturday night set at the Attucks Theater in Norfolk, Virginia, is still on.
 
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The Brad Mehldau Trio continues its tour through Europe, performing two shows in France and one in Spain this weekend. First up is a show at the Théâtre de Feuillants in Dijon tonight, followed by one at the Maison de la Culture in Nevers, France, on Saturday and then at the Auditoria de Zaragoza in Zaragoza, Spain, on Sunday.

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I Bring What I Love, the film documenting the making of Youssou N'Dour's album Egypt, returned to Chicago at the ICE Theaters last night and opens tonight in Denver at the Starz FilmCenter. It continues its run in theaters across the US. For more information, visit ibringwhatilove.com.

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Nicholas Payton performs at Sheldon Concert Hall in St. Louis, Missouri, on Saturday. St. Louis Post-Dispatch writer Calvin Wilson says Payton must "be on the short list of the finest living jazz trumpeters" and calls his most recent album, Into the Blue, released last year on Nonesuch, "among his best." The two discuss the album and this weekend's concert in an interview at stltoday.com.
 
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Wilco began its tour of Europe earlier this week in Leeds, England, followed by a sold-out show at London's HMV Forum Wednesday night to which The Times (UK) gives four stars. "Wilco began as adventurous folk-rockers, veered in to complex, experimental rock and, of late, have almost returned to their roots with simpler, shorter, more soulful songs," says The Times's Lisa Verrico. "However many styles the sextet threw into their pot," she writes of the London show, "their old-fashioned care for their craft on often meticulously structured songs stood out." Spinner, also reporting from the show, says front man Jeff Tweedy's "mischievous side was quite clearly tweaked." His "sense of fun" was on display throughout, as was Nels Cline's "extraordinary guitar playing."

The band has three concerts this weekend, including two sold-out shows, tonight at Ancienne Belgique in Brussels, and Sunday at the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen, that bookend a set at Saturday's big Rolling Stone Weekender festival at Ferienpark in the Baltic seaside town of Lubeck, Germany.