Amadou & Mariam are in the United States for just two performances this time around: first, at The Music Box at the Fonda in Los Angeles, tonight, followed by the closing set of Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, the free outdoor festival in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. The Malian duo stopped by the studio of Santa Monica public radio station KCRW yesterday to discuss and perform songs from their latest Nonesuch release, Welcome to Mali. You can watch and listen to the entire segment in the station's archives at kcrw.com.

---

Laurie Anderson and Bill Frisell join songwriter Gavin Friday and several of his friends—including members of U2, Antony Hegarty, Courtney Love, Martha Wainwright, Rufus Wainwright, and many more—in Carnegie Hall's Stern Auditorium Sunday night in a benefit concert for (red), with proceeds going to support the organization's efforts against AIDS in Africa.

---

Dan Auerbach plays two sets in Austin, Texas, this weekend. First up is an official Austin City Limits Festival Aftershow at Antone's Saturday night, though it's also something of a pre-show, as he performs again in the city's Zilker Park for his ACL Festival set Sunday night. "Simply put," says Houston Press of Dan's recent solo debut on Nonesuch, "Keep It Hid is a beautiful album."

---

David Byrne continues his panel discussion tour, Cities, Bicycles, and the Future of Getting Around, tonight, in the US city perhaps most closely associate with car travel (and traffic), Los Angeles. Byrne will be joined by Michelle Mowery, bicycle coordinator for the city's Department of Transportation; Don Shoup, professor of urban planning at UCLA; and bicylce advocate Jimmy Lizama of The Bicycle Kitchen; at the Aratani / Japan America Theatre. It's also part of the LA Public Library's ALOUD lecture series.

---

The Carolina Chocolate Drops continue their tour through the Midwest with two sold-out shows at The Ark in Ann Arbor, Michigan, tonight and tomorrow night, followed by a set at the Old Town School of Folk in Chicago on Sunday. The Cleveland Scene previewed a recent Drops show in that city by describing the band members as "fine players with a sense of history and humor, which comes out in their energetic performances and inspired song choices ... Words can’t do them justice; seeing is believing."

---

Christina Courtin, whose "Bundah" video was released earlier this week at Nonesuch.com, gives a sneak peek of her upcoming US tour with Elizabeth & the Catapult, in concerts in Boston and New York this weekend. She's at Boston's Lizard Lounge tonight and at The Bell House in Brooklyn on Saturday. The New Yorker, in listing Saturday's show, says Courtin "turns vocal cartwheels while belting out jazz-inflected rock, blues, and folk."

---

Emmylou Harris has become something of a fixture at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, the free music festival in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, now in its ninth run. SFist described her as "the backbone of the festival." She returns to play again this year, performing on Sunday night.

---

Kronos Quartet began a two-day residency at the University of Colorado, Boulder, yesterday that includes a master class this afternoon and culminates in a concert in the university's Macky Auditorium featuring George Crumb's 1971 anti-war piece Black Angels, which the Quartet famously played in its first concert, 35 years ago. "There's nothing else like it," David Harrington tells Boulder's Daily Camera. Read more about Kronos's connection to the piece at dailycamera.com.

---

The Low Anthem is back in the States after successfully finishing up its European tour last week. The band plays a set in the opening day of the Austin City Limits Festival in Austin's Zilker Park today. Up next is a very special gig in The Low Anthem's hometown of Providence, at the Avon Cinema, an old-time movie house. Two further solo dates and then a tour with Blind Pilot follow.

---

Following the successful premiere and repeat performances of Chris Thile's Mandolin Concerto, Punch Brothers have returned to the road. The tour stops in Sewanee, Tennessee, for a show in Guerry Auditorium at the University of the South tonight, then heads up to Powderly, Kentucky, to play the Merle Travis Performing Arts Center on Sunday.

---

Allen Toussaint plays two festival dates this weekend. He'll return to his home state of Louisiana to play the Main Stage of the Gretna Heritage Festival in downtown Gretna, just across the Mississippi River from New Orleans, on Saturday. He'll then make his way across the country to perform in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park for the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival.

---

Dawn Upshaw and her longtime collaborator, pianist Gilbert Kalish, perform works by Debussy, Golijov, Ives, and Mussorgsky in the Cleveland Institute of Music's Mixon Hall Sunday night. It's the opening recital of the hall's Master Series.

---

Sara Watkins takes the Austin Ventures stage in Zilker Park this evening for the Austin City Limits Festival. Sara reports on Twitter (@SaraWatkins) that John Paul Jones, the legendary Led Zeppelin bassist and the producer of her recent self-titled solo debut on Nonesuch, will be sitting in with her for the performance.

---

Wilco's North American tour continues, following last night's kick-off at the University of Iowa. As reported earlier today in the Nonesuch Journal, the band is in St. Paul, Minnesota, to play at Roy Wilkins Auditorium, tonight, and stays in town for a live broadcast performance of A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor at the Fitzgerald Theater the following night. On Sunday, it's off to Maryland Heights, Missouri, for the annual Farm Aid benefit concert.