David Byrne closes out his tour of Cities, Bicycles, and the Future of Getting Around, a panel discussion around the recent release of his book Bicycle Diaries. This weekend's events are both at book festivals in Canada: tonight at Saint Brigid's Centre for the Arts and Humanities for the Ottawa Writers Festival, featuring Maire Lemay, the CEO of the National Capital Commission, and tomorrow at Toronto's Fleck Dance Theatre for the International Festival of Authors, with Jack Layton, the leader of Canada's New Democratic Party and acting deputy mayor of Toronto. 

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Alarm Will Sound, fresh off the New York City release party of their Nonesuch debut album, a/rhythmia, are in Hamburg, Germany, tonight to perform at Kampnagel. Featured on the program is John Adams's Son of Chamber Symphony and Autechre's Cfern, off the new album, as well as works by Harrison Birtwistle, Stefan Freund, Wolfgang Rihm, and Aphex Twin.
 
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Shawn Colvin's tour moves to the Midwest this weekend with a performance at the City Opera House in Traverse City, Michigan, tonight, and the North Shore Center for the Arts in Skokie, Illinois, on Saturday.

The Edmonds Beacon out of Washington state describes a recent performance at the Edmonds Center for the Arts as "a sublime and entirely engaging concert," crediting Colvin's "perceptive, earnest and personal songwriting" and "her lovely, soaring voice." The Westmoreland Gazette, in the UK's Lake District, calls her recent Live album from Nonesuch "a great showcase for her talents and would serve well as an excellent gateway to her music for those still unfamiliar with this hugely talented artist." Says the Gazette's Anthony Loman, "The songs, presented in this stripped back, intimate fashion actually sound even more beautiful and poignant than when set against the backdrop of a full band and allows the listener to fully appreciate Colvin’s exquisite way with words, her graceful melodies and fine guitar playing."
 
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Christina Courtin's cross-country tour with fellow New Yorkers Elizabeth & the Catapult comes to a close this weekend with a concert at The Saint in Asbury Park, New Jersey, tonight, and, finally, at Funk 'n' Waffles in Syracuse, New York. Courtin then heads to her hometown of Buffalo to headline a set at Tralf Music Hall next week.
 
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Bill Frisell and his 858 Quartet, featuring Ron Miles, Hank Roberts, Eyvind Kang, are touring Europe, stopping in Italy and Austria this weekend. Tonight, the group performs at Cinema Lux in Padua. They'll be at the Teatro Comunale in Cormòns, Italy, on Saturday, and then at Treibhaus in Innsbruck, Austria, on Sunday.

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Philip Glass and the Philip Glass Ensemble give the Dallas debut of Dracula Live!, a screening of the famed Béla Lugosi film set to Glass's score, performed live. The event will take place at the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts on Saturday.

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Emmylou Harris continues her tour with the Red Dirt Boys and special guest Buddy Miller. This weekend promises three stops through the Midwest: the Michigan Theater in Ann Arbor tonight; Dominican University's Performing Arts Center in River Forest, Illinois, on Saturday; and the Mystic Showroom in Prior Lake, Minnesota, on Sunday.

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Kronos Quartet joins Indonesian composer Rahayu Supanggah for the world premiere of Purnati, a new work by Supanggah, this Sunday afternoon. The special concert will take place at a special venue to match: Ann Hamilton's Tower on Oliver Ranch, one of the country's premiere reserves for site-specific art, in Geyserville, California. Following the concert, the performers will meet up with ticket holders for a casual dinner party in town. Proceeds from the event will go to support the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and Kronos's own Under 30 Project, a commissioning program for young composers.

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In a recent profile in JamBase, The Low Anthem is described as a band that "went from a much-talked-about unsigned act that hit some big festival stages and opened for the likes of Ray LaMontagne to one with a wide-released album that will almost certainly end up on some 'Best of 2009' lists come year's end." This weekend, the band continues its tour with Blind Pilot, starting with a sold-out slot at the Troubador in Los Angeles, tonight. On Saturday, the bands play the Casbah in San Diego, then move inland to play Plush in Tucson, Arizona, on Sunday.
 
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The Brad Mehldau Trio continues its run in Central Europe this weekend, performing at Mestsky in Prerov, Czech Republic, tonight, and at Universal Hall in Skopje, Macedonia, on Saturday. The latter gig is part of the Skopje Jazz Festival, now in its 28th running, at which the Mehldau Trio shares a bill with the James Carter Quintet.
 
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After two sets at the Jazz Gallery in New York City last night, Fernando Otero heads over to Brooklyn for a Sunday evening performance at Galapagos Art Space. He'll be joined by fellow Argentine composer/pianist Emilio Teubal for a program titled New Music from Argentina: An Exploration of the Legacy of Argentinian Music.
 
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Omara Portuondo, the female voice of the Buena Vista Social Club, comes to the United States from Cuba for a rare concert appearance. She performs for one night only at Royce Hall at the University of California, Los Angeles, tonight.

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Joshua Redman concludes his five-night residency at New York's Jazz Standard this weekend with his Trio, featuring Matt Penman on bass and Greg Hutchinson on drums. The group plays multiple sets each night through Sunday.
 
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As reported earlier today in the Nonesuch Journal, Stephen Sondheim continues his series of conversations from the stage about his life and career. He'll talk with Peter Stein, the executive director of the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival, at the Wells Fargo Center's Ruth Finley Person Theater in Santa Rosa, California, on Saturday. On Sunday, he'll join New York Times columnist Frank Rich at Houston's Jones Hall, for the first of two dates, with the second at Seattle's Benaroya Hall on Monday
 
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Allen Toussaint returns to his hometown of New Orleans to help celebrate the long-awaited reopening of the famed Roosevelt Hotel. As part of a full schedule of performances marking this Grand Opening Weekend, Toussaint joins Irma Thomas, the Soul Queen of New Orleans, in a Saturday night show at the hotel.
 
In a recent report on the revival and resurgence of the city in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the reopening of the hotel was featured prominently. "With the glow from nine crystal chandeliers reflected in the gleaming marble-and-mosaic floor of its block-long lobby," wrote Tom Uhlenbrock, "the reopening of the historic Roosevelt Hotel puts a glittering exclamation mark on the comeback of New Orleans."

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Dawn Upshaw makes her Strathmore debut tonight in a recital at the Music Center at Strathmore in North Bethesda, Maryland. Upshaw will also participate in a free post-concert discussion led by Strathmore Vice President of Programming, Shelley Brown.
 
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Sara Watkins has one more show with singer/songwriter John Prine, with whom she has been performing across Canada over the past couple weeks, tonight at the Pantages Playhouse Theatre in Winnipeg. Sara heads back to the US as her solo tour continues through the American South. She'll join the festivities at Vulcan AfterTunes in Birmingham, Alabama's Vulcan Park on Sunday.
 
Sara will be playing at Nashville's Belcourt Theater on Tuesday. "If ever there was a perfect opposite to the dried-up, gravel-throated hobo that Tom Waits conjures during 'Pony,'" says the Nashville Scene's Jewly Hight, "it’s Sara Watkins. She takes up the same lyrics, same melody and everything, and yet she sounds wistful for the road ahead." Hight goes on to say that Sara's stepping out for her current solo work is "definitely a good thing. She’s got an ear for strong material and a pleasingly uncluttered approach."