Natalie Merchant, who celebrates a birthday today—happy birthday!—joins the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, led by Francesco Lecce-Chong, for a performance featuring songs from her 2010 Nonesuch debut album Leave Your Sleep at the Milwaukee Theatre on Saturday. Also joining in for the performance are Gabe Gordon on guitar and vocals and Uri Sharlin on piano and accordion. Merchant spoke with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel about this weekend's concert; the album, in which she sets the work of poets like Ogden Nash, Edward Lear, and E.E. Cummings to music; and her lifelong love of orchestral music; you can read the article at jsonline.com.

Merchant has teamed up with award-winning children's book illustrator Barbara McClintock for a new picture book based on Leave Your Sleep that includes a CD with 19 songs from the album. Published by Frances Foster Books, it is due out on November 13 and is available to pre-order now in the Nonesuch Store, where the original album is also available to purchase.

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Laurie Anderson continues the West Coast leg of the US tour featuring her latest piece, Dirtday!, with a performance at UCLA's Royce Hall tonight. The event is presented by the Center for the Art of Performance at UCLA, of which Anderson is an inaugural Artist Fellow. As such, she will be collaborate with CAP UCLA over the next three years on ways to document her unique creative approach. Dirtday! is the third and final piece in Anderson’s triptych of solo story works, which also includes Happiness and The End of the Moon.

"Dirtday! functions like a psychological and philosophical cleanser, Anderson wiping away some of the fog that clouds our perceptions. The theme is change, especially the kind we tend not to acknowledge," writes Los Angeles Times music critic Mark Swed in a review of Tuesday's performance in Santa Barbara and a preview of tonight's. "Her genius is to find the music and theater to capture that space between the real and the unreal, which she says has become increasingly unclear." Read the review at latimes.com.

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Composer/pianist Timothy Andres plays two shows close to home in Brooklyn this weekend as he joins vocalist Theo Bleckmann and the American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME) for the world premiere of Phil Kline's two song cycles Out Cold / Zippo Songs at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM)'s newest performance space, BAM Fisher. The performances, which began last night and continue through Saturday, are part of BAM’s 30th Next Wave festival, which provides a platform for emerging new artists in film, music, and theatre.

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The Black Keys continue their tour of Australia and New Zealand with a concert at the Brisbane Entertainment Center in Boondall tonight and a set at Arena Joondalup in Perth on Sunday as a part of the Rock It Festival. The Black Keys play three more dates in Australia next week before heading to New Zealand. The band begins its European tour at the end of November.

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Billy Bragg continues his tour of Australia with a show at The Hi-Fi in Brisbane tonight, featuring special guest Jordie Lane, followed by two nights at Sydney's Enmore Theatre on Saturday and Sunday. Bragg’s performance features one set of songs from the Mermaid Avenue albums, on which he and Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy put Woody Guthrie’s words to music, and a second set of songs from throughout Bragg's career. In a review of last week's show in Melbourne, the Australian concludes: "Woody would surely have approved."

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Carolina Chocolate Drops, having brought their European tour to a close earlier this week with three shows in Germany with Nonesuch label mates Punch Brothers, head to Puerto Rico for the launch of the Legendary Rhythm and Blues Cruise, a week-long blues showcase set in a luxury ship sailing to Barbados, St. Lucia, Martinique, and Dominica.

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Shawn Colvin follows her tour of the UK and Ireland with Mary Chapin Carpenter with a four-night residency at City Winery in New York City that began last night and continues through Sunday. Jesse Harris, who joined for last night's show, returns tonight; Diego Garcia joins for Saturday and Sunday's shows.

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Nataly Dawn, one half of the duo Pomplamoose, whose solo album, How I Knew Her, is due out Nonesuch in January, plays the second of two shows this week in California with a performance at the Hotel Café in Los Angeles tonight.

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Dr. John continues his US Spirituals of Funk tour with the Blind Boys of Alabama with three shows in the Midwest this weekend: at the Wilson Center for the Arts' Harris Theatre in Brookfield, Wisconsin, tonight, followed by two in Michigan, at Mendel Center at Lake Michigan College in Benton Harbor on Saturday and the Macomb Center for the Performing Arts in Clinton on Sunday. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, previewing tonight's concert with a look at the extensive careers of the performers, says: "No number can adequately measure the fineness (and finesse) of the music they've made." In a recent concert review, the Kansas City Star called the show “transcendent."

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As noted yesterday in the Nonesuch Journal, Philip Glass and Robert Wilson’s seminal work, Einstein on the Beach makes its West Coast debut, nearly four decades after it was first performed, with three sold-out shows at the University of California at Berkeley's Zellerbach Hall tonight, Saturday, and Sunday. In addition, Glass and choreographer Lucinda Childs participate in separate public talks at the university this afternoon and come together with Wilson for a public talk at Zellerbach Playhouse Sunday afternoon.

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Gidon Kremer and his Kremerata Baltica chamber orchestra continue their tour of Asia with a performance at Toyota Shimin Bunka Kaikan in Nagoya, Japan, on Sunday.

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The Low Anthem perform at Pace University's Michael Schimmel Center for the Arts in New York City on Saturday as part of Justin Townes Earle's show In the Spirit of Woody Guthrie celebrating the centennial of Guthrie's birth. Other special guests include Joe Pug and Joe Klein, best-selling author of Woody Guthrie: A Life and Primary Colors.

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Jessica Lea Mayfield is in Florida this weekend, playing a show at Retrofit Records in Tallahassee tonight and a set at the Crowbar in Ybor City, Tampa's Latin Quarter, on Saturday for the city's annual Latin-flavored Halloween celebration, Guavaween.

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Joshua Redman joins the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra for two shows at the Rose Theatre in New York City, tonight and Saturday, exploring The Genius of John Coltrane. Each night includes a pre-concert performance by saxophonist Braxton Cook and a pre-concert discussion with Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra’s Walter Blanding hosted by Michael Mwenso.

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Allen Toussaint and his Trio kick off the Louisiana Crossroads series at the Acadiana Center for the Arts in Lafayette, Louisiana, with concerts last night and tonight.

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Sara Watkins continues her US tour as a special guest of Jackson Browne with a show at the Chicago Theatre in Chicago tonight. Watkins “dazzled the audience" at a recent show, says the Times Leader, "with an impassioned, 10-song set."