Punch Brothers and Michael Daves are among the artists to play at the 44th annual RockyGrass Festival taking place in Lyons, Colorado, this weekend, both on Sunday. Michael Daves & Friends take the sold-out festival’s main stage at 1:45 PM; Punch Brothers close out the entire festival with the final set of the weekend, titled Punch Brothers Play & Sing Bluegrass, at 8:30 PM.

As was noted in the Nonesuch Journal earlier this week, Punch Brothers have been nominated for a 2016 International Bluegrass Music Award for Instrumental Group of the Year; band members Noam Pikelny ("Pickles") is also up for Banjo Player of the Year, and Chris Eldridge ("Critter") is up for Guitar Player of the Year. The band heads to Japan next week for a six-show residency at Blue Note Tokyo. "With enthusiasm and experimentation, Punch Brothers take bluegrass to its next evolutionary stage," says the Washington Post, "drawing equal inspiration from the brain and the heart. The word 'eclectic' only scratches the surface when describing the quintet's deep well of influences, which include roots rock, jazz and even classical."

Michael Daves released his new album, Orchids and Violence, earlier this year, pairing acoustic takes (with musicians including Pikelney) and a more experimental rock approach to traditional bluegrass songs. It's "a roots-music master class, a brilliant example of old modes reinhabited with flair," says the New York Times of the album. "To his credit, it can be hard to pick which version of a tune is best." Daves made his Nonesuch debut with the release of his duo album with Punch Brothers' Chris Thile, Sleep With One Eye Open, in 2011.

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Laurie Anderson curates a celebration of the work and legacy of Lou Reed, titled The Bells: A Daylong Celebration of Lou Reed, in collaboration with Reed’s friend and producer Hal Willner, on Saturday, as part of the Lincoln Center Out of Doors festival in New York City.

The full day of free events begins in the morning with group Tai Chi led by Reed's teacher Master Ren Guangyi on Josie Robertson Plaza and culminates in Damrosch Park with Lou Reed's Love Songs, an evening concert featuring performances by artists including Anderson herself, and a screening of Julian Schnabel's 2008 film Berlin, which captures Reed's 2006 concert performances of the 1976 album of the same name. Among the day’s other events are the sound installation Lou Reed: Drones; film and documentary screenings; a Tai Chi demonstration; readings from Reed's collected lyrics by notable actors and artists; musical performances; and a marathon playing of Reed's recordings.

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Composer and pianist Timo Andres joins novelist Helen Dewitt for The Last Samurai: An Evening of Music & Reading, celebrating the reissue of her critically acclaimed novel The Last Samurai, at National Sawdust in Brooklyn on Saturday. Andres plays selections from Brahms’s Op. 10 Ballades, which is referenced in The Last Samurai, and DeWitt will read selections from the novel. The evening is co-presented by the Wordless Music concert series and New Directions Publishing.

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The Arcs conclude the current leg of their North American tour with a set at the Osheaga Music & Arts Festival in Montreal this evening. Glide magazine, including the band’s Newport Folk Festival set last weekend among the festival’s highlights, says performances of songs from The Arcs’ debut album, Yours, Dreamily, “were infectious, and had every last audience member out of their chairs, grooving and moving to the psychedelic rock sound."

The Arcs are featured on the latest episode of Live at 9:30, showcasing two songs from a live performance at Washington DC’s 9:30 Club this past winter. You can watch the performances here.

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Jeremy Denk gives a solo piano recital at Harris Concert Hall as part of the Aspen Music Festival in Colorado on Saturday. His program includes selections by Bach, Stravinsky, Mozart, Schubert, William Bolcom, and more. The New York Times calls his repertoire “rhapsodic … wildly imaginative … compelling … [and] elegant.”

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Emmylou Harris continues a co-headlining tour with Lyle Lovett & His Large Band at CMAC in Canandaigua, New York, on Saturday. The Santa Barbara Independent, reviewing their show at the Santa Barbara Bowl earlier this month, writes, “The pair were an overwhelming and delightful combination,” adding that Harris “made for a colossal first act, carrying with her the context of an illustrious 47-year career that has earned her 13 Grammys, and influencing a whole generation of country and folk artists in the process.”

Harris plays two solo shows in early August, before concluding her tour with Lovett with two shows in Virginia the following week.

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Brad Mehldau, drummer Mark Guiliana (with whom he paired up for the Grammy-nominated album Mehliana: Taming the Dragon), and guitarist John Scofield conclude their extensive European tour with a show at Schloss Elmau in Elmau, Germany, on Saturday. The trio will reunite in September for the Detroit Free Jazz Festival, before Mehldau embarks on a world tour with saxophonist and label-mate Joshua Redman, in support of their forthcoming duo album, Nearness, due September 9.

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Robert Plant continues his month-long tour of Europe and the UK with a show at Arena in Pula, Croatia, on Saturday. Robert Plant released his Nonesuch debut album, lullaby and... The Ceaseless Roar, in 2014. Q calls it "his best solo album yet … a beautifully moving, soul-stirring, bravely genre-blurring album." Brooklyn Vegan calls Plant “a total star on stage.”