Natalie Merchant and a group of fellow New York–based artists will participate in a rally and concert event in Albany on Tuesday, May 15, regarding the dangers of hydraulic fracturing and to call on Governor Cuomo to ban the controversial natural gas drilling process in New York State. Also participating are Medeski Martin & Wood, Citizen Cope, The Felice Brothers, Joan Osborne, Tracy Bonham, Toshi Reagon, Dan Zanes, Ida, The Horse Flies, and The Ahkwesasne Women Singers. Actors Mark Ruffalo and Melissa Leo will host. The rally will take place on The West Capitol Lawn, followed by the concert at The Egg.

The Black Keys were the subject of a feature profile on CBS Sunday Morning. Band mates Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney return to their home town of Akron, Ohio, to take a tour of their old neighborhood, visit with family, take a spot on their high school's Wall of Fame, and discuss their rise to being what the show says "may be the hottest rock band in the country." While headlining Coachella on Friday, they were joined by John Fogerty to honor Levon Helm with a performance of The Band's "The Weight." The Los Angeles Times says "the night belonged to the Black Keys—and to Helm." Watch it here.

The schedule for the 2012 season of Central Park SummerStage free concerts has been announced, and among the performers taking to the stage in the heart of New York City's Central Park this summer are Amadou & Mariam, on August 4, and Carolina Chocolate Drops, on August 11. Theophilus London, a contributor on Amadou & Mariam's recently released new album, Folila, joins the Malian duo for their SummerStage concert; Buckwheat Zydeco and Abigail Washburn join Carolina Chocolate Drops for theirs.

Happy Record Store Day! Nonesuch Records has made a series of special releases available today in honor of the fifth annual Record Store Day, a celebration of the unique culture surrounding over 700 independently owned record stores in the USA and hundreds of similar stores internationally. Among the artists releasing albums and singles today are The Black Keys, Dr. John, Billy Bragg & Wilco, Sara Watkins, and Carolina Chocolate Drops. A limited quantity of each Record Store Day title is also available on the Nonesuch Store now.

Stay tuned for details on Record Store Day to come tomorrow ... Emmylou Harris performs on a live broadcast of A Prairie Home Companion from Nashville ... Laurie Anderson premieres new work at UK's Sensoria festival ... The Black Keys headline Coachella, round two ... Carolina Chocolate Drops celebrate Johnny Cash in Austin ... Jeremy Denk joins Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra ... Richard Goode plays Winston-Salem benefit ... Wanda Jackson plays the Pacific Northwest ... Kronos Quartet marks Earth Day ... Cheikh Lô plays Carnegie Hall ... Jessica Lea Mayfield kicks off tour in Knoxville ... Audra McDonald sings in Newark ... Punch Brothers tour the South ... Joshua Redman concludes Village Vanguard residency ... Stephen Sondheim talks in NYC ... Dawn Upshaw joins Australian Chamber Orchestra in Florida and Toronto ... Sara Watkins tours the Midwest ... and more ...

Mermaid Avenue: The Complete Sessions, a three-CD-plus-DVD set featuring the lyrics of Woody Guthrie set to music by Billy Bragg and Wilco, is out this Saturday, Record Store Day. American Songwriter gives it four-and-a-half stars, calling the project an "amazing and unique collaboration" featuring Guthrie's "mesmerizing wordplay." Rolling Stone gives it four stars. The A.V. Club gives it an A-."Guthrie gained a new generation of listeners when the original Mermaid Avenue became a surprise hit, and the box set," says the A.V. Club, "promises to do the same. But Mermaid Avenue was even more crucial to Bragg and Wilco, producing some of the best (and best-known) songs of the artists’ careers."

Jessica Lea Mayfield launches a spring tour of the United States with a performance at the Rhythm 'N' Blooms festival in Knoxville, Tennessee, this weekend. Mayfield's set will take place Saturday evening at the John Black Studio. From there, the tour heads throughout the South, making stops in Jackson, Shreveport, Dallas, Houston, Austin, Little Rock, Nashville, and Louisville, as well as two festivals in Mayfield's home state of Ohio: at the Nelsonville Music Festival and Appalachian Uprising.

Punch Brothers have launched the second leg of their North American tour. Having kicked things off with a live broadcast performance of A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor at New York’s Town Hall, the band recorded a show for NPR's Mountain Stage and set out from there for headlining shows in Pittsburgh and Lexington. The Lexington Herald Leader notes the band's "virtuosity and stylistic cunning" and finds them at their "most exciting and inventive" yet. Punch Brothers' upcoming performances include stops in Knoxville, Nashville, Atlanta, Chattanooga, Philadelphia, New York, and Washington, DC, and a set at MerleFest.

Dr. John is the guest on this week's Jamie Cullum show from BBC Radio 2. Dr. John, whom Cullum calls one of his "true musical heroes" and “the coolest guy in the universe,” discusses his life and career and his new album, Locked Down, which the Boston Herald names Album of the Week. "It’s voodoo rock, dense, strange, tangled, beautiful in its darkness," says the Herald. "It also adds wild, welcome new flavors to the gumbo. West African highlife grooves Fela would flip for are everywhere. ’60s Stax soul sneak in during select choruses and bridges. Shaft-style funk drops in for a few druggy intros and outros." The A.V. Club calls it "an inspired collaboration ... at once classic and modern."

The Joshua Redman Trio, featuring bassist Matt Penman, a member with Redman of the band James Farm, and drummer Gregory Hutchinson, kick off a week’s residency at the Village Vanguard in New York City tonight. "Joshua Redman has lately put his tenor and soprano saxophone to work in the context of James Farm, a superarticulate postbop quartet, with strong direction from all four of its members," says the New York Times. "He returns to a more ostensibly hierarchical trio format here ... The results should be sleek and full of silvery digression." James Farm has a four-night run at the Blue Note in Tokyo next month. Redman and Brad Mehldau conclude their own duo tour next week.

The Black Keys, after selling out arenas all throughout the US, Canada, UK, and Europe, announce their long-awaited return to Australia this October. Their new album, El Camino, has already been certified Platinum there. The band made their headlining debut at an unseasonably chilly Coachella festival Friday, helping to "conquer the cold," Reuters reports. MTV says the weather "was no match for the heat of the Black Keys," and the OC Register says their set "was pure bliss." The band joins Anthony Bourdain for some Kansas City BBQ on No Reservations tonight on The Travel Channel.