Tune in to The Strand on the BBC World Service tonight to hear Ben Folds and Nick Hornby discuss their forthcoming album, Lonely Avenue. The Independent gives Lonely Avenue four stars, saying it "proves to be an intelligent, sometimes amusing, sometimes moving, but always engaging collection of songs, pitched somewhere between Randy Newman and an Anglo-American Divine Comedy." The Daily Express calls it "heavenly."

Fenway Bergamot, Laurie Anderson's male alter ego, is featured both in Delusion, her new theater piece, now at BAM, and on her latest Nonesuch release, Homeland.  Now Fenway is looking to branch out still further: to your home answering machine or voicemail. For your chance to win, let us know why you think your voicemail would make the perfect next stop for Fenway.

Philip Selway and Cheikh Lô are among the many musicians from around the world who have lent their talents to a new video from Sudan365, a global campaign calling for a peaceful future for Sudan. The video, part of its Beat for Peace effort, comes as world leaders meet at the UN to discuss the future of Sudan. The video also features the drummers of Coldplay, the Police, and Pink Floyd, as well as Angelique Kidjo, Hugh Masakaela, and others.

There are just days to go before the release of Ben Folds and Nick Hornby's album collaboration, Lonely Avenue, this Tuesday, September 28. But wait no further to hear the album the BBC described as "affecting and intelligent" and Monacle has called "this year's singer-songwriter classic": Lonely Avenue is now streaming in its entirety in a MySpace exclusive premiere. Head to myspace.com/benfolds to listen now.

Punch Brothers kick off their fall tour tonight at the Pisgah Brewing Company in Black Mountain, North Carolina. Tour highlights include performing with T Bone Burnett at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass; two shows with Burnett's The Speaking Clock Revue; a show in Los Angeles with support from Jon Brion; and opening slots with Dierks Bentley and Dave Matthews Band. The band will perform with Steve Martin on The Late Show with David Letterman in November.

Carolina Chocolate Drops and The Low Anthem will tour together for six dates over one week this December. The tour will begin December 4 at the Variety Playhouse in Atlanta, followed by stops in Nashville and Knoxville, Tennessee, before heading to the Drops' home state of North Carolina for shows in Asheville, Charlotte, and Raleigh. Ticket pre-sales for Chocolate Drops fans begin on Tuesday.

This fall, Ben Folds will participate in the National Geographic Live series Music on ... Photography at the National Geographic Society's Washington, DC, headquarters. Folds will discuss photos he took of the flooded streets of Nashville with his camera (and camera phone) to help spread the word of the devastation; photographer Mark Seliger will moderate. Also participating in the series are Neko Case, Andy Summers, and music photographer Danny Clinch.

Laurie Anderson gave the New York premiere of her latest stage work, Delusion, last night at BAM's Harvey Theater, the first of 12 performances there. The New York Times says Delusion shows "the degree to which Ms. Anderson’s scores bring color and shape to her productions." The Village Voice says of Anderson's voice: "As an instrument, it's just perfect: wise and bewildered, cutting and soothing, deadly serious and profoundly amusing."

Lonely Avenue, the Ben Folds / Nick Hornby album due out next week, has been described as "an affecting and intelligent record" by the BBC. Folds, whom the BBC calls "a consistently enthralling songwriter," joins Jack Conte and Nataly Dawn of Pomplamoose—recent collaborators on the VideoSong "Things You Think"—for a live online chat Wednesday evening at benfolds.com/chat, as part of the Lonely Interview series.

Tonight marks the New York premiere of Laurie Anderson's Delusion at BAM's Harvey Theatre, launching BAM's Next Wave Festival. Time Out New York includes the concert among today's "must-see shows." The Wall Street Journal previews the festival with a look at Anderson's long history with BAM, having, over the years, "given audiences something profoundly rewarding: an ongoing emotional engagement that, like a good friendship, allows you to think about life from different perspectives."

The Tenth Inning, a new two-part, four-hour documentary by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick that picks up where Burns's landmark 1994 series Baseball left off, premieres on PBS next Tuesday, September 28. In celebration of the new film, the original Baseball soundtrack is available again, featuring music by Natalie Cole, Dr. John, Bruce Hornsby, Branford Marsalis, and Carly Simon, as well as vintage recordings, historic radio calls, and the solo piano playing of Jacqueline Schwab, including "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" and "Hurrah for the National Game."

With just one week to go before the release of the Ben Folds / Nick Hornby collaboration Lonely Avenue, which Monocle magazine says "exceeds the sum of its parts" and has dubbed "this year's singer-songwriter classic," the project is the subject of a feature article in The Observer. The Irish Independent gives the album four stars and finds Hornby "in inspired form." The Scotsman gives it four stars as well, saying: "Two great writers, one great album of 'musical short stories.'"