k.d. lang's forthcoming album with the Siss Boom Bang, Sing it Loud, due out on Nonesuch April 12, is now available for pre-order in the Nonesuch Store with a manuscript lyric sheet of the album's first single, "I Confess," a limited number of which will be signed by k.d. The song was penned by lang with band mates Daniel Clarke and Joshua Grange. An expanded version of the album, with four additional tracks, is available for pre-order, exclusively at kdlang.com.

Two shows will be held in honor of the late Kate McGarrigle at New York's Town Hall on May 12 and 13, featuring performances by Martha and Rufus Wainwright, Anna McGarrigle, Emmylou Harris, and others. Kate McGarrigle lost her battle with a rare form of cancer known as sarcoma in January of 2010, age 63. All profits from the concerts will go toward the creation of the Kate McGarrigle Sarcoma Research Fund.

John Adams, whose 1987 opera Nixon in China continues to delight in the Metropolitan Opera premiere production, will unveil a new work with the world premiere of his oratorio The Gospel According to the Other Mary by the LA Phil in May 2012. The LA Phil's 2011-12 season will include performances of other works by Adams, Steve Reich, and Louis Andriessen, plus a concert by Kronos Quartet and Bill Frisell. Adams will remain as Creative Chair into 2014.

The Carolina Chocolate Drops have added two new musicians to the band: human beatboxer Adam Matta and multi-instrumentalist Hubby Jenkins. The two join the group as founding member Justin Robinson departs to take up new challenges. The Chocolate Drops’ winter/spring tour began earlier this week with a performance at Lincoln Center’s prestigious American Songbook series and continues through April 14.

Chris Thile performs his Mandolin Concerto in Iowa ... John Adams conducts Nixon in China at the Met ... David Byrne attends 25th anniversary True Stories screening in San Francisco ... Carolina Chocolate Drops hit upstate New York, Vermont ... Shawn Colvin returns to Yoshi's San Francisco ... Wanda Jackson headlines Rockin’ Race Jamboree in Spain ... Kronos Quartet makes it a two-fer in Minneapolis ... Jessica Lea Mayfield kicks off tour with Justin Townes Earle ... Fernando Otero plays NYC,  Allen Toussaint too ... and more ... 

Jessica Lea Mayfield's new album, Tell Me, produced by The Black Keys' Dan Auerbach, is due out this Tuesday. You can listen to the album in its entirety now at RollingStone.com. "At 21, Mayfield looks like an ingénue but sings like a worldly-wise veteran," says the magazine. Pre-order in the Nonesuch Store with an exclusive signed 7” of the album’s first single, “Our Hearts Are Wrong.” Mayfield launches a ten-day tour with Justin Townes Earle tonight.

Wanda Jackson celebrated the release of her new album, The Party Ain't Over, last month with sold-out shows with producer Jack White in New York and Los Angeles and performances on the Late Show with David Letterman and Conan, as well as her own hometown show in Oklahoma City. She kicks off a month-long tour in Europe and the United States this weekend with the headliner slot at the Rockin' Race Jamboree in Málaga, Spain.

The Metropolitan Opera production of John Adams's Nixon in China continues this weekend, following this week's Met premiere. "When John Adams's opera Nixon in China had its world premiere in 1987, it was provocative, edgy, audacious," says the Washington Post. "Twenty-four years later, it's come to the Metropolitan Opera and, along the way, become a Modern Masterpiece." The Huffington Post calls it "a thrill."

Kronos Quartet performs two concerts at the Walker Arts Center in Minneapolis this weekend, featuring works from their album Floodplain and Laurie Anderson's Grammy-nominated "Flow." "It's hard to hype the Kronos Quartet," says the Star Tribune. "The group ... really has transformed the face of chamber music; it still makes many younger rivals seem staid." The Winnipeg Free Press gives 4.5 stars to a recent concert by this "new music royalty," exclaiming: "Everything they touch seems to turn to gold."

John Adams's groundbreaking 1987 opera, Nixon in China, received what the Associated Press calls its "long-overdue premiere" at the Metropolitan Opera last night. The AP describes Nixon in China as "perhaps the greatest American opera of the last quarter-century" and the Met production "a testament to its enduring power." The New York Times sees the premiere not as overdue but rather arriving "at just the right time to comprehend the continuing resonances of this audacious and moving opera."

The Low Anthem's latest album, Smart Flesh, is due out in just a few weeks, on February 22, and is available for pre-order. The band was recently in Utah for the Sundance Film Festival, where they performed at the ASCAP Music Café. You can watch a performance video from Sundance here, interspersed with a conversation with the band about their affinity for playing multiple instruments, their dynamic range, and the collaborative nature of the band. 

The Carolina Chocolate Drops’ launch their 2011 tour with a special engagement on Lincoln Center’s prestigious American Songbook series at The Allen Room in New York City tonight. The show follows last week's release of their new four-song EP, a collaboration with the New York City–based Romanian gypsy punk band Luminescent Orchestrii, along with human beatboxer Adam Matta. Another 20 shows follow in the coming months, with Matta and multi-instrumentalist Hubby Jenkins joining the band on the road.