Carolina Chocolate Drops follow a Nor'easter to the Northeast ... Laurie Anderson does Delusion in upstate NY ... Rhys Chatham returns to NYC's The Kitchen ... Wanda Jackson hits Texas ... Gidon Kremer, Kremerata Baltica tour Germany ... Magnetic Fields doc screens at London Film Fest ... Natalie Merchant continues orchestra tour ... Pat Metheny continues Orchestrion tour ... Punch Brothers join T Bone Burnett in Boston ... Joshua Redman Trio plays DC ... and more ...

Ben Folds and Nick Hornby appeared on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon last night, with Folds performing "Saskia Hamilton," off their album Lonely Avenue. Watch the episode here. The two will be in Washington, DC, next week for a PEN/Faulkner event. Following Folds own US tour, he returns to DC for a National Geographic Live! event in December featuring his photos, which he discusses on National Geographic Weekend, now online.

Punch Brothers perform at Stanford's Dinkelspiel Auditorium tonight; the San Francisco Chronicle says the band performs "with a sense of adventure that's hard to resist." This closes out the band's run of shows in California that included Wednesday's show at LA's El Rey Theater with Jon Brion, at which, says the Los Angeles Times, Punch Brothers "flexed the kind of instrumental chops that even a non-player can admire." They head next to the East Coast to join T Bone Burnett's Speaking Clock Revue benefit for music and arts education programming in public schools.

Rhys Chatham, whose Lincoln Center Out of Doors performance of A Crimson Grail was released last month on Nonesuch, returns to New York and to the cutting-edge cultural space he once curated: The Kitchen. Chatham and artist Angie Eng perform the a multimedia piece, Echodes, there Friday and Saturday. Time Out New York recommends it as Top Live Show and calls A Crimson Grail "gorgeous." Hear selections from A Crimson Grail in a short film at nonesuch.com/media.

Wanda Jackson is in Texas this weekend to play The Continental Clubs of Austin and Houston. Austin's American Statesman says: "It's an exciting time to be Wanda Jackson." The Boston Globe says of her recent Boston-area show: "Jackson’s signature growl was in glorious form. Her voice still has its distinct, syrupy twang, and she was vibrant as ever, weaving recollections, wisecracks, and in-the-moment observations in among the music."

Sara Watkins will be on the big screen as a guest on A Prairie Home Companion as the show is broadcast live in movie theaters across North America Thursday, October 21. A high-definition video feed of a special Thursday night performance from the Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul, Minnesota, will be sent via satellite to movie theaters live at 7 PM CT. Also on the show will be Old Crow Medicine Show, Joe Ely, and Andra Suchy.

Kronos Quartet returns to the Bay Area to perform at Stanford University's Memorial Auditorium tonight, following two sold-out shows at New York's (Le) Poisson Rouge. The concert marks the Opening Night of the Stanford Lively Arts series. On the program, titled Awakening: A Meditation on 9/11, Kronos reflects on that fateful day in works from a dozen countries, joined on stage by the Cantabile Youth Singers.

Punch Brothers are back in California, headlining at LA's El Rey Theater with Jon Brion, the producer of their album Antifogmatic, opening. LAist spoke with fiddler Gabe Witcher and says: "Punch Brothers' music is the sound of synapses firing. The band's mix of unpredictability and virtuosity means there's always something new to uncover in their original pieces." Mother Jones spoke with Chris Thile and says: "What the Punch Brothers are doing musically blows the pants off most of their contemporaries."

Ben Folds and Nick Hornby are in New York City this week for a few special events to celebrate their new album, Lonely Avenue, including appearances at the Housing Works Bookstore Cafe and Union Square Barnes & Noble, plus a spot on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. The Financial Times gives Lonely Avenue four stars, saying of Folds/Hornby, "Both are excellent: witty, sophisticated lyrics about love and loss set to a range of styles." And, finally, Folds and fellow Chatroulette sensation Merton offer a joint public service announcement you can watch here.

The Black Keys play Austin City Limits Festival, close out tour in Tulsa ... Alarm Will Sound celebrates Lennon's 70th birthday ... Timothy Andres premieres new septet ... Carolina Chocolate Drops play close to home ... Gidon Kremer, Kremerata Baltica return to the Baltics ... Wanda Jackson plays Brooklyn and New Jersey ... Kronos premieres works in NYC ... Natalie Merchant launches orchestra tour ... Pat Metheny continues Orchestrion tour ... Punch Brothers play Nashville ... Joshua Redman Trio concludes St. Louis residency ... Sara Watkins plays Unplugged in the Park ... and more ...

Wanda Jackson, whose new Jack White-produced album, The Party Ain't Over, in January 25, performs outside Boston tonight. The Boston Globe quotes Rosanne Cash, who described Jackson "as the prototype, the first female rock star," adding that "Jackson is still kicking out the jams." She performs at the Knitting Factory in Brooklyn on Friday, leading The New Yorker to note "her growly vocals, remarkable energy, and boundless good humor." Jackson spoke with Y'all Wire at last month's Americana Honors & Awards for an interview you can watch here.

Natalie Merchant's latest album, Leave Your Sleep, has been endorsed by the organizers of National Poetry Day in the UK, which is being celebrated today in schools, libraries, and bookshops across the country. On the album, Merchant sets the work of both well-known and obscure British and American poets to music. She kicks off a Northeast US tour tomorrow, performing with full symphony orchestras.