Punch Brothers have returned to New York City for two special shows in their adopted home town. First up is the second stop on The Speaking Clock Revue, the multi-artist benefit concert led by T Bone Burnett, at Manhattan's Beacon Theatre tonight. The following night, the quintet joins Dierks Bentley on stage at Southpaw in Park Slope, Brooklyn; earlier in the day, they'll join Bentley for a performance on Live! With Regis and Kelly.

The Speaking Clock Revue played its first show at the Wang Theatre in Boston Saturday night, featuring music from Punch Brothers, Elton John & Leon Russell, John Mellencamp, Elvis Costello, Gregg Allman, Ralph Stanley, Jeff Bridges, Karen Elson, The Secret Sisters, and Neko Case.  For tonight's show at the Beacon, My Morning Jacket's Jim James will perform in lieu of Case.

Both of these dates of The Speaking Clock Revue are presented with Participant Media in conjunction with the release of the new documentary film Waiting for “Superman," about the American education system. All net proceeds from these shows will be donated to The Participant Foundation to support music and arts education programming in public schools.

Saturday night's performances "were uniformly inspired," raves the Boston Globe's James Reed. What's more, "there was an undeniable charm" to the entire proceedings.

Reed describes an "electricity that the benefit concert brought to life with an incredible roster of musicians who were as dynamic as one could have predicted."

He wonders whether it's possible not to like "the virtuosic bluegrass quintet Punch Brothers" and goes on to say that they "were in fine rhythmic form—particularly on a raucous take on Jimmie Rodgers’s 'The Brakeman’s Blues'—and later added some texture to other performers’ sets."

Read the complete concert review at boston.com.

The Boston Herald's Jim Sullivan includes the Punch Brothers set a select group of stand-outs, saying: "Stellar moments came from 83-year-old country singer Ralph Stanley, New Pornographers’ singer Neko Case and bluegrass quintet the Punch Brothers." You'll find that review at bostonherald.com.

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Thursday night's sold-out show at Southpaw is the closing night of Bentley's four-night, four-venue New York City residency. (Punch Brothers are featured on a number of track off Bentley's latest album, Up on the Ridge.) Fans across the country will be able to hear the show as it airs live, starting at 9:15 PM ET, on Sirius/XM, on both The Highway and Bluegrass Junction channels.

Tune in to Live! With Regis and Kelly Thursday morning to see Bentley and Punch Brothers perform together. For more information and to find out where the show is playing in your area, visit dadt.com/live.

Bentley spoke about his New York residency on yesterday's episode of The Leonard Lopate Show from New York's public radio station WNYC. You can listen online at wnyc.org.

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Punch Brothers' latest Nonesuch release, Antifogmatic, recently placed at No. 3 on the list of Best Folk Albums of 2010, according to About.com.

"Punch Brothers are easily one of the finest contemporary stringbands on the scene these days," says the site's Folk Music writer Kim Ruehl. Building on a solid foundation of traditional bluegrass, they pull in elements of jazz, indie rock, and some other indeterminable genre that can only be described as 'whatever is going on in Chris Thile's brain.'" Ruehl says that on Antifogmatic, the band creates "a tremendous collection of great songs and ambitious arrangements."

Also on the list are Punch Brothers' label mates Carolina Chocolate Drops for their Nonesuch debut album, Genuine Negro Jig. Read more at folkmusic.about.com.

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To pick up a copy of Antifogmatic, with high-quality, 320 kbps MP3s of the album included at checkout, head to the Nonesuch Store.