NPR Music's Live SXSW Webcasts Start Tonight

NPR Music kicks off its live SXSW music webcasts with nine shows on Wednesday and Thursday.

Sharon Van Etten kicks off NPR Music's schedule of live webcasts from the SXSW music festival tonight. There are four shows this evening (going late into the night), and five shows tomorrow afternoon and evening.

Van Etten's set is scheduled to begin at 9 p.m. Central time (yes, apologies for the very late notice here). Fortunately, most if not all of these sets will be posted online later for viewing and/or listening.

The live webcasts scheduled for tonight and tomorrow:

Wednesday, March 14th:
Sharon Van Etten, 9 p.m. Central
Dan Deacon, 10 p.m.
Alabama Shakes, 11:15 p.m.
Andrew Bird, 12:30 a.m. (Thursday morning)

Thursday, March 15th:
Bruce Springsteen (delivering keynote address), 12 noon Central
La Vida Boheme, 1 p.m.
Sugar Tongue Slim 1:45 p.m.
Polica 2:30 p.m.
Lower Dens 3:15 p.m.
The Magnetic Fields 4 p.m.

One SXSW show that happened earlier tonight that may be online later: Fiona Apple staged her triumphant return to performing with a set that had a lot of critics in attendance raving. Spinner tweeted, "Fiona Apple's first show after being away for what feels like forever is terrific, terrifying, triumphant." [Update: You can see one of the new songs Fiona Apple performed tonight here at Consequence of Sound, in a video recorded by a fan. (The song is “Anything We Want;" she also played the new songs “Valentine” and “Every Single Night.”)] Apple's new album (which is 23 words long) is set to come out in June.

The Fiona Apple set was presented or sponsored by NPR, which has said it hopes to put it online for viewing, if Ms. Apple approves.

Newport Folk Festival - Live Webcasts

The Newport Folk Festival is this weekend, and NPR Music is again webcasting a number of shows this weekend. You can find NPR's Newport Folk Festival home page here, along with a schedule of webcasts.

Many of these webcasts will probably be archived for streaming later on, and some will likely be available for downloading as podcasts.

They are webcasting roughly from 12 Noon to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday (actually starting at 11:40 a.m. tomorrow and 11:30 Sunday). Here's the schedule (all times Eastern):

Saturday, July 31
11:40 a.m. - Sarah Jarosz
12:35 p.m. - The Low Anthem
1:30 p.m. - Nneka
2:20 p.m. - Blitzen Trapper
3:25 p.m. - Yim Yames (Jim James of My Morning Jacket)
4:30 p.m. - Andrew Bird
5:45 p.m. - O'Death
6:05 p.m. - John Prine

Sunday, August 1
11:30 a.m. - Tao Rodriguez-Seeger
12:20 p.m. - Horse Feathers
12:35 p.m. - Sharon Jones And The Dap-Kings
1:35 p.m. - A.A. Bondy
2:05 p.m. - Preservation Hall Jazz Band
3:10 p.m. - Punch Brothers, featuring Chris Thile
3:45 p.m. - The Avett Brothers
4:25 p.m. - The Swell Season
5:30 p.m. - TBD

Live Webcasts from Newport Folk Festival

The 2008 Newport Folk Festival is on, and NPR is Webcasting much of the proceedings. You can check their Newport Webcast schedule and also see who is playing the festival and when.

You can also find links to the artists and interviews with various performers and the Newport Folk Festival organizers through links on that same page.

It's possible some of these music sets might find their way into free podcasts later on; NPR Music has a regular series of free concert podcasts available for download (and others for streaming only).

Free SXSW Concerts Online: R.E.M., My Morning Jacket, Yo La Tengo

You can hear free, live South by Southwest concert streams online at the NPR Music Web site. R.E.M., My Morning Jacket, Vampire Weekend, and Yo La Tengo are just some of the bigger names that will be featured. Other artists to be presented in concert are guitarist extraordinaire Kaki King, Canadian alt-rockers The Weakerthans, and Swedish pop singer Jens Lekman.

Some will be audio-only live streams, some will be Webcasts with video, and I'm sure that many of these will be archived for future listening. Some might even be available for download.