We had an opportunity to bring Fanfarlo into the NPR Music offices during its trip from Baltimore to Philadelphia, so All Songs Considered host Bob Boilen asked the band's members in advance if they wouldn't mind dressing up their playlist with a holiday song.

Lightning Dust should be seen in the smallest possible venue; its music is so spare and raw that its music could easily get drowned out. With singer Amber Webber's quivering vibrato and Joshua Wells' warm piano accompaniment, the group specializes in quietly dark moments, whether in a shared glance or a finely knit harmony.

Sometimes, an idea is so perverse and bizarre that it needs to be carried out and followed to its logical end. So once we hatched the idea to bring long-haired, wild-eyed, keyboard-pounding, sublimely over-the-top party-rocker Andrew W.K. to perform an intimate concert at Bob Boilen's desk, there was no abandoning it. It simply had to happen.

The success of Malaysian-born singer-songwriter Zee Avi is an increasingly familiar but noteworthy story: Avi was discovered after she posted a few songs on YouTube. Within two months, she was signed to release her self-titled debut. Here in this intimate Tiny Desk Concert, Avi sings three hushed lullabies, including what has become one of her signature songs: a cover of Morrissey's "First of the Gang."

Bowerbirds' handcrafted songs creak and swell like wooden floorboards in an old house. With acoustic guitar, accordion and violin, the band's pastoral folk music has a distinctively spare yet harmonious sound. Hear the group, fronted by Phil Moore and Beth Tacular, perform a captivating Tiny Desk Concert in the NPR Music offices.

Though his appearance at the NPR Music office qualifies as the first-ever hip-hop Tiny Desk Concert, Somali-born rapper K'naan isn't one to adhere to a single genre. With the help of a crack backing band, his three-song set exuded shimmery grace while incorporating the sounds of soul, pop and reggae.

Known as a varsity-level banterer on stage, Lerche puts his considerable magnetism to good use in this charming Tiny Desk Concert in the NPR Music offices. Performing three songs from his recent album Heartbeat Radio, he conveys

One of Bob Boilen's favorite discoveries of the year, Watson makes imaginative pop with a cinematic bent. So NPR Music jumped at the opportunity to record his concert at The Mercury Lounge in New York City Thursday, performed as part of the CMJ Music Festival.

At 10 members, this is the biggest band ever to play a Tiny Desk Concert in the NPR Music offices. But singers Alex Ebert and Jade Castrinos still find a way to command attention, as they trade vocals amid a warm, shambling concoction of keyboards, percussion, guitars, accordion, trumpet and more.

It's hard to overstate the impact that Dr. Ralph Stanley has had on bluegrass and old-time gospel music. Now 82, he sits atop a 60-year legacy of making music, both as the preeminent purveyor of clawhammer-style banjo picking and as a singer with one of the most widely imitated (but never duplicated) voices in country music. For this short Tiny Desk Concert, Stanley performs three classic songs, all a cappella: "Gloryland," "Turn Back, Turn Back" and "Amazing Grace."