Bob Boilen

Old stock film footage from the 1920s Saskatchewan Agricultural Archives is an odd but mysteriously perfect backdrop for this spare and pining tune from Canadian Andy Shauf. The piano-based song is a preview of his album The Bearer of Bad News, which comes out on Feb. 3.

In case you missed it, we took a rocket ride to outer space for the holidays. But this week we re-dock at the mother ship Earth to ring in the new year toting a new mix that includes premieres from The Go! Team and

The Phish star was in town to put on a huge show, but the songs here feel more personal than that. Watch Anastasio perform "Sleep Again," "Summer of '89" and "Backwards Down the Number Line."

Hear an interview with Mitchell Kezin, a Christmas music "crate-digger," searching far and wide for rare holiday music of years past, along with a playlist featuring lesser-known Christmas gems.

In 2012 we — Bob and Robin, your two intrepid All Songs Considered hosts — celebrated the season by renting a cabin in a snowy woods for a holiday party that nobody came to. Last year we took a road trip to the nation's heartland to discover the ...

She came to the Tiny Desk a little unsure, and left singing "West Memphis" with intensity and passion. Lucinda Williams has a voice like no other, and it shines in these intimate moments.

Williams is on a roll with a new double album, Down Where The Spirit Meets The ...

We love hearing what our listeners think are the best albums of the year. It's a fun way to see how our own picks line up with our audience's, and a chance to discover some surprises we may have missed. (There are always surprises we missed.)

For 2014, our listeners ...

This was Future Islands' year. After touring hard for eight years and recording four albums, they finally broke through. The latest album, Singles, came out in March. It is a well-loved and grand look at the dramatic and synthy side of this Baltimore band, though it may have ...

Pakistan is picking up the pieces today after an attack on a school by Taliban militants left 145 people dead.

It's a heart-wrenching story. We've collected the news in a different post. Here, we'll tell the story visually, but fair warning — the photographs are representative of the horrific ...

This year, my favorites were quieter than usual. My top three albums have acoustic guitars often as the lead instrument, though the artists — Luluc, Angel Olsen and Rodrigo Amarante — originate from Australia, the U.S. and Brazil, respectively.

Six of my top 10 are led by ...

In the summer of 1971, I was a camp counselor at a sleep-away camp for a bunch of 5- to 7-year-olds. For those eight weeks, I walked home with about $50. I bought a guitar and began to learn the songs I'd come to love from the recently released Tea ...

UPDATE: This video is no longer available here.

Tomorrow, as a companion to U2's album Songs of Innocence, the band is releasing Films of Innocence, one video for each song on the album. But today we've got an early preview of the video for "Song for Someone," ...

Close your eyes and listen, and you might imagine someone who looks a bit like Otis Redding. Open them, and you're likely to see someone who looks more like your neighborhood bank teller.

That man standing on my desk in the golden shoes is Paul Janeway. He was, in fact, ...

Want to play a Tiny Desk Concert? Now's your chance: NPR Music and Lagunitas are holding a contest, and the winner gets to perform at my desk here at NPR headquarters in Washington, D.C.

To enter, make a video of you performing one original song behind a desk ...

Sam Amidon takes traditional music and makes it his own. He might begin with a traditional murder ballad and then morph it into something of his own, fueled by Bill Frisell's languidly atmospheric guitar, Shahzad Ismaily's minimal but essential percussion and Amidon's own yearning voice. At other times, ...

Decades ago, the potent folk songs of Cat Stevens inspired All Songs Considered host Bob Boilen to pick up acoustic guitar. Now known as Yusuf/Cat Stevens, the singer visits the All Songs studio for this week's show to discuss his path to music and share songs that inspired him ...

The loudest guy in the world came to the Tiny Desk to perform some of his quietest music. Dinosaur Jr.'s J Mascis, for years a guy who's turned my ears red, showed up armed with just an acoustic guitar. I even had an amp for that guitar all ...

Earlier this month, All Songs Considered host Bob Boilen traveled to Reykjavik, Iceland to attend the annual Iceland Airwaves music festival. Kevin Cole and the crew from NPR member station KEXP were there to broadcast and record bands at the festival. The lineup included bands from around the ...

This week, Foo Fighters releases its latest project, Sonic Highways. Why "project" rather than album? Sonic Highways is more than just eight new songs. It's also an eight-part documentary currently running on HBO. Together, the album and film series look at the intersection of geography and music. It's what ...

Imagine an evening where you just around with your closest friends or family, and all you do is play music for each other. No TV or video games. No texting. Just a bunch of songs and some great conversations about what you love, or don't love and why.

It's kind ...