Levon Helm - drummer and lead singer for The Band - presides over what he calls “midnight rambles” – concerts in his Woodstock, N.Y. barn, where he’s surrounded by musical friends and family, including his daughter, singer Amy Helm. His voice may be raspy, but his energetic drumming and high-beam smile can warm the coldest winter night. Part of the Sound Tracks: Quick Hits series by PBS Arts.

Written in 1858 after a trip to Russia, Johann Strauss' 'Tritsch Tratsch Polka' is a jaunty, high-spirited affair and Yuja Wang obviously delights in playing it. Watch her smile at the end.

In this video, recorded at the Steinway showroom in West Hollywood, Yuja plays two pieces by Gluck and Liszt, stopping briefly in between. It's wonderful to watch her change pace and mood and see the concentration and deep feeling in her expression. At the end, it's almost as if she emerges from an intense dream, smiling, and telling us, "This piano's nice."

Born in Beijing in 1987, Yuja Wang began playing the piano at the age of six. From a music conservatory in China to the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, she never stopped, and now she roams the world, playing a demanding schedule of concerts across Europe, Asia and North America. She's recorded three critically acclaimed albums for Deutsche Grammophon, her most recent is a Grammy nominee.

The Passepied from Debussy's Suite Bergamasque is probably one of the composer's most recognizable tunes - but you might not recognize it here. It's been slowed down quite a bit and re-harmonized - and right before this violin solo, it's just shifted out of a Brazilian bossa-flavored blues.

You can use any superlative you like to describe Tom's playing; he's one of those rare figures who has actually extended the vocabulary of the jazz trumpet. Since hitting the scene in the early '70s, Tom has also established himself as one of jazz's most important composers.

"Sainte," Ravel's first published composition, was originally written for a vocalist. Tom Harrell says he hears French composer Eric Satie in this piece, and tries to bring out Satie's 'saintly' quality in the music. But after starting out in a prayerful mood, this saint isn't above getting a little funky.

It might seem strange that a composer as original as Tom Harrell would throw himself into the melodies of dead French impressionists, but he's done far more than write "jazz" arrangements of Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel. While staying true to the melodic roots of the music, he's effectively re-composed these pieces.

"Prelude #1" is probably the hardest to play of all the pieces Milos performed for Quick Hits, requiring the most concentration. At the end, he sighs "phew" and smiles in apparent relief. For fans of classical guitar, this is the show off piece from a young man who says the guitar is his best friend.

Perhaps our favorite piece that Milos performed for us at Klavierhaus on "piano row" right around the corner from Carnegie Hall. This is "Recuerdos de la Alhambra" by Francisco Tarrega. It's so very Spanish, sad, melodious, and it displays Milos' incredibly fast and intricate finger work. As he says, his fingers just begin to fly.

Watch this interview and you'll see that Milos Karadaglic already has the composure, the confidence and the easy charm of a movie star, which may horrify classical music purists. But all you have to do is listen to realize he's more than a poster boy for the classical guitar. He's smart, self-deprecating, funny, and a sensitive, gifted musician. His fingers are fast, and his intonation is perfect.

"Oriental" by Enrique Granados is the final track on Milos Karadaglic's debut album on Deutsche Grammophon, "Mediterraneo," a musical tour of his interior and geographical world.

We coaxed Milos out of the recital hall to wander around in the sunlight and play for us on a park bench. The result is a short, dreamy piece, "Granada" by Isaac Albeniz, that our video producer/editor, John MacGibbon, turns into an ode to New York and Central Park.

"No Reply" is the opening cut on Pier Faccini's new album, "My Wilderness," which he recorded at his home in southern France. It's a soulful, haunting song. The despair is existential. The singer calls out to the darkness, seeking answers, and "in the silence I heard my reply and no one will ever no why."

On tour in San Francisco, Piers Faccini settles into an old Victorian home and talks to SOUND TRACKS reporter Mirissa Neff about his Roma gypsy great-grandmother, his early infatuation with the Smiths, and the profound influence that the Delta blues and West African music have had on his song writing and musical style.

"Two Grains of Sand" is the title track from Piers Faccini's previous album released in 2009. As you'll see in this acoustic guitar, solo performance, it's a sad, intimate, philosophical song with an oblique story of jealousy and violence. There's "a murder buried under autumn leaves" and a plaintive cry: "How can we turn to violence and burn/Forget all we've learned/ to darkness return."

Accompanied only by some jostling bells, Piers Faccini stands alone in a garden and delivers a kind of ancient chant, part spiritual, part stripped down work song. It promises a new morning, a new life, but in a world where "all our words will soon be broken." Like a monk chanting in an old European monastery, Faccini invokes Biblical images of "seven days, seven nights, seven years, seven lives."

As if our debt to China weren't big enough, it turns out we also owe the Asian giant for inspiring Abigail Washburn, a true American original, to become a musician. It's a roundabout story. But you'll get the drift of it in her interview with SOUND TRACKS reporter Arun Rath, plus a sampling of her songs.

Never, ever, cross Abigail Washburn. Consider this video your warning. She's playing a Gold Tone cello banjo for this selection, which has a sound that's deep and resonant - and in this context, a little ominous. The central riff has a nasty, bluesy edge, but sounds like it could also come straight out of a Chinese folk tune.

With Abby, what would never work on paper has a way of coming out natural and swinging, this song being a perfect example. There's simply no one else on the planet who could pull this off. Piao means "floating," and Abby sings in Mandarin, "This morning I woke up to no big plans, no great ambitions, just floating, floating, floating..." It's hard to explain the mix of influences in this song.