Whether recorded at home or in the office, the Tiny Desk series is a space for ingenuity. So when SXSW announced it would run as a virtual festival this year, we figured we could put our year-long experience hosting Tiny Desk (home) concerts to work and make something special for the fest.
We programmed Tiny Desk Meets SXSW: a “stage” of Tiny Desk (home) concerts, presented on the final day of the festival. Even if it’s not quite the same as watching your next favorite artist from an overcrowded Austin bar, we think these four sets capture the intimacy and surprise of SXSW (and the Tiny Desk) pretty well.
First up, the songwriter Steady Holiday performed a set by her fireplace with her dog at her feet. Bob Boilen says that out of all the (home) concerts we’ve shared this year, this one made him laugh out loud. Next up, Tejeda, a New York-based guitarist from the Dominican Republic, and his band Palotré performed a genre-blending set with Afro-Dominican roots. For Alt.Latino host Felix Contreras the set conjured up the feeling of seeing live music along Austin’s Sixth Street.
DUCKWRTH, the dynamic R&B artist on the rise, dazzled us not only by premiering two exclusive new songs for the SXSW set, but also by using some pretty incredible synchronized lighting, switching up colors to match the mood of each song. And leave it to Clipping., the endlessly innovative trio of producers William Hutson and Jonathan Snipes plus rapper and Hamilton star Daveed Diggs to take the central concept of the Tiny Desk and run with it. For its Tiny Desk Meets SXSW concert, the group went small – really, really small.
South By South Desk,
Marissa Lorusso and Lyndsey McKenna |
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| - This week’s episode of All Songs Considered honors two great songwriters and poets — Leonard Cohen and Nick Drake — via songs by First Aid Kit and Skullcrusher. Plus, Bob Boilen talks to Rhiannon Giddens about life, death and the song “Avalon” from her new album with her musical partner Francesco Turrisi.
- The latest episode of New Music Friday from All Songs Considered features a transcendent new album from the Vijay Iyer Trio, the sunny joy of Dutch songwriter Benny Sings, an affecting ambient release by claire rousay and more great albums out April 9.
- Merry Clayton was one of the most in-demand back-up singers of the 1960s and 70s; you’d likely recognize her powerful voice from the Rolling Stones’ "Gimme Shelter.” She was profiled in the 2013 documentary Twenty Feet From Stardom, which raised her profile even higher. Now, seven years after surviving a car crash that took her legs and nearly took her life, Clayton has released a new album, Beautiful Scars.
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- The long-awaited lifeline for entertainment venues impacted by coronavirus shutdowns is here. The Shuttered Venue Operators Grant, a program operated by the Small Business Administration, allows music venues, independent movie theaters and some museums to apply for 45 percent of pre-pandemic revenue.
- As a kid, Brandi Carlile got her start on stage as a backup singer for an Elvis impersonator. In her new book, Broken Horses, Carlile traces her path from childhood illness, to dropping out of high school, to stardom. Hear an interview with the six-time Grammy winner on Fresh Air with Terry Gross.
- Play It Forward is All Things Considered’s chain of musical gratitude, asking musicians to tell us about the artists they’re grateful for. On the latest edition, Angel Bat Dawid (recommended via the gratitude of Devonté Hynes) discusses her music journey, and her gratitude for funk singer-songwriter George Clinton.
- Though she’s only 23 years old, H.E.R. speaks like a music industry veteran — and has the accolades to prove it: The morning after winning two Grammy awards, she received an Oscar nomination for her song from the film Judas and the Black Messiah. “My responsibility as an artist is to say the things that sit in the back of people's minds,” she told NPR, “because they sit in mine.”
- During a year of uncertainty and loss, Joy Oladokun’s career has quietly blown up. The Nashville-based, Nigerian-American singer-songwriter has performed on late-night shows and had her songs — full of empathetic, gently probing insight — placed on primetime TV.
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