Guitarist, singer and arranger Justus West has supported Mac Miller and many other Tiny Desk headliners; plus, a premiere from Wednesday and more.
NPR
I like to think of myself as a Tiny Desk historian, given that you can see my dumb face next to Bob Boilen’s even-dumber face in the very first Tiny Desk concert ever performed. I’d estimate, pretty conservatively, that I’ve seen… 900 Tiny Desk concerts in the last 16 years, and along the way I’ve filed away loads of useless information and odd factoids about the series. But I didn’t realize, until recently, which artist actually holds the world record for the most Tiny Desk concerts performed.
I’d thought, and have assumed for years, that the record holder was someone from Nickel Creek — Sara Watkins and Chris Thile have both popped up often, each time in a different configuration — or maybe a member of Wilco, a band that’s been living rent-free in Bob’s head for decades. I figured there might be a session player, maybe a local string musician or two, who’d been a featured guest more times than anyone had thought to count, but I’d never devoted too much brain power to figuring it out.
Well, it turns out that there is, in fact, a definitive answer to this question, which I learned thanks to the wonderful and gifted Tiny Desk videographer Kara Frame: The world-record holder is a guitarist, singer, arranger and all-around talent named Justus West (that's him at the top), whose Tiny Desk pedigree spans an incredible eight performances:
Note that Usher has an asterisk, because West arranged the music for that show but didn’t perform. So you can call it seven Tiny Desk concerts or eight; either way, it’s an undisputed record.
In the meantime, I feel like we should give special jackets to Tiny Desk five-timers, the way Saturday Night Livedoes with its hosts. If that’s enough to lure four-timer Phoebe Bridgers back to the Tiny Desk, it’ll be more than worth the expense.
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Spreading the love, one high E-flat at a time ...
Tiny Desk Contest update
The deadline to enter the 10th annual Tiny Desk Contest has passed, but now comes the fun part, as we sift through thousands of entries and begin sharing our favorite discoveries. Watch this space!
Recent Tiny Desks
Wednesday singer-guitarist Karly Hartzman says she studied Tiny Desk concerts while learning to play guitar; now, she’s performing one of her own alongside her tremendous band, which lends an unmistakable twang to its gnarled indie-rock.
Butcher Brown describes his hot, funky sound as “solar music” — as in, it contains everything under the sun. NPR Music’s Nikki Birch gets a little more specific, describing it as “psychedelic jazz funk with a hip-hop polish.”
Singer Kelela drastically rearranged her songs for the Tiny Desk, softening them by introducing a piano and Ahya Simone’s gigantic, beautiful harp.
Superstar Atlanta rapper Jay “Jeezy” Jenkins surveyed his two-decade career with the aid of an all-Black string section.
A free jazz band with roots in the ethos of punk, Irreversible Entanglements — which includes Camae Ayewa of the radical and groundbreaking project Moor Mother — whipped through six songs without a break.
Around public radio
KUTX in Austin shared two studio sessions from artists we love in the past week. The first is by Jamila Woods, a poet and songwriter who's dazzled us since her first album back in 2016 ...
... and the other session is from singer-songwriter Katy Kirby, who released a new album in January on Anti-.
KCRW in Los Angeles recorded with public radio staple Devon Gilfillian, and he brought along another favorite, Allison Russell, to sing "Love You Anyway."
WMOT in Nashville hosted Cord Lund, a world-class lyricist, as part of their Wired In series. Watch him perform "Old Familiar Drunken Feeling."
And one from the archives: Can you believe Wilco's Summerteeth is turning 25 this month? KEXP in Seattle captured the band playing the album's single, "A Shot in the Arm."
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