Enjoy an at-home concert by watching NPR’s Tiny Desk Concerts; with so many to watch, here are some favorites.
Tiny Desk Concerts have been providing us with great musical entertainment from our couches since 2008. Hosted by NPR, these performances often take popular artists and have them play a short set in an intimate location in the NPR offices. Since the pandemic, we have seen more performances from artists’ homes for social distancing, but the appeal has not lessened. I have watched Tiny Desk Concerts for a long time, and many performances are very close to my heart.
My top performance would probably be the Daniel Johnston Tiny Desk Concert released in 2012. Performing the songs “Mean Girls Give Pleasure,” “American Dream” and “True Love Will Find You In The End,” Johnston is one of those artists that comes off as an enigma to the casual listener. The vocals are not clean like many have become accustomed to, but in my opinion they really add to the beauty and sadness of much of Johnston’s lyricism. Johnston suffered throughout his life with mental illness, undergoing multiple stints in psychiatric institutions. His struggles come out in his music to great effect on his listeners. He often discusses the hopes of finding love and this is nowhere more evident than in one of his best songs and the final song in this set, “True Love Will Find You In The End.” From Johnston’s point of view, true love will find you no matter how down you get; it’s always out there searching to find you. If you can look past Johnston’s sometimes abrasive sound and experience the beautiful lyricism for what it is, you’re in for a great time.
My next favorite performance would have to be from John Prine. An absolute legend of the Americana genre who we sadly lost to COVID-19, he seamlessly weaves the issues of America into his music with a blend of passion and comedy making for such an absolute joy to watch or listen to. This set features some of his newer songs from his last album, and older songs from his career that spanned over 45 years. These songs include: “Caravan of Fools,” “Summer’s End,” “All the Best” and “Souvenirs.” There’s a certain quality to Prine’s music that separates him from others in the sphere of folk music. Take the song “Summer’s End” for example. It sounds on the surface like a nice song, but delve deeper into the meaning of the song and you’ll realize it discusses the hard truths of loss and despair caused by the ongoing opioid epidemic in America. His ability to lull his audience in with his comedic talk between songs and then hitting them with beautiful songs like this is not comparable to many other artists in the industry.
When we think of Tiny Desk Concerts we tend to think of individuals or bands performing them, but my next top performance comes from a musical: “Company.” One of Stephen Sondheim’s many masterpieces, it first debuted in 1970 and has remained a staple on Broadway through its many runs. A recent adaptation of the play has been made with a female lead. This adaptation’s cast performs this concert. They perform four songs from the musical: “Company,” “Someone is Waiting,” “Another Hundred People” and “You Could Drive a Person Crazy.” While this is not my favorite cast of all time, I think they still do a fantastic job getting the emotions of the musical across, even in this non-theatrical setting. In particular, the new rendition of “Another Hundred People” rivals the 2006 cast recording. You really feel the passion and emotion that the song is conveying, the trials and tribulations of dating and finding love in New York.
You can find Tiny Desk Concerts on NPR’s Youtube channel.
