Nora Brown: Tiny Desk (Home) Concert

By Bob Boilen

Every January, I attend globalFEST at a New York City nightclub and see some of the most fantastic music I’ll experience all year. Now, given the pandemic’s challenges and the hardening of international borders, NPR Music and globalFEST moved the 2021 edition from the nightclub to your screen of choice and shared the festival with the world. We called it Tiny Desk Meets globalFEST. We presented 16 artists in intimate settings (often behind desks donning globes) representing more than a dozen countries.

Thirty feet below the surface in Brooklyn, 10th grader Nora Brown brings incredible, surprising depth to the Appalachian music she plays. Over the course of her Tiny Desk Meets globalFEST concert, surrounded by innumerable globes and instruments, she infuses new life and energy into the traditional songs of Addie Graham, Virgil Anderson and Fred Cockerham. Nora weaves together songs and storytelling, speaking of the great history of the music that came before her and at which she excels. This performance took place on the second night of our 2021 festival. –globalFEST

SET LIST

“The Very Day I’m Gone”

“Miner’s Dream”

“Little Satchel”

MUSICIANS

Nora Brown: vocals, banjo

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A must listen: Infectious disease expert gives the most honest commentary on our current situation

Dr. Michael T. Osterholm, photo courtesy University of Minnesota

In the midst of a pandemic, governors around the country have been reopening local economies and causing concern for many health experts, including members of the White House coronavirus task force who testified before a Senate committee this week. 

Dr. Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota has long warned about the risk of pandemics. He calls the effort to reopen a “hodgepodge,” though he believes remaining locked down while we wait for a vaccine is not an option. First and foremost, he laments a lack of national leadership, frank talk about the tradeoffs ahead, and a clear direction in the fight against COVID-19.

Source: NPR “Innovation Hub”