Tiny Desk

Shirley Collins: Tiny Desk (Home) Concert

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By Bob Boilen | November 10, 2020 | Source: NPR

Shirley Collins is a legend — a humble one, but undoubtedly a transformative voice in traditional folk music. It’s truly a miracle to hear her voice at this Tiny Desk (home) concert.

At 85, Shirley Collins is seated in the living room of her cottage in Lewes, East Sussex, accompanied by guitarist Ian Kearey. Her life story took the sort of twists you hear in the songs she sings, in her case, a broken heart, a painful divorce, and the loss of her voice. For 30 years, she couldn’t sing. Now, here she is playing songs from Heart’s Ease, only the second album she’s made in the past 40 years. You hear her sing of a young sailor boy who saves his ship from robbers and is promised by his captain both gold and his daughter’s hand in marriage. The lad sinks the robber’s boat, only to be left to drown by that very same captain.

These unimaginable tales and that unadorned voice have influenced both British and American folk music since the 1960s, from Fairport Convention’s Sandy Denny to The Decemberists’ Colin Meloy.

These tales of woe and whimsy are as timeless as Shirley Collins.

SET LIST
“The Merry Golden Tree”
“Sweet Greens and Blues”
“Wondrous Love”
“Tell Me True”
“Old Johnny Buckle”

MUSICIANS Shirley Collins: vocals Ian Keary: guitar CREDITS Video By: Grant Gee, Karen Johnston Audio By: Alfie Gee

TINY DESK TEAM Producer: Bob Boilen Video Producer: Morgan Noelle Smith Audio Mastering: Josh Rogosin Associate Producer: Bobby Carter Tiny Production Team: Kara Frame, Maia Stern Executive Producer: Lauren Onkey Senior VP, Programming: Anya Grundmann

Watch the Karine Polwart Trio Perform At The Tiny Desk 

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Karine Polwart Trio

Scottish singer, songwriter and essayist Karine Polwart seldom comes stateside. She prefers to limit air travel in order to minimize her carbon footprint. She took exception, however, to fly from Edinburgh to New York City to participate in the Carnegie Hall Migrations festival, a celebration of the history of the movement of people all around the world. Polwart and her brother, guitarist Steven Polwart and multi-instrumentalist, Inge Thomson, then escaped New York for a day to play the Tiny Desk here in Washington, D.C.

Polwart writes songs about hope, music that harnesses spiritual power and lyrics that address important social justice themes. Stories of human emotion and the human experience are also commonplace as in the first tune, “Ophelia.”

Her second song at the desk, “I Burn But I Am Not Consumed,” includes a mesmerizing spoken word denunciation of President Donald Trump, while the closing tune, “King of Birds,” praises the power of small things. In it Polwart recounts the legend of a wren who piggybacks a lift on an eagle’s wing. Just as the large bird is unable to fly any higher in the sky, the tiny wren catches a breath of air, soars higher than the eagle and is crowned the king of all birds.

Lyricism and messages of hope and beauty heard throughout punctuate a stunning accompaniment of inventive instrumentation. The steady, resonant guitar riffs played by Steven Polwart ground the delicate vocal harmonies. Inge Thomson’s accordion lines, combined with an array of percussion instruments and synth-generated effects, add a complimentary layer of sound without overpowering the music. Karine Polwart’s bellowing and drone-like Shruti box provides a sweet serenity.

SET LIST

  • “Ophelia”
  • “I Burn But I Am Not Consumed”
  • “King of Birds”

MUSICIANS

Karine Polwart: vocals, guitar, shruti box; Steven Polwart: guitar, vocals; Inge Thomson: accordion, percussion, noises, vocals

 

Listen at: Video: Watch the Karine Polwart Trio Perform At The Tiny Desk : NPR

This Is The Kit: Tiny Desk Concert

~ Michael Stevenson ~ Leave a comment

 

Effortless storytelling is at the heart of This Is The Kit. And the stories the band’s only permanent member, Kate Stables, weaves are profound but sweet with a tone that quietly reels you in.

“Bullet Proof” is the opening song at the Tiny Desk – and the opening track on her fourth album, Moonshine Freeze – a song that sees the darkest challenges in life as a way to begin again. “Everything we broke today/Needing breaking, anyway,” Kate Stables sings as she’s picking on her banjo with tides of percussion and bass flowing in. It takes two minutes before the perfectly punctuated guitar hits but completely worth the wait.

That gradual unfolding is the strength of these songs and this band. “Moonshine Freeze,” the last one they perform at the Tiny Desk, is the title track to the new album produced by John Parish. It’s a song taken from a children’s clapping game: Say “moonshine” three times, then freeze. But the song takes these images deeper, looking at patterns in the repetitive words, specifically patterns of three, which in Kate’s mind forms a triangle or a delta and it just gets deeper.

Lovers of Sufjan Stevens will appreciate the gentle ways Kate Stables can touch a heart with a song. And the band she plays with here is tightly in touch with how best to support these tunes.

Set List

  • “Bullet Proof”
  • “Hotter Colder”
  • “Moonshine Freeze”

MUSICIANS

Katherine Stables, Rosalind Leyden, Jamie Whitby-Coles, Noil Smith, Adam Schatz, Jonah Parzen-Johnson

CREDITS

Producers: Bob Boilen, Morgan Noelle Smith; Creative Director: Bob Boilen; Audio Engineer: Josh Rogosin; Videographers: Morgan Noelle Smith, Bronson Arcuri, Alyse Young; Production Assistant: Salvatore Maicki; Photo: Jennifer Kerrigan/NPR

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Source: This Is The Kit: Tiny Desk Concert