Category: Music

Ann Powers | December 3, 2025 Brandi Carlile has a way of making any performance feel like a tête-à-tête, a deep emotional exchange between friends that just happens to take place in a crowd. Yet the challenge of bringing songs from her gorgeous new album Returning to Myself to the Tiny Desk still shook her. “It’s the kind of thing that really makes your blood run a little cold,” Carlile says, laying down her acoustic guitar after the gentle “A War with Time.” She then turns to the Roland keyboard mounted on the desktop and begins “A Woman Oversees,” a [See More…]

Robin Hilton | December 1, 2025 David Byrne has a long history of staging elaborate live shows, often with a sprawling cast of musicians, highly choreographed dancing and unusual instrumentation. So when we learned he wanted to have more than a dozen performers at the Tiny Desk, playing everything from cello, saxophone and marimba to a Brazilian timbau and zabumba (not to mention various guitars and keys), we weren’t sure we’d be able to fit it all in. It turns out his latest tour, for the album Who Is The Sky?, is well designed for our roughly 10 by 11-foot [See More…]

Suraya Mohamed | November 24, 2025 This is the very first K-pop band to play behind the Tiny Desk. SEVENTEEN’s name comes from an equation: 13 members + 3 teams + 1 group. Those three teams focus on hip-hop, vocal and performance to come together as one. SEVENTEEN (SVT for short) recently celebrated its 10th anniversary with a world tour, performing in big stadiums for millions of fans (aka Carats). After their last U.S. concert in Washington, D.C., five of the members stopped by the NPR Music office to play in front of what’s likely their smallest audience ever. Bred [See More…]

Robin Hilton | November 21, 2025 When Robert Plant first stepped behind the Tiny Desk on a blustery Halloween afternoon, he took stock of the relatively stripped-down setup. “This is just like Live Aid,” he said with a smile. “I couldn’t hear myself there either.” He was referring to the fact we don’t amplify voices or use monitors so artists can hear themselves. But if ever there was someone up to the challenge, it’s Robert Plant. With a voice that’s only gotten better with age, Plant has deftly moved from the full-throated rock and swagger of Led Zeppelin to the [See More…]

Lars Gotrich | November 19, 2025 Here’s the thing: Goo Goo Dolls songs endure. Formed almost four decades ago, the rock band’s artistic ambition has always been connection — pop anthems that can be blasted from car speakers and in karaoke bars, and sung en masse. These songs stick around, but never wear out their welcome. This set is bookended by songs from Dizzy Up the Girl, the 1998 album that found the sweet spot between catchy arena rockers and heartfelt power ballads. “Slide” is particularly suited to the space as John Rzeznik’s voice, which has aged gracefully into the [See More…]