Adrianne Lenker: Tiny Desk (Home) Concert

The Tiny Desk is working from home for the foreseeable future. Introducing NPR Music's Tiny Desk (home) concerts, bringing you performances from across the country and the world. It's the same spirit — stripped-down sets, an intimate setting — just a different space.


By Bob Boilen | November 18, 2020
For her Tiny Desk (home) concert, Adrianne Lenker's home is a camper trailer parked somewhere in Joshua Tree National Park. It's the appropriate setting for the five songs she performs from her new album, tunes birthed in a wooden cabin in Massachusetts.

The songs, the words, the voice of Adrianne Lenker has been at the top of my year-end musical loves for the past five years, more so than any other artist. It began with her work as the singer and songwriter on Big Thief's electric debut album, Masterpiece, in 2016 and runs through this year's two sister solo albums, one titled songs and the other instrumentals. Those albums contain nothing more than an acoustic guitar, voice, and the bug, birds, and creatures captured while recording.

Her yearning voice, simultaneously frail and strong, draws me to those songs — songs about people, everyday life, everyday death, and ordinary places. All the while, she picks the tunes out of her guitar or paints the rhythms with a brush. These are songs worth spending time with, simple on first listen, but so much more profound once you live with them.

SET LIST
"zombie girl"
"two reverse"
"dragon eyes"
"anything"
"ingydar"

MUSICIANS
Adrianne Lenker: vocals, guitar

CREDITS
Video: Vanessa Haddad, Adam Gundersheimer
Audio: Scott Cornish

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