Baby Rose: 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.

Sidney Madden | June 10, 2020

Nestled in her cozy, clean bedroom of mostly white accents, Baby Rose stands out with an all-black outfit, her full, billowing waves and that voice. That voice! The depths of sorrow and passion the D.C. native digs into with such conviction has come to be reliably awe-inspiring. It's the reason her Tiny Desk concert earlier this year stopped us in our tracks. And it's the reason we've invited her back to bring the heat once again, albeit from a safe and secure distance.

Rose's message of "staying safe" during her Tiny Desk (home) concert has become a commonplace cordial greeting during the coronavirus pandemic. (It's partially the reason her pianist, Timothy Maxey, is giving her room even in these close confines.) But with the added context of so many protesting police brutality and racism by taking to the streets in the last few weeks, the words feel even heavier. Coming from Rose, it's not for the sake of nicety.

Earnest intention is the reason Baby Rose's music has found a place on HBO's hit series Insecure. In this bedroom mini-show, Rose performs "Show You" (which was used to underscore this season's most dramatic romantic plot twist), "Pressure" and — for the first time — "Marmot," a new song premiered exclusively with NPR Music.

Baby Rose proves here she doesn't need bells and whistles to capture the intensity of a moment — just raw, real vulnerability.

SET LIST
* "Pressure"
* "Marmot" (Premiere)
* "Show You"

MUSICIANS
Baby Rose: vocals; Timothy Maxey: keys

CREDITS
Videographer: Baby Rose; Audio Engineer: Baby Rose; Producers: Bobby Carter, Sidney Madden; Audio Mastering Engineer: Josh Rogosin; Video Producers: Morgan Noelle Smith, Maia Stern; Associate Producer: Bobby Carter; Executive Producer: Lauren Onkey; Senior VP, Programming: Anya Grundmann