Rostam: 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.

Robin Hilton | June 8, 2021
My great-grandmother always used to say, "Life is a train. People get on. People get off." And it just keeps going. Watching Rostam's Tiny Desk performance, it's easy to imagine you're on that life-train, traveling around and around, catching glimpses of instruments and faces as they pass by, before coming back where you started. It's a clever, if sometimes dizzying nod to the overarching themes of Rostam's Changephobia, a collection of songs that simultaneously look to the past and the future.

Rostam and a group of backing musicians play two cuts from that album: the relatively breezy, escapist ballad "4Runner" and the reflective "These Kids We Knew." The group closes with "In a River," a one-off single from 2018 that sits perfectly alongside the newer songs as he recalls a warm night skinny dipping with a friend.

SET LIST
"4Runner"
"These Kids We Knew"
"In a River"

MUSICIANS
Rostam Batmanglij: vocals, guitar, harmonica
Julian McClanahan Calvert: guitar, mandolin, harmonies
Logan Kane: bass
Henry Solomon: saxophone, congas, harmonica, 808 sample pad
Benji Lysaght: guitar
Conor Malloy: drums, percussion

CREDITS
Video: Jason Lester, Laura Burhenn
Audio: Joey Messina-Doerning
Special thanks to Our Secret Handshake

TINY DESK TEAM
Producer: Robin Hilton
Video Producer: Maia Stern
Audio Mastering: Josh Rogosin
Associate Producer: Bobby Carter
Tiny Production Team: Bob Boilen, Kara Frame, Gabrielle Pierre
Executive Producer: Keith Jenkins
Senior VP, Programming: Anya Grundmann

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