Daily Stream: Tiny Desk Home Concerts

The work station that serves as home base for NPR's Tiny Desk Concerts has been out of commission while office staff telecommute and performers stick close to home. Nonetheless, NPR Music has kept the series going through the pandemic, working with artists to provide sets featuring the same intimate live-on-video quality from remote locations around the world. 

Recorded in spots from an office in Los Angeles to a beach in Puerto Rico, to a living room floor in New Orleans, Tiny Desk Home Concerts present a thrillingly eclectic playlist of sounds captured with far more attention to visuals than your average Zoom meeting.

Featured in the mix of recent sets are vocalist Raquel Berrios and bassist Luis del Valle of Buscabulla (seen at top of page), originally from Puerto Rico but based in New York, performing in the back of a car on a beach with their drummer and keyboardist chiming in via video insets in the bottom corners of the frame. There's also John Legend setting up with band and backup singers in his L.A. manager's office, Lucinda Williams and guitarist Stuart Mathis doing four songs from the Nashville base of operations for indie label Thirty Tigers, and Jamaican singer Lila Iké sharing her luscious voice amid a recreation of the Tiny Desk Concerts office setup. Scroll a little farther back and you'll see that Brooklyn living room set—by Tarriona "Tank" Ball of Tank and the Bangas, one of the headliners of last weekend's Nelsonville Virtual Music Festival.

Watch Tiny Desk Home Concerts via NPR Music on YouTube.