If you don’t follow NPR on Facebook, you should. I have found so much amazing new music on their Tiny Desk Concert Series… in every genre you can imagine.

I know David will do one of their sessions someday and he will blow them away. Of course. 🙂

In the meantime, check out these artists I discovered recently. (And the best thing about the Tiny Desk sessions is that you can download the audio… for free!)

Let me know what you think….

Genevieve Download audio here.

The NPR blurb:

It’s often true that the songs we wind up loving most are the ones that surprise us. I’m not a pop music lover, not a lover of songs with obvious hooks, so when I heard the big fat chorus that starts off Genevieve’s “Colors,” I thought, “uh-oh.” What wound up drawing me in first was her voice — powerful with a tiny bit of rasp and a sweet smile in her phrasing. And then that perfectly positive message, worded in a way that gave me chills: “Your life is your design, so go ahead design it. Your star is in the sky, so go ahead align it. Cause you’re forever lost until you go and find it.” The truth in those words needed to be shouted from rooftops and that chorus, that hooky thing that generally is my turnoff, became a giant turn-on. Then I went and saw Genevieve perform on a sunny day outdoors in Austin. That SXSW performance gave me a new glimpse of her talent, especially the many ways she could sing, all with great conviction. So I invited her to my desk and she came armed not with the band she had in Austin but simply with an accompanist, Chris Faller, and her voice. To anyone in that room — and for you watching this Tiny Desk — her promise is undeniable.

Oddisee

Download audio here.

The NPR blurb:

Amir Elkhalifa, a.k.a. Oddisee, is an emergent standout in hip-hop. The Prince Georges County, Md., native says he made his new album, The Good Fight, as a reminder that music comes before hip-hop; that music can trigger indescribable feelings; that music is a meditation on our capacity to love; and, finally, that our ambition and greed are in constant conflict with our sense of propriety.Simply put, Oddisee’s music is genius. He creates just the right amount of space, allowing it to breathe with perfectly timed cadences and vamps. His deceptively intricate rhythm tracks interlock with complementary harmonies and brilliantly constructed bars in ways that appeal to both diehard hip-hop heads — those who decipher and analyze lyrics as a hobby — and those who just want a clutch beat. He’s got it all.

Anna & Elizabeth Download audio here.

The NPR blurb

Anna & Elizabeth are almost single-handedly resurrecting the “crankie.” If, like me, you didn’t know what a “crankie” was, it’s like a mural on a spool — each drawn and crafted to be hand-cranked and unfurled at the pace of a song. The effect, as experienced here in “Lella Todd Crankie,” is breathtaking.Anna Roberts-Gevalt and Elizabeth LaPrelle are story-gatherers and storytellers. They came to NPR and brought many of us to tears with some of the most yearning harmonies I’ve heard at the Tiny Desk. These songs are given few embellishments — sometimes a fiddle is added to a single voice, sometimes a banjo or guitar chimes in — but always the power is in the sparseness. If you’ve never thought your tastes would lean to mountain music, take a deep breath and soak it all in.

p.s.
ASLDKFJASLKDFJALSKDFJLAKJFDLAKJFLAFKJ
THIS IS SOOOOOO BEAUTIFUL!
I know Sara B. is writing the songs for a musical based on the film “Waitress” (which was a gem, btw)… and I think this is for that… WOW, just WOW!!!!

p.p.s.
Josh Bradley & his stunt double 🙂

Josh after the fight scene… yeah, he's smiling. 🙂 Cropped the pic of course. #NAmemories pic.twitter.com/XZ2FHedE

— MyDearWriter ❤️ (@MyDearWriter) September 28, 2012

Only a hardcore DA fan would recognize the outfit of this guy. 😂😂😂😂 LOL! #NAmemories 📺🎥🎬 pic.twitter.com/KN30phooYL

— MyDearWriter ❤️ (@MyDearWriter) June 28, 2015