Bob Boilen: Last News

NPR Tiny Desk Concert — now that he knows what it is. A fan-led Twitter campaign to get the 48-year-old “Back That Azz Up” rapper to take part in the famed concert series started last week when a supporter tweeted at NPR to “please” have him on.

Big Thief performed an unreleased song called ‘Happiness’ during their recent appearance on NPR’s ‘Tiny Desk (Home) Concert’ – watch below.The Brooklyn band played a four-song set for the long-running video series, including ‘Change’, ‘Dried Roses’ and ‘Certainty’ from their fifth studio album, this year’s ‘Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You’.Big Thief concluded the short gig by treating viewers to ‘Happiness’, a track that was first aired during the group’s 2020 European headline tour (via Setlist.FM).Filmed by Adam Gundersheimer and Vanessa Haddad, the latest ‘Tiny Desk (Home) Concert’ video sees Big Thief performing in a cosy attic room in a house in Connecticut.Bob Boilen, host and creator of NPR’s ‘Tiny Desk’, said: “What we see in this ‘Tiny Desk (Home) Concert’ is playfulness substituting for the intensity that I normally find in Big Thief on a big stage.“There’s a bit of a ‘hold on to your hat’ feel here, with players watching each other for a possible surprise. Maybe it’s James Krivchenia’s banjo percussion, the galloping rhythm on ‘Certainty’ or how the four musicians sing aloud on a chorus; it is so much fun to see it all unfold.”Big Thief returned to the UK last month to play a show at Glastonbury 2022.