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Blind Pilot: Tiny Desk Concert

Blind Pilot and the Tiny Desk series both launched in the same year, 2008, so it's hard to comprehend how the two hadn't converged until now: The band's shimmery folk-pop sound, with its vibraphone and overarching vibrancy, is perfectly suited to the space behind Bob Boilen's desk.

Fortunately, that sound has bloomed considerably since Blind Pilot's beginnings, coinciding with the group's expansion from a duo to a sextet. It's certainly expansive enough to fill the air in this graceful performance of four songs from And Then Like Lions, on which singer Israel Nebeker issues a series of elegant, thoughtful reflections on how we interact with the past. The album's arrangements are incredibly rich, but they're also a perfect match for the organic, sonically uncluttered setting the Tiny Desk was designed to provide.

And Then Like Lions is available now (iTunes) (Amazon).

Set List

  • "Umpqua Rushing"
  • "Packed Powder"
  • "Don't Doubt"
  • "Joik #3"

  • Credits

    Producers: Stephen Thompson, Niki Walker; Audio Engineer: Neil Tevault; Videographers: Niki Walker, Morgan McCloy, Nicole Boliaux; Production Assistant: Jenny Gathright; Photo: Claire Harbage/NPR.

    For more Tiny Desk concerts, subscribe to our podcast.

    Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

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    Stephen Thompson is a writer, editor and reviewer for NPR Music, where he speaks into any microphone that will have him and appears as a frequent panelist on All Songs Considered. Since 2010, Thompson has been a fixture on the NPR roundtable podcast Pop Culture Happy Hour, which he created and developed with NPR correspondent Linda Holmes. In 2008, he and Bob Boilen created the NPR Music video series Tiny Desk Concerts, in which musicians perform at Boilen's desk. (To be more specific, Thompson had the idea, which took seconds, while Boilen created the series, which took years. Thompson will insist upon equal billing until the day he dies.)