SOUNDTRACK: LAURA STEVENSON-Tiny Desk Concert #946 (February 14, 2020).
I don’t know Laura Stevenson, but she has a very pretty voice.
She is a singer-songwriter who I gather plays fairly stripped down songs. But Bob Boilen wanted to spruce things up–I’ve never heard of him directly interfering in a Tiny Desk before–I wonder how often he does,
It was supposed to be so simple. Laura Stevenson, a singer-songwriter whose new material radiates warm intensity, would come in and knock us out with an intimate acoustic solo set … So I came to Bob with the idea … but Bob is nothing if not a pesky dreamer — a man who lives his life in pursuit of beauty and the creation of hard work for other people — so he suggested a wrinkle. What if we commissioned string arrangements for three songs from Stevenson’s newest album, The Big Freeze?
And there they are.
So arranger Amy Domingues, who doubles as a marvelous D.C.-area cellist, dreamed up some charts and gathered a small ensemble (herself and violinists Shelley Matthews and Winston Yu) for accompaniment so gorgeous, Stevenson couldn’t stop remarking on it between songs.
After the first song, “Lay Back, Arms Out” she says “.” Then she talks about being six months pregnant and how she wasn’t pregnant when she booked this show. She says she has to move her guitar a bit but it looks cool.
“Living Room, NY” is really lovely–Stevenson’s voice is clear and pure and makes the lyrics even more poignant.
The final song is called “Dermatillomania” (which she doesn’t even define, but which is chronic skin-picking). She says it’s the saddest one but it is the happiest-sounding.
And that’s true, at least the happy-sounding part–it’s super catchy.
But apparently the most exciting part happened after the set was over
we also got to witness what’s almost definitely the first-ever Tiny Desk marriage proposal. Shortly after Stevenson’s set had ended, Jonathan Zember got down on one knee as unobtrusively as possible and proposed to his girlfriend, Dena Rapoport; the two were attending the show as guests of an NPR staffer, and he figured it’d be a memorable spot for their big moment.
Dena said yes. No word if Laura will write a song about it.
[READ: March 13, 2020] “The Liver”
I enjoyed Klam’s novel Who is Rich, which I found funny and fun. So I was looking forward to this story which has a title I wasn’t sure how to emphasize.
Boy, was I surprised to read that this is a story about a premature baby.
In fact, the majority of the story is about the narrator’s stresses about this premature baby.
The story begins with Kathy in the hospital after having given birth–two month before her due date. (more…)
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Back in January, Guster was supposed to play the Wellmont (after postponing a seated acoustic show in 2020). Ben Kweller was supposed to open that show, which would have ben pretty fun as I don’t really know him very well, but I know he is tangentially related to Guster.
I Just Read About That... 