Americana sensation Yola was the latest performer to appear on NPR Music‘s retooled Tiny Desk (Home) Concert series. The rising British singer performed at her quarantine in Nashville, TN alongside guitarist Jordan Tice (Hawktail).
This Tiny Desk recording comes just eight months after NPR Music released Yola’s first Tiny Desk concert back in January. That performance saw Yola, born Yolanda Quarty, just as she was breaking through to a mainstream audience on the heels of her 2019 Grammy-nominated album Walk Through Fire.
The Tiny Desk (Home) Concert sees Yola performing two of the same songs she played during her first appearance on the concert program. Yet, this new installment finds a completely different setup as she simply dons an acoustic guitar and is joined by Tice who provides lead acoustic accompaniment. As Tiny Desk creator Bob Boilen notes in the video’s comments, “This is a rare Yola moment in her temporary quarantine home.”
Starting off with “Faraway Look”, which also kicked off her first Tiny Desk Concert, Yola and Tice set the mood as her voice is able to soar above the acoustic guitars to dizzying heights. Even more so than usual, Yola’s voice is clearly the focal point here. Between songs, she’s charming as she introduces Tice and explains the song choices, saying that they “wanted to play something that felt like it has a different meaning now,” which leads into “Dead and Gone” from her debut EP Orphan Offering.
Before starting the third of four songs, Yola gives the audience a wink-wink, nudge-nudge by saying she’s been writing a lot of songs during quarantine, “maybe even enough for an album.” With that, she launches into “Love Is Light”, also from Walk Through Fire, which finds a much lighter, upbeat melody than the song that proceeded it. Finally, in perhaps a cyclical nod, Yola closed the performance with “It Ain’t Easier”, the same song that wrapped up her first Tiny Desk performance. While the song itself brought the mood down just a bit, its meaning about the difficult nature of finding love rang ever truer in the quarantine setting.
Watch Yola’s Tiny Desk (Home) Concert below.
Yola – Tiny Desk (Home) Concert
[Video: NPR Music]