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Tiny Desk Concerts from NPR's All Songs Considered features your favorite musicians performing at Bob Boilen's desk in the NPR Music office. This is the AUDIO only archive.Are you a fancy A/V nerd and need video? Visit our new Tiny Desk Concert video channel. Eye-popping video and all of the music you've come to expect.

Angel Olsen: Tiny Desk Concert

Angel Olsen came to the Tiny Desk on an odd autumn day, as an impending storm loomed outside our office windows. It all seemed just right for occasion: Watch her and you'll see calm in her eyes; listen to her and you'll sense torment in her heart. Olsen gave us a preview of her third record on that October day; she wouldn't tell us the title, but she did say the word "Burn" with a hint of the title in the words to a song she'd sing. Now, months later and just a few weeks before the release of Burn Your Fire for No Witness, we can share this exclusive preview.

Olsen is a Missouri-born — and now Asheville, N.C.-based — musician via Chicago. The new record was produced by John Congleton with a new band featuring Josh Jaeger on drums and bassist Stewart Bronaugh. The trio began rehearsing these songs in a church turned recording studio in Asheville over the summer. The songs are at times explosive and at times lulling. At the Tiny Desk, the expressive and powerful singer stood alone, and in the process gave us the perfect way to first hear these songs.

Set List

  • "Unf--theworld"
  • "lota"
  • "Enemy"
  • "White Fire"
  • Credits

    Producers: Bob Boilen, Denise DeBelius; Audio Engineer: Kevin Wait; Videographers: Denise DeBelius, Becky Harlan, Meredith Rizzo; photo by Abbey Oldham/NPR

    Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

    In 1988, a determined Bob Boilen started showing up on NPR's doorstep every day, looking for a way to contribute his skills in music and broadcasting to the network. His persistence paid off, and within a few weeks he was hired, on a temporary basis, to work for All Things Considered. Less than a year later, Boilen was directing the show and continued to do so for the next 18 years.
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