© 2024
NPR for Northern Colorado
Donate
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
NPR Music: Tiny Desk Concerts
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.

Nickel Creek: Tiny Desk Concert

By Bob Boilen
Published August 26, 2014 at 11:49 AM MDT

Nickel Creek was made to sing and play around a single microphone, so a Tiny Desk Concert seemed inevitable. All it took was a reunion tour — celebrating 25 years of Nickel Creek — to make it happen.

All three of the band's remarkably talented core members have been to the Tiny Desk before. Chris Thile is a veteran, having played the Tiny Desk with friend and guitarist Michael Daves, then later in the same year with Yo-Yo Ma and others in a project known as Goat Rodeo. When The Decemberists performed a Tiny Desk Concert, Sara Watkins was there to play her fiddle and sing. Her brother, Sean Watkins, was also at the NPR offices earlier this year with the marvelous singer Tom Brosseau.

The trio, backed here by bassist Mark Schatz, has no equal. Nickel Creek has been doing this on and off since its members were kids, and what blows me away is the comfort and ease with which they navigate their instruments. That skill, and the creative force behind it, is a joy and a thrill to witness.

Set List

  • "Destination"

  • "Rest Of My Life"

  • "21st Of May"

  • "Elephant In The Corn"

    • Credits

    Producers: Bob Boilen, Denise DeBelius; Audio Engineer: Kevin Wait; Videographers: Denise DeBelius, Colin Marshall; Production Assistant: Maggie Starbard; photo by Sarah Tilotta/NPR

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

    Tags
    Tiny Desk Concerts
    Bob Boilen
    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.
    See stories by Bob Boilen
    Related Content
    • Rodrigo Amarante: Tiny Desk Concert
      Bob Boilen
      A veteran of Little Joy and Los Hermanos, Amarante makes warm, tender music as a solo artist. Here, he strips songs from Cavalo down to their essence using just his voice and a guitar from the '30s.
    • Pacifica Quartet: Tiny Desk Concert
      Tom Huizenga
      The Pacifica Quartet explores the world of Soviet-era composer Dmitri Shostakovich. Watch the group play selections from his introspective cycle of string quartets.
    • Ernest Ranglin: Tiny Desk Concert
      Bob Boilen
      Watch a talented, charming guitar legend make magic as his band Avila holds down the beat. At 82, Ranglin still plays the ska, reggae and jazz sounds he's been perfecting for more than half a century.
    Load More