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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.

José González: Tiny Desk Concert

By Bob Boilen
Published April 29, 2015 at 4:00 AM MDT

There's a quiet and a calm from José González that amplify his words. This has never been truer than on his new album, Vestiges & Claws.The songs are full of abstract imagery — more paintings than stories. He performed this song, "With The Ink of A Ghost," at my desk.

Idle as a wave
Moving out at sea
Cruising without sound
Molding what's to be
Serene between the trace
Serene with the tide and ink of a ghost

González is a 36 year old singer from Gothenburg, Sweden. You may have also heard Junip, his noisier band. But here, with a small group, the music is spacious, somewhat sensual. His classical guitar chords are melodic, the harmonies adventurous, his voice soothing. These are his first new solo songs in seven years and this soft-spoken, warmhearted singer left an imprint at the Tiny Desk that was gentle and long lasting. I only hope it's not seven more years before he brings us more new songs.

Set List

  • "Open Book"

  • "With The Ink Of A Ghost"

  • "Every Age"

    • Credits

    Producers: Bob Boilen, Maggie Starbard; Audio Engineer: Kevin Wait; Videographers: Morgan McCloy, Maggie Starbard; Assistant Producer: Ariel Zambelich; photo by Ariel Zambelich/NPR

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

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    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
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