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Yo-Yo Ma, Stuart Duncan, Edgar Meyer And Chris Thile: Tiny Desk (Home) Concert

The Tiny Desk is working from home for the foreseeable future. Introducing NPR Music's Tiny Desk (home) concerts, bringing you performances from across the country and the world. It's the same spirit — stripped-down sets, an intimate setting — just a different space.


Yo-Yo Ma, arguably the best known cellist in the world, assembled the world-class musical ensemble known as Goat Rodeo nearly 10 years ago. You've probably heard Stuart Duncan playing fiddle on albums with Dolly Parton, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, and he was named the Academy of Country Music Fiddle Player of the Year numerous times. Edgar Meyer has played bass with Joshua Bell, Béla Fleck and Christian McBride, and the Nashville Symphony commissioned his first orchestral work in 2017. And you'd most likely recognize Chris Thile's vocals and mandolin in the music of Nickel Creek and Punch Brothers.

The four musicians played Bob Boilen's desk as Goat Rodeo in 2011. Fast forward a decade and this collaboration channels that same spectacular frenzy, separately captured in the gorgeous homes of the artists and mixed to perfection. As the audio engineer for Tiny Desk, I don't have a favorite (home) concert yet, but the very first few seconds of this performance sent chills up my spine.

Not Our First Goat Rodeo (listen here) is the second album in nine years from the ultimate jam band, and it's just as spontaneous and joyful to listen to as their first, The Goat Rodeo Sessions. All four musicians are credited as composers. They're accompanied by songwriter Aoife O'Donovan, who lends her pitch-perfect vocals to close out the set. Chris Thile, the master of ceremonies for this Tiny Desk (home) concert, explains that "The Trappings" is about work/life balance, a timely sentiment.

SET LIST

  • "Your Coffee Is a Disaster"
  • "Waltz Whitman"
  • "The Trappings"
  • MUSICIANS

    Stuart Duncan: fiddle, vocals; Chris Thile: mandolin, vocals; Yo-Yo Ma: cello; Edgar Meyer: bass; Aoife O'Donovan: vocals

    CREDITS

    Video by: James Rothman; Music Produced and Mixed by: Gabe Witcher; Producer: Josh Rogosin; Audio Mastering Engineer: Josh Rogosin; Video Producer: Morgan Noelle Smith; Associate Producer: Bobby Carter; Executive Producer: Lauren Onkey; Senior VP, Programming: Anya Grundmann

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

    Josh Rogosin (he/him) stumbled into NPR HQ in 1999 on his way to mixing shows at The Shakespeare Theatre in downtown DC. Since then, he has been at the controls for all of NPR's flagship newsmagazines and gathered sound in far flung places like Togo and Benin, West Africa, Cambodia and Greece for the Radio Expeditions series. He has engineered at NPR West and NPR NY and spent two years as Technical Director at Marketplace Productions in Los Angeles. He served as Senior Broadcast Engineer for New York Public Radio and Studio 360, and was an originating producer and sound designer for NPR's Ask Me Another.