Watch Norah Jones Play NPR’s Tiny Desk From Home
“The unfortunate circumstances of our times have given us something beautiful,” writes Bob Boilen of the performance.
Rather than perform behind Bob Boilen’s titular Tiny Desk at NPR HQ, Norah Jones performed a socially-distanced Tiny Desk Concert at her home behind her piano. She played four songs off her latest album, Pick Me Up Off the Floor, released this past June on Blue Note Records.
She began with “How I Weep,” which opens the album, moving to “Heartbroken, Day After,” “I’m Alive,” which she co-wrote with Jeff Tweedy of Wilco, and “To Live.”
“The unfortunate circumstances of our times have given us something beautiful,” writes Bob Boilen of the performance.
The stripped-back performance puts Jones’ voice and piano at the forefront, as she performs stirring renditions of her classic songs.
Jones is no stranger to live-stream performances. The singer-songwriter has been keeping busy during the pandemic with her weekly live-stream series, with just her and an upright piano (and occasionally a guitar).
Jones released her album Pick Me Up Off the Floor in the middle of the pandemic.
“Less overtly jazzy than 2016’s Day Breaks, this set of new self-penned songs wraps country, soul and jazz in soft pillows of sound presided over by the Texan’s remarkable smoke-wreathed croon. It’s an astonishing instrument of control and comfort – and it makes the weary spikiness of her lyrics even more effective,” wrote The Guardian in their review.
Although written before a nationwide quarantine, many elements speak to these current times, expressing themes of loss and uncertainty during a political crisis.
Jones said of the album, “If there’s a darkness to this album, it’s not meant to be an impending sense of doom, it feels more like a human longing for connection. Some of the songs that are personal also apply to the larger issues we’re all facing. And some of the songs that are about very specific larger things also feel quite personal.”
More recently, all of her classic music videos have been remastered in HD, available to view on Youtube.
Pick Me Up Off the Floor can be bought here.
