Florist: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert

by BOB BOILEN • In Florist, Emily Sprague and her Catskills friends sing quiet, delicate songs filled with vivid memories. "Vacation" is about growing up and learning about love.

"Like when I used to ride roller coasters with my dad
When a swimming pool in a hotel
Was a gift from God
Like, love, we're like a family
I don't know how to be"

"Cool And Refreshing" finds Sprague singing about the childhood memories that we lose one by one.

"Think of me by the creek in cutoff jeans holding onto
Something that has meaning to me
I don't really think my life will ever make me
As happy as Kaaterskill Creek"

These two songs are from Florist's 2015 EP, Holdly, while the band closes its Tiny Desk concert with "1914," a track from its new debut full-length, The Birds Outside Sang. On drums, you'll find a Tiny Desk alum in Felix Walworth, who was first here with Bellows, then Eskimeaux; all of these musicians are connected in some way to the Epoch, a collective from New York City. It's a creative friendship with stories to share, and its members' songs feel best in intimate settings, like a desk surrounded by old and new friends.