Peter Frampton: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert

by BOB BOILEN • I could walk by Peter Frampton on the street and not recognize him. His long blond hair, which shines like a halo on his album Frampton Comes Alive! may be gone, but as soon as he sat behind the Tiny Desk and began singing, 1976 came rushing back. I worked in a record store the year Frampton Comes Alive! came out, and it was one of those records that seemed to have universal appeal. We sold a ton of copies of that double live album and I can still remember the label and number (A&M 3703) from having written it on countless sales tickets.

Forty years later, on the new album Acoustic Classics, Peter Frampton has taken those electric guitar songs, some linked forever to that unmistakable talk box effect, and stripped them down to their essence, just a few acoustic guitars and his voice. At the Tiny Desk, played by Peter and guitarist Gordon Kennedy, these songs still thrill. We had a lot of coworkers and friends come watch Frampton come alive again. It was electrifying to hear a room full of people spontaneously burst out singing on the chorus of "Baby, I Love Your Way" especially when many of those singing weren't alive when that song came out.

Songwriters could spend their lives hoping to write a song that connects for the ages, but Peter Frampton told the NPR crowd that two of his biggest hits came to him on a beach on the same day. The notion that one day the magic is there and the next it's gone could haunt a songwriter, but not Peter Frampton. On this day I saw one of the happiest musicians walk into our building, a man filled with joy, eager to share his tunes he's sung over and over for much of his adult life, with a fresh attitude. It was enchanting.

Julien Baker: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert

There are nine spare, simple songs on Julien Baker's debut album, Sprained Ankle, and every one of them is sad. In fact, she came to the Tiny Desk with an untitled new one — since given the name "Funeral Pyre" — and she appropriately introduced it as "Sad Song #11." But Baker's shimmering electric-guitar picking, the purity of her voice and the yearning way she sings make each of her songs lovely and memorable rather than merely somber. She takes raw emotions and weaves them into perfect bits of memorable poetry like this, from the song "Good News":

In the thin air my ribs creak
Like wooden dining chairs when you see me
Always scared that every situation ends the same
With a blank stare

For fans of Torres, another Tennessee musician, there's a similar intensity to that electric guitar and lonesome sound. But unlike the intensity Torres unleashes with her voice, Baker lets her words carry the volume. It's a tone that lulls you into her world and has me eagerly anticipating "Sad Song #12" and beyond.

- Bob Boilen