Yasmin Williams is a fingerstyle guitarist who faucets, slaps and slides up and down the fretboard of her instrument with a commanding sense of surroundings that sparkles between the strings. Storytellers construct worlds; on the Tiny Desk, Williams invitations us into hers.
Every tune on this efficiency is a chapter that introduces the characters in and round her music. “Hummingbird” options the clawhammer banjo of Allison de Groot and fiddle of Tatiana Hargreaves — they’re fixtures within the old-time music scene who assist to carry this rapturous romp to life. (And, apart from recording “Hummingbird” for Acadia, that is solely the second time that the trio has carried out the composition collectively.) The majestic “Sisters” invitations strings, djembe and a 10-foot marimba behind the Desk to color an image of a ravishing Oregon city that, in Williams’ estimation, wants some scenic overlooks.
We love a narrative that comes full circle. In 2018, we have been mesmerized by Williams’ Tiny Desk Contest entry, wherein she carried out “Guitka” with a kalimba taped to her guitar and faucet footwear on her toes. She reprises the tune right here, with the assistance of djembe participant Amadou Kouyate. “It is enjoyable to do every part on the similar time!” she tells the group, which incorporates household and pals from her Northern Virginia house. (Her mother beamed telling me in regards to the time Williams received an NYU expertise present as a school freshman.) When Williams closes with an early observe, “Stressed Coronary heart,” we’re taken again to the start: A child who’d whoop her brothers at Guitar Hero, fell in love with the instrument itself, however by no means misplaced her sense of play.
SET LIST
- “Hummingbird”
- “Sisters”
- “Guitka”
- “Stressed Coronary heart”
MUSICIANS
- Yasmin Williams: guitar, kalimba, faucet footwear
- Allison de Groot: banjo
- Tatiana Hargreaves: fiddle
- Lelia-Michelle Walker: viola
- Maggy Simon: violin
- Morgan Brown: viola
- Marcus Grant: marimba
- Amadou Kouyate: djembe
TINY DESK TEAM
- Producer: Lars Gotrich
- Director/Editor: Maia Stern
- Audio Technical Director: Josh Newell
- Host/Sequence Producer: Bobby Carter
- Videographers: Maia Stern, Joshua Bryant, Kara Body
- Audio Engineer: Andie Huether
- Manufacturing Assistant: Ashley Pointer
- Photographer: Sofia Seidel
- Tiny Desk Copy Editor: Hazel Cills
- Govt Producer: Suraya Mohamed
- Sequence Creators: Bob Boilen, Stephen Thompson
- VP, Visuals and Music: Keith Jenkins
