Yasmin Williams: 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. Lars Gotrich | October 19, 2021 Yasmin Williams doesn’t need much scenery to set your imagination in motion. For her Tiny Desk (home) concert, the Virginia-based guitarist keeps the background sparse (a rug, a folding table, curtains, a plank of wood) to foreground her inventive playing. Williams’ set begins with Urban Driftwood’s “Juvenescence,“ a tenderly picked tune that suddenly springs to life when she flips the acoustic guitar onto her lap to fingertap the dizzying variation. In the hands of others, this move signifies showmanship that highlights ability, but sometimes downplays the substance of the song. For Williams, technique and songcraft are one in the same; if she runs out of fingers to drum the body of the guitar, she straps on tap