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Maggie Rogers: Tiny Desk Concert

NPR | By Stephen Thompson
Published August 7, 2017 at 5:00 AM EDT

Maggie Rogers became a viral star on the strength of a video in which Pharrell Williams raves about a demo of what's become her signature song, "Alaska." Since then, Rogers has signed a label deal, toured extensively and released a sweetly approachable, inventively arranged EP called Now That The Light Is Fading.

For her Tiny Desk debut, Rogers performed all three of the EP's best-known songs, opening with the recent singles "On + Off" and "Dog Years," the latter of which she calls "a song for all the pups." Then, after dismissing her band, she treated us to a few warm words about public radio before introducing "Alaska" — a song whose buoyantly clever arrangement translates beautifully to the solo acoustic treatment she gives it here. She needn't have buttered us up; we were already all in.

Now That The Light Is Fading is available now. (iTunes) (Amazon)

Set List

  • "On + Off"

  • "Dog Years"

  • "Alaska"

    • Musicians

    Maggie Rogers (vocals, guitar); Grant Zubritsky (bass, synth); Alan Markley (keys); Dana LaMarca (drums).

    Credits

    Producers: Bob Boilen, Niki Walker, Morgan Noelle Smith; Audio Engineer: Josh Rogosin; Videographers: Niki Walker, Tsering Bista, Kara Frame; PA: Jenna Li; Photo: Liam James Doyle/NPR.

    For more Tiny Desk concerts, subscribe to our podcast.

    Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

    US
    Stephen Thompson
    Stephen Thompson is a writer, editor and reviewer for NPR Music, where he speaks into any microphone that will have him and appears as a frequent panelist on All Songs Considered. Since 2010, Thompson has been a fixture on the NPR roundtable podcast Pop Culture Happy Hour, which he created and developed with NPR correspondent Linda Holmes. In 2008, he and Bob Boilen created the NPR Music video series Tiny Desk Concerts, in which musicians perform at Boilen's desk. (To be more specific, Thompson had the idea, which took seconds, while Boilen created the series, which took years. Thompson will insist upon equal billing until the day he dies.)
    See stories by Stephen Thompson