Daniel Bachman: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert

For an earlytwentysomething, Daniel Bachman has roots buried deep. His approach to the American Primitive style of acoustic guitar a sonically vivid fingerpicking technique developed by John Fahey and expanded by the likes of Robbie Basho and, later, Jack Rose and Glenn Jones is conversational and uplifting, much like the man himself. After a rousing performance of Honeysuckle Reel from a forthcoming seveninch single, however, Bachman turned beetred in the NPR Music office and said, I m not going to lie. I m pretty Endearing as his admission is, once Bachman zeroes in on the center of a song, it s easy to get lost in it yourself. Strap on a pair of heavy boots and Honeysuckle Reel becomes an ecstatic dance tune or, at the very least, a footstomping good time. He closes with the reflective title track from one of two great albums he put out in 2012, Seven Pines, whose simple melody dives in and out of lowstring chord crashes and tumultuous swirls of dizzying fingerpicking. LARS GOTRI