Julie Byrne: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert

Sept. 19, 2018, Bob Boilen Even in an office in broad daylight, Julie Byrne sings with both a husk and a whisper as if she s gone a long time without speaking as if she s been alone, as if she s been traveling. Her opening number at the Tiny Desk, Sleepwalker, sings of the road as a source of freedom. I lived my life alone before you And with those that I d never succeeded to love And I grew so accustomed to that kind of solitude I fought you, I did not know how to give it up Julie Byrne s hypnotic fingerstyle picking conjures a sense of wandering, a style she adapted from her father and a sound she grew up with until multiple sclerosis robbed him of that companionship and comfort. She now plays her dad s guitar. For me, the mark of a great artist is transformation the ability to take me far from my everyday thoughts to turn the ordinary into the extraordinary, or at least to see it in a different way. After performing Sleepwalker alone, Julie Byrne was joined by her musical companions, Maril