Buck Curran: 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.

American guitarist Buck Curran has been in mandatory lockdown in Bergamo, Italy — "the epicenter of the pandemic in Europe," he says — since early March. That's where, years ago, he met Adele Pappalardo while on tour, fell in love and started a family. They have a son about to turn three years old and another child due in August. "We're trying to survive," Curran says. "And be positive," Pappalardo adds. Soon residents in Italy will be allowed to use parks, visit relatives and attend funerals.

From their home, Buck Curran plays three songs from the recently released No Love is Sorrow with Adele Pappalardo on vocal harmony, plus "New Moontide" from 2016's Immortal Light. There's a burning darkness to these songs, as Curran's rough-hewn voice and droning psych-folk melodies curl like smoke, but there's also a desperate hope that cracks the surface.

SET LIST

• "Deep in the Lovin' Arms of My Babe"
• "New Moontide"
• "Ghost on the Hill"
• "Blue Raga"

Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.