i love npr. even more specifically, i love all songs considered. i want to be bob boilen. he and his show are a goldmine for guaranteed great music. literally at least once a week, i discover a new artist directly because of npr’s all songs considered.

my favorite all songs extension, so to speak, is the tiny desk concerts series. in essence, an artist comes in and performs literally at bob boilen’s desk. in that very tiny space, some amazing artists have performed their songs in beautiful, typically-acoustic (though not always) ways. some of my favorites have been the swell season, sarah siskind and raphael saadiq.

my new favorite, though, is jakob dylan’s performance of a few new songs from his newly released, women and country. while i don’t consider myself a particularly big jakob dylan fan (or the wallflowers, for that matter), i certainly have consistently loved his material, stretching back to the mid-90s. it can’t be easy being the offspring of one of the greatest singer/songwriters of all-time (bob dylan, ever heard of him?), but jakob dylan pulls its off pretty well.

the other highlight—you’ll notice—of this clip is that he is accompanied by none other than neko case. while they are friends (and she records background vocals on his album), it is particularly curious to see her just tagging along for the trip. but even more peculiarly, it appears as if she literally slept on the curb of npr’s studios the night before, got up, threw on a coat and walked into the recording. it’s really bizarre, but a nice extra treat.

well, either way, here’s the video. enjoy. (by the way, the songs performed are nothing but the whole wide world, everybody’s hurtin’ and holy rollers for love.)