Butcher Brown: 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.

Nikki Birch | April 21, 2021
Butcher Brown takes to a restaurant's rooftop terrace in the band's hometown of Richmond, Va., for a home concert and sizzles from the first note. The band opens with "Sticky July," a tune every bit as catchy as its name implies; think rollerskating with a popsicle under a cloudless sky of blue. When you think you've figured it out, keyboardist DJ Harrison switches it up, launching into a solo so funky you wonder if it's a new song, that is until Marcus "Tennishu" Tenney brings us back home with some sweet trumpet.

That's the thing about Butcher Brown: are they playing jazz ... or funk ... or soul? They scoff at the limitations of adjacent genres with the expertise of master musicians who've played together so long that they flow from one vibe to the next without missing a beat. This is clear as they slide into "Camden Square," but not before Tennishu introduces the band, thanks their parents, and shouts out Ann Paciulli, who provided the old-school desk seen in the video. Viewers of a certain vintage may recall interminable afternoons spent sitting in a tiny desk just like that one. Fortunately, boredom is the last thing that happens when Butcher Brown hits. "#KingButch" is next, a stank-face hip-hop head-bobber that once again proves they can do it all. (And yes, not only does Tennishu rap, he also plays sax and trumpet, which is no minor feat.) They close with "Tidal Wave": smooth, delightful, classic.

SET LIST
"Sticky July"
"Camden Square"
"#KingButch"
"Tidal Wave"

MUSICIANS
DJ Harrison: keys
Corey Fonville: drums
Andrew Jay Randazzo: bass
Tennishu: trumpet, saxophone, vocals
Morgan Burrs: guitar

CREDITS
Video: Joey Wharton, R. Anthony Harris, WhartonMajor
Audio: Zach Fichter
Special Thanks: Peter Cerrito, Pete LeBlanc and Jason Moore

TINY DESK TEAM
Producer: Nikki Birch
Video Producer: Kara Frame
Audio Mastering: Josh Rogosin
Associate Producer: Bobby Carter
Tiny Production Team: Maia Stern, Bob Boilen
Executive Producer: Lauren Onkey
Senior VP, Programming: Anya Grundmann

#butcherbrown #tinydesk #nprmusic