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Lainey Wilson: Tiny Desk Concert

Lainey Wilson took a long, winding path to country-music stardom, beginning with a high school stint as a Hannah Montana impersonator. That path led the Louisiana native to a Grammy for best country album earlier this year — for her terrific 2022 breakthrough, Bell Bottom Country — and it continues with Whirlwind, which dropped Friday.

Just days before the new album’s release, Wilson took yet another victory lap at the Tiny Desk, where she performed three songs from Whirlwind before closing with the first single from Bell Bottom Country, “Heart Like a Truck.” Though she and her band opened the set with two killer songs about romantic devotion, the show’s grabbiest moments — and the ones likeliest to go viral — came during the irreverent “Ring Finger,” a kiss-off song for the ages. (How we made it to 2024 without a banger containing the words “I got the ring / He got the finger” will have to remain a mystery.)

The whole deeply charming set announced Wilson as a star with staying power. She’ll maintain a presence at the Tiny Desk, too: She left us her hat for safekeeping.

SET LIST

  • “Hang Tight Honey”
  • “4x4xU”
  • “Ring Finger”
  • “Heart Like a Truck”

MUSICIANS

  • Lainey Wilson: lead vocals, guitar 
  • Aslan Freeman: guitar, vocals
  • Tommy Scifres: bass, vocals
  • Kevin Nolan: keys, electric guitar, vocals
  • Matt Nolan: drums, vocals
  • Sav Madigan: violin, guitar, mandolin, vocals

TINY DESK TEAM

  • Producer: Suraya Mohamed
  • Director/Editor: Kara Frame
  • Audio Technical Director: Josh Newell
  • Host/Series Producer: Bobby Carter
  • Videographers: Kara Frame, Joshua Bryant, Mitra I. Arthur
  • Audio Engineer: Andie Huether
  • Production Assistant: Ashley Pointer
  • Photographer: Alanté Serene
  • Tiny Desk Team: Maia Stern, Hazel Cills
  • Series Creators: Bob Boilen, Stephen Thompson
  • VP, Visuals and Music: Keith Jenkins

Copyright 2024 NPR

Stephen Thompson is a writer, editor and reviewer for NPR Music, where he speaks into any microphone that will have him and appears as a frequent panelist on All Songs Considered. Since 2010, Thompson has been a fixture on the NPR roundtable podcast Pop Culture Happy Hour, which he created and developed with NPR correspondent Linda Holmes. In 2008, he and Bob Boilen created the NPR Music video series Tiny Desk Concerts, in which musicians perform at Boilen's desk. (To be more specific, Thompson had the idea, which took seconds, while Boilen created the series, which took years. Thompson will insist upon equal billing until the day he dies.)