NPR Music is once again celebrating Black Music Month with a special set of performances for their Tiny Desk Concert series. After giving Black female artists their well-deserved flowers last June, this time around, they’re commemorating milestone anniversaries for a handful of albums. On the list is Amerie’s sophomore album Touch, which was released in 2005. To celebrate the LP’s 20th year, NPR invited the songstress to their Washington, D.C. headquarters to make her Tiny Desk debut.
Amerie came equipped with go-go legends Backyard Band, saxophonist Eugene Chapman and three background singers. The 45-year-old singer-songwriter appeared to have barely aged since stepping onto the scene in the early aughts, which is where she began her Tiny Desk set. She took us all the way back to her 2002 debut All I Have to perform “Talkin’ To Me” and “Why Don’t We Fall In Love.” She came alive singing her very first single, which has become the unofficial song to set summer off.
After setting things off with those two throwbacks, she took a few moments to thank NPR for the invitation and introduced Backyard. Amerie couldn’t stop smiling, but she regained her composure to get back into the mood before singing her brand-new single “Mine.” Following a sax solo by Chapman to end that track, the music segued into another All I Have cut, the sultry slow jam “I Just Died.”
She finally got to the Touch portion of her set with the song “Rolling Down My Face.” She switched it up a bit, getting Backyard Band to add a go-go beat to the track to replace its original instrumentation. Following that go-go moment, she brought the energy to her live rendition of “Talkin’ About” before a seamless segue into the song everyone was waiting for, “1 Thing.”
Amerie completed her Tiny Desk Concert on an entertaining note and really got into “1 Thing.” She couldn’t contain her excitement and stepped from behind the desk to dance with a few members of the live audience gathered around the infamous desk (where her forthcoming debut novel This Is Not A Ghost Story sat). Still smiling until the end, it was evident that Amerie was having the time of her life back doing what she loves.
