Tori Amos (2022)

Tori Amos' Tiny Desk (home) concert debut takes place in what looks like close quarters. The singer-songwriter whose music has served as a beacon for so many listeners during her thirty-year career sits at her beloved Bosendorfer piano with a star-embellished Wurlitzer at her back. On a nearby shelf is a stack of books; one is Suzanne Simard's classic of forest ecology, Finding the Mother Tree. As Amos begins "Baker Baker," a fan favorite from her 1994 debut album Under the Pink, her bell-like voice fills the room. It's easy to imagine she's in a lighthouse on the cliffs of Cornwall instead of the state-of-the-art home studio where her husband, engineer Mark Hawley, ensures that the mix will be perfect. This three-song performance shows Amos both alone and reaching out, casting sonic beams to guide us in the dark. The other two songs Amos offers are from her characteristically fearless, self-interrogating, soul-integrating 2021 album Ocean to Ocean. Her renditions of the title track and "29 Years" are magnetic, but what really makes this set a treat is the commentary she shares before each song. Talking about the growing she's done during lockdown – learning about the climate crisis, confronting her own long-buried trauma – Amos reveals why she remains so beloved. She still knows how to make the most private and even inchoate feelings accessible. Hers is a lighthouse that welcomes the traveler in for a heart-to-heart exchange.