MJ Lenderman's music is a little sad, sometimes funny and almost always comforting. He's already played the Tiny Desk with the indie rock band Wednesday, but after a stellar 2024 — a memorable feature on Waxahatchee's "Right Back To It" and his own solo album, Manning Fireworks — it was time to bring him in for his own set.

His band, normally called MJ Lenderman and The Wind, told us that when they play their songs stripped back like this, they refer to themselves as MJ Lenderman and The Breeze. The fiddle-forward "Rip Torn" and "You Don't Know The Shape I'm In" feel especially suitable for the space.

Lenderman's compelling lyricism and wry sense of self shines in this performance. On a song pulled from Ghost of Your Guitar Solo, he reflects on how he used to think he wanted to be a Catholic priest: "I would never have to worry / About the girls tryin' to break my heart / All expenses paid / Yeah, I'd have it made / The house would come furnished." Afterward, he muses, "Nothing funny has ever happened to me."

SET LIST

• "Wristwatch"

• "Rip Torn"

• "Catholic Priest"

• "You Don't Know The Shape I'm In"

MUSICIANS

• MJ Lenderman: vocals, guitar

• Jon Samuels: guitar

• Landon George: upright bass

• Ethan Baechtold: piano

• Colin Miller: drums, background vocals

• Xandy Chelmis: dobro, fiddle, background vocals

TINY DESK TEAM

• Producer: Elle Mannion

• Director/Editor: Maia Stern

• Audio Technical Director: Josh Newell

• Host/Series Producer: Bobby Carter

• Videographers: Maia Stern, Kara Frame, Mitra I. Arthur

• Audio Engineer: Josephine Nyounai

• Production Assistant: Ashley Pointer

• Photographer: Michael Zamora

• Tiny Desk Team: Joshua Bryant, Hazel Cills

• Executive Producer: Suraya Mohamed

• Series Creators: Bob Boilen, Stephen Thompson

• VP, Visuals and Music: Keith Jenkins

Copyright 2025, NPR