Adam Torres: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert

Bob Boilen | November 11, 2016 - Adam Torres’ voice makes Pearls To Swine a constant listen for me. It’s high and lonesome, but more frail than the voices of the bluegrass pioneers who defined that sound, like Ralph Stanley. Besides, Torres isn’t a country singer or a folksinger so much as an atmospheric storyteller. It took the musician, now based in Austin but frequently on tour, just a week to record Pearls To Swine, though the album was nearly 10 years in the making. In 2006, Torres was 20 and living in Athens, Ohio, when he put out a debut record called Nostra Nova, which is worthy of cult status. Then his life took a non-musical course. I first heard his music far more recently, through another Austin musician and Tiny Desk alum (with Shearwater back in 2008), Thor Harris of Swans. I ran into Harris, he raved about this new singer he was touring with, and I heard Pearls To Swine and flipped. I’ve been writing about Adam Torres a bunch this year, and the more I listen, the more I want to share it. Lis