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Night Owl Takes Josh Ritter, Jamila Woods To Bars, Parks And Rooftops

Josh Ritter is one of many artists who took an instrument to some quiet and far-flung place to give NPR Music a late-night show.
Nickolai Hammar
/
NPR
Josh Ritter is one of many artists who took an instrument to some quiet and far-flung place to give NPR Music a late-night show.

Every so often, late at night over the past couple years, a team of NPR Music video producers has been toting approximately 80 pounds of audio/video equipment and a statue of a golden owl to the far reaches of American cities. The owl is our Night Owl, and it's the totem that has presided over nearly every episode of a show that goes by the same name. Night Owl is our chance to get out into the field, put some of our musicians somewhere unexpected and see what magic may arise.

Up until today, those episodes have only lived on Facebook. But today, we've released 20 older episodes on YouTube — including performances from Josh Ritter, Jamila Woods, Emily King and Nate Smith. For the next little while we'll be publishing one video from of our archive every Tuesday and Thursday. Here are 7 from our first batch that you should be sure to check out.

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