Watch Tiny Desk Contest Top Shelf Episode 2 Featuring Brittany Howard

On Thursday, June 18, Bob Boilen hosted the second episode of Tiny Desk Contest Top Shelf, a weekly livestream series featuring the Contest judges' favorite entries. In this episode, Brittany Howard highlighted five artists she loved.

Boilen and Howard invited one of Howard's favorite entrants, Virginia-based Yasmin Williams, into the livestream to talk more about Williams' entry, "Through The Woods."

"As I was going through all of the Contest participants, I came across her and boy, was I surprised," Howard said. "She had a guitar across her lap, tap dancing shoes on, a little harp that apparently was velcroed or glued to her guitar, and I'm like, 'What is about to happen?' And she starts playing the most beautiful, wondrous music off of this instrument — and doing it in a style that I don't see very often."

Howard's favorite entries included:

• The Bengsons, "Pulls Out"
• Yasmin Williams, "Through The Woods" 
• Nané, "Blue Velvet" 
• Mermaid, "Find Me" 
• Peter "Madcat" Ruth, "Madcat's Extravaganza"

You can learn more about Tiny Desk Contest Top Shelf — and sign up to be reminded about future episodes — at topshelf.nprpresents.org.

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