NPR Music‘s popular Tiny Desk Contest just announced its winner for 2023 — the vibrant Utah indie folk six-piece Little Moon — and for the first time since 2018, the Tiny Desk On The Road tour will pay a visit to Philadelphia. The show places the contest winner on the World Cafe Live stage along with two Philadelphia entrants, Kikashima and Julia Pratt.
The former is the project of singer-songwriter and multimedia artist Carissa Matsushima, who entered Tiny Desk 2023 with a shimmering power trio performance of a groove-laden rocker called “Running Away“; when she’s not playing in a band, Matsushima scores dance pieces and art installations, and we’re excited to see Kikashima for the first time at the Road Show. The latter is a singer-songwriter near and dear to us here at WXPN; Pratt started the year off with a stunning Key Studio Session, more recently opened for Hozier at World Cafe Live, was a panelist at the Inside Hustle music scene networking event, and features prominently on the lineups for XPoNential Music Festival and Philly Music Fest. Pratt’s Tiny Desk entry was the song “Little Bug,” which she debuted in solo-electric format in her Key Session and more recently released as a fleshed-out single, amplifying the song’s bossa nova underpinnings with playing from bassist Harlee Torres and drummer Tate Berkey.
Listen to “Little Bug” below, and watch Kikashima and Little Moon’s Tiny Desk entries as well. The Tiny Desk On The Road tour comes to The Lounge at World Cafe Live on Friday, June 30th; tickets are on sale now, more information can be found at WXPN’s Concerts and Events page. For more on the Tiny Desk On the Road tour, visit NPR Music.