Noble Dust

• Folk
• Indie
• Pop

Noble Dust creates dynamic, lyrically-driven folk pop, blending ethereal vocal harmonies with intricate horn and string melodies. Since the release of their debut album ‘And The Tide Rises’ in 2018 funded by Club Passim’s Iguana Grant, they have shared stages big and small across the country (a sold-out Club Passim, Falcon Ridge Folk Festival, City Winery Boston MainStage, The Grey Eagle, The Royal Room, Folk Alliance International). They released their second LP ‘A Picture for a Frame’ recorded at Dimension Sound Studios with producer Dan Cardinal (Darlingside, The Ballroom Thieves) in August 2023 to critical acclaim from NPR and Bandcamp among others. The group is a 2023 New England Music Award Nominee for Americana Band of the Year, 2023 Falcon Ridge Grassy Hill Emerging Artist and received Club Passim’s inaugural Gecko Award for creative narrative works in 2023.

Cricket Blue

• Americana
• Folk

Vermont-based folk duo Cricket Blue is inspired by diverse aspects of the American folk tradition: old and current, popular and obscure. Laura Heaberlin and Taylor Smith write songs marked by close-knit harmonies and words about myth, confusion, love, and the ends of things.

Heaberlin’s and Smith’s sometimes mingled, sometimes markedly contrasting imaginations form the bones of Cricket Blue’s sound. Heaberlin’s perceptive lyrical voice elevates everyday mundanities and makes the sublime pocket-sized. Smith threads images and characters into narratives that flicker between enigmatic and nakedly honest. They count songwriters like Jeff Mangum, Joanna Newsom, Laura Marling, and Anaïs Mitchell among their influences, as well as poets and storytellers like Dylan Thomas, Alice Munro, and Angela Carter.

Heaberlin and Smith became friends at Middlebury College, where they studied philosophy and literature.