Summer Concert Series: Cricket Blue

Cricket Blue are Vermont-based folk duo, Laura Heaberlin and Taylor Smith. Their unique sound lies “somewhere between tingly / prickly,” characterized by intricate, layered guitar work and dreamy harmonies which sources consistently describe as “haunting”, even though only Laura believes in ghosts.

NPR Music writes “within the first few seconds, it’s clear the two musicians are master storytellers,” The All Scene Eye says that the duo “sets a new standard for fiction folk.” To be balanced, Cricket Blue has also been informed by alert commenters that “Milkman”, their ballad of a woman’s unhinged reaction to a dairy-delivery crush, “needs some work in terms of pace and cohesion. !!” and that the “player on the left was not dressed warmly enough.” So, your mileage may vary.

Taylor and Laura share songwriting duties, and the fruits of their collaboration are pieces that draw most heavily on traditional American folk music, but which borrow liberally from jazz and Romantic classical ideas. Their lyrics wheel from balladesque narrative to stark character portraits to small meditations on philosophy or friendship, buoyed by signature tightrope harmonies which Laura once pitched to Taylor as “playing a two-headed narrator.” They are working on their second full-length album.