Indie-folk duo Cricket Blue are back with the first new music since their 2019 album Serotinalia. “I Hope You Never Think of Me” is a haunting, delicate track, suffused with lyrics about the sorrow and dark nostalgia of hearing of an old lover’s trauma.
“I hope you never think of me, my old friend / I never think of then,” Laura Heaberlin sings, backed with gorgeous harmonies from Taylor Smith. “Oh, but here I read your name I found / where I wouldn’t know it / and the sight of it calls my forgiveness out / I never did let go of it.”
The song is a departure from the band’s previous work. A more stripped-down folk song without the usual progressive leanings or chamber-pop tendencies, “I Hope You Never Think of Me” is nonetheless sonically adventurous, with the help of producer Christopher Hawthorn. Now based in Philadelphia, the Burlington expat keeps busy working with the Vermont music scene.
“We’re in the middle of working on the new album,” Heaberlin said by phone. “And we had this little song I had written, but it just didn’t fit with the other material. And Taylor and I had been debating trying something a little more electronic with our production, so we decided to go the producer route with Christopher.”
While Heaberlin promises the chamber folk and orchestra will be back “in full force” for the new record, it’s fascinating to see one of the scene’s most established acts continue to show new sides of its sound. “I Hope You Never Think of Me” is available now at cricketblue.bandcamp.com.
Lucky Guster fans hoping to catch the band before it launches its We Also Have Eras tour (I see what you did there, boys) will enjoy a golden opportunity on Saturday, February 10. The indie-rock band, which has had a strong Vermont presence in the past few years with front person and Williston resident Ryan Miller being heavily involved in the local scene, will play a one-night stand at Après Only in Stowe with DJ Tad Cautious.
However, the intimate venue holds only 225 people and the show is sold out as of this writing. So here’s hoping you didn’t sleep on tickets.
Eye on the Scene
Photographer Luke Awtry surveys local nightlife
Paint and Sip with Jesse Miles Snyder, aka the Culinary Smut Peddler, Venetian Cocktail & Soda Lounge, Burlington, Thursday, January 25: Could it be that, at 44 years old, I had never painted anything in my life? Such was the case until last Thursday, when local painter Jesse Miles Snyder, aka the Culinary Smut Peddler, hosted the first of a new monthly paint-and-sip series. Snyder’s approach was simple to follow and consisted of two main parts. The first was a traditional approach to still life — in this case, a bottle of wine paired with a large slice of Swiss cheese. The second is where Jesse distances himself from your typical paint-and-sip. He asks that you step back from your completed painting, clear your mind and reenter reality as a wildly immature child who defiles every painting they see with arms and legs, turning its subject into an overtly filthy situation between the painted figures. I won’t be trading my cameras for brushes quite yet. But if this were the start of my painting career, I’d be more than proud to introduce the world to the one who inspired it.
Listening In
Spotify playlist of Vermont jams
This article appears in Jan 31 – Feb 6, 2024.
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