Indigo Ansin, known professionally as “chrysalis,” is a Boston-based singer-songwriter currently attending Berklee College of Music. Heavily influenced by artists they grew up listening to such as Joni Mitchell and Simon & Garfunkel as well as contemporaries like Field Medic, Indigo de Souza, and Adrianne Lenker, chrysalis fuses together a unique blend of indie pop and folk while occasionally adding elements of rock and soul to their sound. They strive to integrate their love for music with their passion for the liberation of oppressed peoples by writing about their life and making an effort to predominantly work with artists who are BIPOC and/or queer.
Despite having been writing music for two years, chrysalis has had major success in their career so far. In November of 2021, they opened for VÉRITÉ alongside Kat Cunning in Boston, where they had their first gig at Brighton Music Hall. They were then asked to open again for VÉRITÉ, getting moved up to the second opening spot and having their New York City debut in The Bowery Ballroom. Since then, chrysalis has been playing shows in Boston through the DIY house show scene as well as local bars and regularly busking at Faneuil Hall. chrysalis has also found success via Tiktok, accumulating over 80,000 followers and 2.2 million likes through their original music, covers of popular songs, and videos surrounding queer culture.
Justin Schaefers is a singer songwriter born and raised in Sonoma County California, with a modern blend of retro rock, lofi indie music, and folk. Justin studied songwriting at Berklee College of Music and is currently a working musician in Boston, Massachusetts.
Bandits on the Run is a musical trio comprised of Adrian Enscoe, Sydney Shepherd, and Regina Strayhorn. Formed upon a chance encounter while busking in the subways of New York City, the Brooklyn based outfit has gone on to receive accolades from NPR Music’s All Songs Considered, American Songwriter, NPR Weekend Edition, and the Johnny Mercer Songwriters Project. 2020 found them busy writing and recording their EP “Now Is The Time” with producer Ryan Hadlock (Brandi Carlile, The Lumineers) and producing a short musical film “Band At The End Of The World” commissioned by NYC based Prospect Theater Company. 2022 saw them they have composing music for the Netflix children’s animated series “Storybots”, scoring the movie “The Same Storm”, and touring the globe with appearances at the Cambridge Folk Festival, Floydfest, Milwaukee Summerfest, Americanafest, and the F1 Singapore Grand Prix. Their next release will be their most collaborative yet: a self-produced EP featuring various and sundry bandit friends that explores the tensions of a world that has been broken open but is putting itself back together; it is slated for release mid 2024.
Trinity Mei is an Indie Folk singer songwriter from Phoenix, Arizona, who has been captivating audiences with her relatable lyrics and her powerful yet angelic voice. At a young age, Trinity found not only a love for preforming but also a love for the process of writing and composing music. Taking inspiration from the works of Adele, Coldplay and Phoebe Bridges, Trinity’s uses metaphoric lyricism and honest storytelling to bring understanding to often complex emotions. Trinity is currently studying songwriting and production at Berklee College of Music in Boston and aims to write music that empowers and connects people through shared life experiences.
Damsel doesn’t apologize. The Indie Neo Folk duo integrates their background as classical chamber musicians with folk music leanings to create an intricate instrumental sound around tight vocal harmonies. The singing-songwriting team is Monica Mugan on vocals/guitar/ukulele and Beth Meyers on vocals/viola/banjo/ukulele. Damsel’s second album, ‘New to You,’ featuring Jason Treuting on drums, Florent Ghys on bass and Dan Trueman on hardanger fiddle was released on October 30th, 2021. ‘New to You’ and debut album ‘Just Sit So’ are available via Bandcamp.
Just having released her first single in 2022, Eleni Paris takes her love for the intimacy of folk music and combines it with the intricacy of an orchestra as she envelopes us in choral harmonies and strings yet grounds us with traditional indie-folk elements.
Originally from the Bay Area, California, moved to Brooklyn, New York in high school, and is now a college student living in Cambridge, MA, Eleni Paris having performed at a few gigs in New York City, is excited to explore Boston’s music scene as well as the greater part of New England.
When Nicholas Gunty and Brian Powers put their songs and voices together, there is a delicate magic that commands the room to attention. The duo is known as Frances Luke Accord, and they are what NPR’s Mountain Stage calls “the definition of lean-in music.” Their soft, contemplative vintage of indie-folk gestures toward a timelessness that honors the Simon & Garfunkel comparisons but pushes beyond into the world of Bon Iver, Jose Gonzalez, and progressive folk music.
Both raised in South Bend, IN, Gunty and Powers met and began performing together during their time at the University of Notre Dame. Their first release, Kandote, was a bold intercultural collaboration with the Barefoot Truth Children’s Choir in Uganda, a not-for-profit effort which continues to support the choir to this day. Relocating to Chicago in 2013, the duo honed their songwriting craft while releasing two more self-produced EPs, laying the groundwork for their breakthrough debut full-length, Fluke, in 2016. This immersive, philosophically rich album set them off on their first national tour, which included support dates with Darlingside, Anaïs Mitchell, and The Ballroom Thieves.
A remote band since 2017, the duo’s DIY ethos has remained strong since Fluke. Still self-managing and producing, the duo has released two more EP’s, Silver & Gold (2019) and Sunnyside (2021)–the latter under their new label, Two-Dale Records–as well as a number of singles (most recently, “In My Life,” featuring Darlingside (Sept 2022)). Their long-awaited sophomore LP, Safe In Sound, will be released February 9, 2023, via Two-Dale Records and Tone Tree Music.
House of Hamill owes its existence – almost entirely – to a series of cancelled flights.
Rose Baldino and Brian Buchanan first found themselves onstage together at the 2014 Folk Alliance International conference in Kansas City.
Rose’s band Burning Bridget Cleary was scheduled to perform, but inclement weather prevented two of her bandmates from flying. Desperate to salvage the showcase, Rose approached Brian, who she knew fronted Canadian celtic rock band Enter the Haggis. She thrust a guitar into Brian’s hands, pulled him onstage, and the two just clicked.
Four years and hundreds of shows later, the duo was booked to play a closing slot at a Colorado festival, so they hired a bass player and drummer to fill out their sound. By the oddest of coincidences, their hired bandmates’ flights were canceled the day of the show. A frantic Facebook post introduced Brian and Rose to local musician Caroline Browning, who joined them on bass for the weekend. Once again, the chemistry was undeniable, and House of Hamill became a trio.
Today, Pennsylvania-based House of Hamill is a fixture on festival stages across the US, and have shared their music and stories on the country’s premier folk stages. Their version of “Pound a Week Rise” rose to #1 on the US Folk DJ charts, and the video for their all-violin cover of “Sweet Child O’ Mine” amassed over 16 million views on Facebook, where it was shared over 400,000 times. Their latest release, “Folk Hero,” captures perfectly the frenetic energy and eclecticism of their always engaging live show. A lively collection of original instrumentals, reimagined folk ballads, and new songs that showcase the trio’s versatility, “Folk Hero” is the third House of Hamill album to be funded entirely by their fans.
Whether they’re ripping through a set of original jigs and reels, adding lush three-part harmonies into traditional folk ballads, or cracking up an audience with stories from the road, House of Hamill puts on a show that captivates audiences from the very first note.
Songwriter Vienna Teng re-emerges this fall with her mashup song pair We’ve Got You – her first new music in over a decade – but her fans have been here the whole time. They’ve packed concert venues even in years between releases, crowdfunded an ambitious music video in hours, and joined by the hundreds when she launched her “music x climate action” Patreon in 2022.
That kind of devotion has poured forth since 2002’s Waking Hour, which landed her on NPR’s Weekend Edition, The Late Show with David Letterman, and the top of Amazon’s music charts. Across four more studio albums that followed – the chamber folk of Warm Strangers, the jazz-inflected Dreaming Through the Noise, the indie epic Inland Territory, the bright electro-pop in Aims – Vienna has paid homage to her genre-bending heroes like Paul Simon and Tori Amos, while carving a path all her own. Together with her captivating live performances and thoughtful online presence, her work has built a loyal following across generations and continents.
Vienna’s new mini-EP We’ve Got You reflects the complexity of her life over the past decade: climate change work, community building, parenthood. Two songs, each titled “We’ve Got You,” act like fraternal twins: one an indie-pop tribute to inspiring leaders, the other a chamber-folk paean to unsung caregivers. Played simultaneously, they reveal a new intricate whole: a mashup by design, and a love letter to social movements.
Appropriately, Vienna now also hosts climate action workshops on tour and online, which participants have described as “rocket fuel” and “the perfect antidote to despair.” It’s an exciting new chapter in the ever-evolving love story between an artist and her audience.
