Songwriter Series: Cricket Blue, Ciarra Fragale, Elijah Berlow at The Iron Horse on Tuesday, September 29 2026

Sweet Animal, the sophomore album from acclaimed chamber folk duo Cricket Blue (Laura Heaberlin and Taylor Smith), is a semi-continuous, intricately arranged, cyclical suite of songs that confront death, love, grief, and embodiment in the physical plane. “Sweet Animal is a reference to your own body being a sweet animal,” says Heaberlin. “Having a tenderness toward your own physicality.” Featuring contributions from Goose drummer Cotter Ellis, Clogs bassoonist Rachael Elliott, members of the Vermont Symphony Orchestra, and dozens of musicians from the region's classical, folk, and experimental scenes, Cricket Blue balances chamber-scale intricacy with communal warmth.Cricket Blue’s 2019 debut, Serotinalia, earned national attention for its literary lyricism and distinctive approach to vocal harmony, with NPR Music calling the duo “master storytellers” and The All Scene Eye praising a “new standard in fiction-folk.” Cricket Blue was voted Vermont's Best Folk Group in the 2019 Seven Daysie Awards. During the pandemic, the duo unexpectedly built an international cult following through reinterpretations of songs from Cartoon Network's Over the Garden Wall, which evolved into an annual sold-out live show. Cricket Blue has performed at venues and festivals across the United States and Canada and Laura has also appeared solo on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

Ranging from heartbreak pop to cinematic indie rock, Ciarra Fragale’s music has been described as "atmospheric and aspirational, precisely the sort of emotive sensibility we are collectively yearning for." Known for her soaring vocals and live looping arrangements, the Hudson Valley-native and Western MA-based musician often draws comparisons to artists like Beach Fossils, Kate Bush, and The Japanese House.

In 2025, Ciarra released her 4th studio album Get What You Want (produced by Eric Slick of Dr. Dog). This fall will mark the release of her first ambient guitar exploration, Digital Bath. Ciarra also plays in regionally-renowned band Cloudbelly, as well as other projects.

Elijah Berlow is a Vermont-based songwriter and multi-instrumentalist folk musician.

Berlow is a story-teller with a narrative style grounded in the traditions of Americana music. His diligent fingerpicking guitar-style leads steadily through the pulsing catharsis of any song with impressionistic poetic soulful lyrics.

Berlow creates music that is complex, soulful and in conversation with ecologies of people and land.