Meet the Members
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B& K Co-Founder
Lennon Award-winning singer-songwriter Rachel Sumner is thrilled to announce the release date for her highly anticipated sophomore album. Heartless Things - a captivating collection of ten original songs - will be available May 10, 2024.
In conjunction with this announcement, Sumner unveils the next single, "Katie," (out now) offering listeners a glimpse into the rich storytelling, whimsically lush instrumentation, and thematic ties that define the album.
“In each song there's some aspect of heartlessness and selfishness that threads everything together. ‘Katie’ is the thematic antidote of the album,” Sumner says. “It’s a love song for roommates or friends - dear ones that fall into despair - with the needed reminder that despite the hard times, there may be ‘fields full of flowers’ just around the bend.”
Heartless Things marks a significant evolution in Sumner's studio sound, stepping out from the acoustic string band framework of her 2022 debut album Rachel Sumner & Traveling Light. This new record blends elements of chamber-folk and indie-pop with Sumner’s love of Appalachian balladry and bluesy hooks, resulting in an immersive setting that highlights the top-notch narrative writing we’ve come to expect. With this album, Sumner continues to push the boundaries of folk music while staying true to her own unique artistic vision.
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B& K Co-FounderEmily Cunningham is a founding member of Boston-based band Noble Dust - making lyrically-driven folk pop that blends 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. 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.
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B& K Member
Laura Heaberlin is one half of Vermont-based indie chamber folk duo Cricket Blue. NPR Music calls Laura Heaberlin and Taylor Smith of Cricket Blue “master storytellers”, and the All Scene Eye says Cricket Blue “sets a new standard for fiction-folk.” In 2019, the duo released their first full-length album, Serotinalia, to widespread praise, and were voted “Best Folk Group” in Vermont’s Seven Daysie Awards. As a response to the interruption of live music in 2020, the duo spearheaded a series of elaborately-arranged covers of songs from the Over the Garden Wall soundtrack, which have since earned a small but enthusiastic international following. Heaberlin’s songwriting has been featured on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, and Cricket Blue has been featured as a formal showcase artist at NERFA multiple times. They have played stages and festivals around the United States and Canada and are working on their second full-length album.
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B& K Member
Unassumingly charming with a velvety voice… she envelops a forlorn loneliness that’s at once poignant and crushing." - American Songwriter. Award-winning singer/songwriter, educator, and producer, Liv Greene has been processing the world around her through songs ever since teaching herself her first guitar chords at 12. Inspired by the records played in her childhood home in Washington D.C.—powerhouse women of song like Patty Griffin, Emmylou Harris, Shawn Colvin, and Ella Fitzgerald— Greene has long been enamored with the craft and it shows. In high school, Greene honed her writing skills in the woods of Northern Michigan, studying songwriting at Interlochen Arts Academy for her senior year, graduating with a Fine Arts Award in songwriting. In college, Greene made her way up to Boston to study contemporary improvisation at the New England Conservatory, and while in Boston, Greene's learning extended beyond NEC, as she found herself immersed in the New England folk scene, working at historic folk venue Club Passim, waitressing, performing, and teaching songwriting in their school of music. Now based in Nashville, Greene enjoys touring, co-writing, teaching music lessons, and lending her talents as a guitarist, backing vocalist, and banjo player to fellow local artists Olivia Barton, Emily Hines, Brennan Wedl, Melanie MacLaren, and many others. In the past year, Greene finished up work on her first self-produced full length album, made in collaboration with engineer Matt Andrews (Gillian Welch) and recorded live to tape at Woodland Studios in East Nashville. The record is due out fall of 2024.
To learn more about Liv's work, you can visit www.livgreene.com
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B& K Co-Founder
Every time Sadie Gustafson-Zook carves a linoleum block, sews a pencil case out of scraps, or admires the way the ink in her Pilot G-2 glides over her journal, she thinks, “I should be doing this all the time.” The act of creating something tangible is the air Sadie breathes. Her songwriting is the same- weaving an internal dialogue, the stories she tells herself, warm melodies and clever chords into something real, something she can physically feel with her hands and her throat. And chances are that you’ll be able to feel them too. Sadie’s songs have been endorsed by some of the most respected songwriting contests in the country, winning Kerrville Folk Festival’s 2022 New Folk Contest (as well as placing as a finalist in 2020), earning second place at the Rocky Mountain Folk Fest’s Songwriter Showcase, and winning first place at the NewSong + LEAF Songwriting Contest. Sadie has been featured on the Basic Folk podcast and on Folk Alley.
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B& K Member
Musician Kimaya Diggs navigates her world with stories. Penning her first one-woman show as a little kid, she’s published fiction, earned a Callaloo fellowship for poetry, and works days as a speechwriter—not to mention the accolades her songwriting’s earned, including a New England Music Awards nod, gigs at legendary folk haunts like Club Passim, and appearances at Green River Festival, Rubblebucket’s Dream Picnic, and the Emily Dickinson festival. “I’ve always thought of my writing and music as one thing—connective storytelling,” Diggs explains. But while her mother was sick with a twelve-year illness, Diggs felt unable to share the whole truth. Her first LP, 2018’s Breastfed, was largely about her mom, but it wasn’t until her passing that Diggs was free to use songwriting to process. “Sharing my grieving experience has resonated with people; they’re excited to hear something that’s not all good,” notes Diggs. To help cope, Diggs and her husband Jacob Rosazza—also her musical collaborator—rescued an ex-racing dog, Quincy. Though they shared only two years together, caring for the traumatized animal helped Diggs find purpose. “Having him was challenging, but at the same time, he’s why we survived the first year without my mom,” offers Diggs. “It was special to get to love a creature so much—because of, in spite of, and in addition to the challenges he came with.” Losing Quincy gave her greater insight on heartache, so she named her newest album after him.
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B& K Member
Brittany Ann Tranbaugh (pronounced TRAN-baw) is a Philadelphia-based songwriter whose queer Americana heartbreaker “Kiss You” won Song of the Year in the 2021 John Lennon Songwriting Contest. Tranbaugh has been writing songs and playing shows as a side gig since she was a teenager, but in February 2023, at 31 years old, she finally quit her office job to pursue a full-time career in music. Her newest release is a self-titled EP produced by Grammy-winner Tyler Chester which showcases Tranbaugh in her new era: energetic, self-assured, surrounded by her beloved musical community, and more commanding as a vocalist and writer than ever before.