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Big Harp — the duo of Chris Senseney and Stefanie Drootin-Senseney— return with a cover of The Cure’s “Boys Don’t Cry.” It marks Big Harp’s first new release in ten years, and their first for Saddle Creek since 2011’s White Hat and 2013’s Chain Letters.
Senseney and Drootin-Senseney (The Good Life, Bright Eyes, She & Him) formed Big Harp in December 2010, after a three-year whirlwind that saw the two meet, have a baby, move halfway across the country, get married, move halfway across the country again, and have another baby. When the dust settled, they holed up in Stefanie's parents' spare bedroom, practiced for a week, and recorded their debut album White Hat, a collection of dusty, low-key folk-rock laced with subtle irony and dark humor.
Understandably for a band that had only existed for a week before recording their first album, and had never played a show, their sound began to change almost immediately. They packed up the kids and hit the road, earning high praise for their surprisingly energetic live shows, where the intimate acoustic-based arrangements they'd recorded gave way to something increasingly complex, ragged and dirty. Big Harp was eventually profiled by NPR's Weekend Edition ahead of the release of Chain Letters.
Now, with teenagers in the house, “Our daughter has gotten really into The Cure in the last couple years, so this song has kinda been floating around our heads,” says Chris. “The original is perfect as it is, but it’s such a solid song that it can work in a lot of contexts. And like any really well put-together piece, it doesn’t need a lot of decoration. We’ve been playing exclusively as a true two-piece these days, without overdubs or additional musicians, because there’s so much space for lyrics and melodies to breathe that way. ‘Boys Don’t Cry’ really suits that approach. It’s simple in the best ways, sturdy and timeless like a song that must have always existed - exactly the qualities we are always striving to unearth in our own writing.”
Release Date: March 27th, 2026
Big Harp — the duo of Chris Senseney and Stefanie Drootin-Senseney— return with a cover of The Cure’s “Boys Don’t Cry.” It marks Big Harp’s first new release in ten years, and their first for Saddle Creek since 2011’s White Hat and 2013’s Chain Letters.
Senseney and Drootin-Senseney (The Good Life, Bright Eyes, She & Him) formed Big Harp in December 2010, after a three-year whirlwind that saw the two meet, have a baby, move halfway across the country, get married, move halfway across the country again, and have another baby. When the dust settled, they holed up in Stefanie's parents' spare bedroom, practiced for a week, and recorded their debut album White Hat, a collection of dusty, low-key folk-rock laced with subtle irony and dark humor.
Understandably for a band that had only existed for a week before recording their first album, and had never played a show, their sound began to change almost immediately. They packed up the kids and hit the road, earning high praise for their surprisingly energetic live shows, where the intimate acoustic-based arrangements they'd recorded gave way to something increasingly complex, ragged and dirty. Big Harp was eventually profiled by NPR's Weekend Edition ahead of the release of Chain Letters.
Now, with teenagers in the house, “Our daughter has gotten really into The Cure in the last couple years, so this song has kinda been floating around our heads,” says Chris. “The original is perfect as it is, but it’s such a solid song that it can work in a lot of contexts. And like any really well put-together piece, it doesn’t need a lot of decoration. We’ve been playing exclusively as a true two-piece these days, without overdubs or additional musicians, because there’s so much space for lyrics and melodies to breathe that way. ‘Boys Don’t Cry’ really suits that approach. It’s simple in the best ways, sturdy and timeless like a song that must have always existed - exactly the qualities we are always striving to unearth in our own writing.”
Release Date: March 27th, 2026