Darlingside

Four friends who met as undergraduates at Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts, have spent more than a decade turning the instincts of indie rock toward something older. All Songs Considered has praised their finely wrought arrangements and bookish, baroque take on folk-pop. Hailing from Boston, the group has released ten EPs and albums as of August 2023.

The name comes from a songwriting class, where the instructor quoted Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch's advice to kill your darlings, and the s spelling was chosen because it looked easier on the eye. Their debut full-length, Pilot Machines, arrived in 2012, and after moving to a bluegrass-style arrangement around a single condenser microphone, they released Birds Say in September 2015 and toured nationally in support of Patty Griffin. In 2016 Folk Alliance International named them Artist of the Year. Senft has since stepped back from live performance, and Molly Parden, Ben Burns and Deni Hlavinka now tour with the group, with Everything is Alive the latest release.