Sleeper’s Bell + Friends

Sleeper’s Bell — the Chicago folk duo of Blaine Teppema (vocals/guitar) and Evan Green (guitar) — releasing their debut album, “Clover”.

Conceived as a practice in writing letters to her younger self, the songs on Clover mine Teppema’s teenage journals and respond to those entries from the perspective of an adult trying to heal. Clover offers 9 snapshots captured through a youthful lens but colored by time, as Teppema has poured over lyrics, reshaped songs, and recruited collaborators to the project. Its credits capture the current iteration of Chicago’s ever-reliable DIY community: Jack Henry (Friko, Horsegirl, Free Range) served as recording engineer and session drummer, Gabe Bostick (aka Plant Matter) contributed piano and backing vocals, Leo Paterniti assisted on mixing, and all three helped produce the record’s crystalline sound under Green’s direction. Mastered by Grammy-nominated engineer Chris Gelin, Clover is an assemblage of chosen and real family, with Blaine’s dad, Jeff Teppema, lending his fiddle skills to a few tracks.

Clover presents Teppema’s long-standing full-band vision for Sleeper’s Bell, and assembles Chicago’s finest as her backing band to present the songs she has cultivated for a decade. The resulting debut spit-shines dive bar wisdom into polished folk-rock.

 

 

Tara Firma is the alt-folk project of Chicago-based artist Anne Sedlacek. With ethereal vocals floating above a stoic guitar, her songs weave a tapestry of distant heartache, fragile memories, and the beauty and sorrow of everyday living. Learning from the simplicity of artists like Sibylle Baier, Leonard Cohen, and Angel Olsen, she is searching for some shared humanity through the contemporary folk song.