The New Students Return with Little Blue Dot: A Whimsical Americana Journey Following the Success of Quarantunes

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After the critical success of their COVID-inspired last album, 2020’s Quarantunes, New York-based Americana band The New Students have just released their follow up, Little Blue Dot. The New Students generally have sizeable gaps between releases, but each release is a fully formed album, and Little Blue Dot is no exception. With their usual charming mix of whimsy and social commentary, contemporary folk, americana and classic bluegrass, fans are likely to enjoy this album as much as its predecessor.

This album has been percolating with us for a long time – we wrote one of the songs over a decade ago, some we’ve been playing live for a few years, and some are more recent. 

With a decade and a half together under their belts, the members of The New Students are all top level musicians whose craft with their individual instruments (or multiple instruments in the case of many of the members) is continuously honed. With folk and Americana music, people often picture banjos missing a string or a bass fashioned out of a washtub, broom and washing line a’la Country Bear Jamboree, but even with rudimentary instruments, country, bluegrass and folk musicians are among the most highly skilled of any genre. Likely having abandoned the glass jug and washboard percussion, The New Students have nonetheless retained the authenticity to their beloved Americana.

With those classical blues, bluegrass and Americana skills very much on display, The New Students also clearly have a penchant for the golden age of folk in the 60s and 70s, with their social conscience shining through Little Blue Dot. The album itself is thus titled to refer to planet Earth, as seen from a mile high perspective and calls for listeners to see Earth and humanity from a compassionate perspective. All of The New Students’ work has that thread of social justice, and they state their purpose is to get the message across. With songs like “Greta’s Song,” the title track and the stirring a cappella, Crosby, Stills, Nash &Young-inspired “The Refugee” show the band are very good at expressing such a message.

These songs speak to what we think are some of the universal concerns we all have on this little blue dot floating in space: fear for the future of our planet, the vanishing American Dream, love found and lost. We want to write songs that spread human empathy, but also make you want to sing along.

With whimsy, Americana, social commentary and very good music all part of Little Blue Dot, The New Students are doing their part to educate while they entertain, and their message is likely to spread even farther with that expansive perspective.

Independent Music Promotions