Ivy Boy - Ivy Boy

Ivy Boy (aka Perry Eaton), is excited to announce the release of his debut album, Ivy Boy, out October 24. Eaton, who has worn many hats within the Boston music scene over the years, from songwriter of indie quartet Beeef to founding editor of storied local music blog Allston Pudding, finds a bit of a different tune with Ivy Boy that takes a more acoustic, indie-folk approach while still maintaining the infectious nature of resonant hooks and pop-tinged melodies. From feel-good summer anthems to pensive meditations on adulthood to sentiments pulled directly from his job as a high school English teacher, the thoughts and feelings from the record feel palpable as Eaton leans further into the singer-songwriter role. The resulting product feels at home amongst the likes of MJ Lenderman, Waxahatchee, Alex G, or villagerrr. Joining him on the journey is a cast of characters met and admired along the way.

In the spring of 2022, Eaton met Aaron Brown and Ryan Katz, who were operating a studio out of their Brighton, MA basement called Hot Take Recording Co. Not only did they end up recording and mixing the album, but they played lead guitar/bass and drums respectively. Their collective creativity is felt universally throughout the album—from the pocket rhythm section grooves to the flare of lead guitar riffs to the layers of backing vocals. Adding additional textures in the forms of piano, organ, vibraphone, and more is Elio DeLuca who recorded all of these sounds out of his own studio, The Soul Shop, in Medford, MA. Noah Leong composed and performed violin parts for a handful of tracks, providing a symphonic boost to some of the singles, and Maggie Rosenberg, vocalist, songwriter, and friend, mixed in some essential vocal touches as well. Even Ivy Boy’s own dad, Henry Eaton, a Boston music veteran in his own right, having played with ‘70s rhythm and blues stalwarts Duke and the Drivers, tags in for lead guitar duties on the album’s closer.

The singles from the album that have already been released have made an immediate splash, both in their contrast to the material from Beeef’s three albums as well as the ways that they preserve the infectious quality of much of that catalog. These singles have, among others, been featured by the likes of Pitchfork Selects, Birp.FM, Compact Cassette, Post Trash, and UpRoxx which called “Honeybee”, “a bright folky number that should soundtrack every sunny afternoon this summer.” WBUR named Ivy Boy one of the “14 albums to listen to this fall”, writing “The debut Ivy Boy LP is chock full of gently twangy and gorgeously arranged indie folk-pop gems. It’s full of memorable hooks and has moods to match every New England season.” Recently, Ivy Boy has been nominated for Best New Artist at this year’s upcoming Boston Music Awards.