Hard Luck Café: A COUPLE OF DUOS: Princess Peapod -and- The Whispering Tree

A Couple of Duos (LI’s own Princess Peapod and Beacon, NY’s The Whispering Tree) will be the featured performers during the monthly Hard Luck Café series co-presented by the Folk Music Society of Huntington and the Cinema Arts Centre (423 Park Avenue, Huntington), in the Cinema’s Sky Room on Wednesday, April 15, from 7-10 p.m.  An open mic, for which sign-up opens at 6:30 p.m., precedes the concert.  Tickets are $26 ($20 for Cinema Arts Centre/FMSH members) and can be purchased online at https://cinemaartscentre.org or at the Cinema Arts Centre box office now through the evening of the event.

Michele Frimmer and David Cook of Princess Peapod

Princess Peapod is a lively, Huntington-based acoustic duo featuring the rich, linen-textured vocals of Michele Frimmer and the inventive harmonies and multi-layered guitar style of David Cook. Princess Peapod combines a fresh lyrical approach with enough crunch and groove to make for third-millennium folk at its best. The husband-and-wife duo’s imaginative, often reflective, and occasionally quirky songwriting appeals to young and old alike. With their feet on the ground and heads in the clouds, David and Michele’s candid performances are a joyful expression of the moment.

Princess Peapod began casually doing a mix of folk and kitschy 1960s cover tunes. As the pair began playing the coffeehouse and bookstore circuit in the New York metro area, they developed into an astute songwriting team – able to work together in perfect sync. Princess Peapod’s critically acclaimed self-titled debut CD has been played on a number of folk and acoustic radio programs. A few live performance videos may be viewed on the duo’s website, princesspeapod.com.

Elie Brangbour and Eleanor Kleiner of The Whispering Tree

The Whispering Tree is the contemporary folk duo of singer-songwriter Eleanor Kleiner and multi-instrumentalist Elie Brangbour.  The couple have been crafting and performing richly immersive folk music brimming with evocative lyrics, haunting vocals, and a panoramic musicality since 2007. The Whispering Tree has earned a number of accolades and much critical acclaim including being selected for coveted official showcases at both Northeast and Southwest Regional Folk Alliance (NERFA and SWRFA) conferences, being Kerrville New Folk finalists, participating in the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival’s Emerging Artist Showcase, being named winners of a Philadelphia Songwriters’ Project competition, and performing on Pete Seeger and Lorre Wyatt’s A More Perfect Union.

Prior to and following the success of Invisible Forces, its fourth recording (which debuted at #1 on the International Folk DJ charts in September 2018), the duo toured extensively throughout the U.S. and Europe up until the pandemic in 2020.  After a hiatus, The Whispering Tree released its latest album, Bones of Better Days, in October 2025, which was the second-most-played album and featured the #1 song on folk radio that month, according to the monthly folk radio charts compiled by Folk Alliance International. More information and videos may be found on the duo’s website, thewhisperingtree.com.