Sat 3/2 @ 8PM
This weekend, two six-piece bands from the Akron area debut new CDs with shows at Musica in downtown Akron. The two bands will share a showcase at South by Southwest in Austin in mid-March. Each has recently signed with a handful of national music-industry companies to help get their new release out. And each is now booking regional dates with an eye to eventually doing more extensive touring and making a living playing its music.
The similarities end with their sounds. While Winslow, whom you can read about here, has a big jazz/soul-influenced rock sound featuring sax and trumpet, Bethesda’s folk-based indie rock is gently exuberant, accented with fiddle and banjo. Where Winslow’s frontman Maurice Martin can stop you in your tracks, Bethesda’s lead singer and frontwoman Shanna Delaney reels you in slowly with sweet, clear, direct vocals that make you feel like she’s sharing her secrets with you.
The band — which includes Delaney’s husband Eric Ling on guitar and vocals, guitarist/banjo player Jesse Scaggs, bassist Dan Corby, drummer Justin Rife, and violin player and keyboardist Christopher Black — produces a detailed, transparent sound that dovetails with modern indie rock while adding its own personality. The band’s bio describes them as “six friends,” and that’s definitely the vibe on stage: casual, friendly and connected.
Bethesda has been hovering at the edges of the local music radar since it released its first full-length CD, Love in a Time of Tra La La, in early 2010. It followed that up with an EP, Dreamtigers and Other Tails, in spring of 2011. But last year its profile increased dramatically with shows like the Red Gorilla showcase at SXSW, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum’s Summer in the City concert in August with Sharon Van Etten, and an appearance at the Bonaroo Festival in Tennessee. Those sets earned positive notices from fans, media, and people in the music business.
That laid the groundwork for the imminent release of the group’s second CD, Reunion.
“We noticed every song we wrote for the album had something to do with people coming together,” says Delaney. “We had already written a song called “Reunion,” so reunion naturally became the theme for our album.”
With music that evokes but doesn’t slavishly ape that of many of indie rock’s icons — names like Mates of State, Bright Eyes, Bell & Sebastian, Sufjan Stevens, the Shins, and Elliot Smith come up in conversation with Delaney, often in the context of “Eric and I listened to them when we were dating” — Reunion has the potential to grow Bethesda’s fan base exponentially, building on what the base it already has.
Delaney describes the band’s evolution as more about maturing than dramatic change.
“This album is much more cohesive,” says Delaney. “The songs flow together really well, even though we do slightly different genres at different times. All of the musicians come from different backgrounds. We’ve come a long way in learning how to put a song together.”
She adds that they see the new songs as a series of short stories.
“All of our songs are based on things we’ve experienced or things other people we know have experienced,” she says. “So people can connect with them and maybe find some hope in their lives.”
Bethesda is looking forward to doing several showcases at South by Southwest, making another appearance at Cincinnati’s big Bunbury Music Festival (which it played last year) in July, and playing at Cleveland’s Burning River Festival, also in July. After some regional dates in the spring, the group is planning a two-week tour in June and hoping to do another short tour later in the summer.
“We’d like to do music as a living,” Delaney admits. “We’d like the album to be an avenue to get to do that. We want to get music out there and hope that people embrace it. As musicians you always hope to make a difference in people’s lives.”