The Whelks are a well-loved Rhode Island band. They played dozens of gigs around the state every year, featuring their signature blend of country, jazz and folk music, often in three-part harmony.
The Whelks split up a few months ago when upright bass player Erin Lobb Mason moved away. But before that, in the fall, they did one last show at Myrtle’s in East Providence. This week they’re releasing “Live at Myrtle,” a recording of that final performance. And they’re reuniting at Myrtle this Sunday for an album release party and two shows.
Fiddle player Peri DeLorenzo and guitarist Mark Dobbyn joined afternoon host Mareva Lindo in the studio recently to talk about their new album and what it feels like to end their collaboration.
Interview highlights
The difference between this album and their last studio album
Peri DeLorenzo: We had been playing all across Rhode Island, and we were doing these long three hour sets where we were playing all these covers, and we really kind of Whelk-ified them, we made them our own and we just wanted a permanent record of how we had orchestrated those songs and how we had made them in our voice and in our instrumentations. We felt bad that we made a record of our original tunes, called “Reverse Mermaid,” a few years back, and we always thought we would probably do another record down the line of our originals, but you know, with Erin having to move, we knew that wasn’t going to be in the cards, sadly, and so this was a way to kind of put out another record without the process of writing and getting into the studio necessarily.
What it means to “Whelk-ify” a song
Delorenzo: I would say tempos, like if a tune is known for being more upbeat, we might slow it down or even change the feel of it.
Mark Dobbyn: And the harmony stuff also. A lot of the tunes that we are doing are old folk songs that don’t necessarily have built-in second and third parts, but as a group, we’ve always been harmony forward, so we make up new parts, or new arrangements, or background vocals or whatever, and that sort of becomes how part of how we do it.
Their “Whelk-ified” version of “It Hurts to Be Alone,” an early, pre-reggae song by Bob Marley & The Wailers
DeLorenzo: Mark used to be in a rock steady group back when we lived in Brooklyn, and so Mark had that style in [his] pocket. And then a few years down the road with the Whelks, we were reminded of that song, we’re like, oh, we should kind of incorporate that into the Whelks.
Dobbyn: We call songs like that off-speed pitches. There is a certain thing that we kind of do naturally, which is a little bit swing, a little bit bluegrass, a little bit folk, but we’ve always tried to throw in curveballs or or change-ups or slurves, whatever pitch you want, and that’s one of them. It’s just like you wouldn’t quite expect a string trio to be hitting that one.
How they updated Blaze Foley’s “Oval Room”
Dobbyn: He wrote it about Ronald Reagan in the early 80s, I think, and frustratingly, most of the lyrics suit just fine for our day and age, much to all of our collective chagrin. There were a couple lines that were very specific to Reagan, where I just adjusted a couple words instead of calling kings and queens on the telephone, he calls the House of Saud on the telephone, and I think I call him a tangerine at one point.
DeLorenzo: One thing I love about that tune is it’s sort of like an I don’t care about you protest song, which I feel like the one thing that our president is incredibly gifted at is getting people to care about him, and so I like that. That tune is just sort of a kiss off. It’s just like he’s the president, but I don’t care. It it fits in line with our tradition of doing protest songs in general.
Dobbyn: Yeah, we would always, at every show, we would always do these two songs, “Workers Song” and “A World Turned Upside Down,” which are both pro-union, pro-labor, pro-worker songs, and we made it a point of always dedicating them to whoever we knew locally or nationally who was either on strike or about to go on strike or coming off strike or trying to organize their workforce.
What it feels like to close this chapter of their musical lives
DeLorenzo: It feels strange. This was a big part of our lives. Every weekend we were playing gigs, every week we were practicing. We put in a lot of work and love and dedication and time, and it was just a blast. It’s strange that it’s truly coming to an end with this record and with this show, but like anything that comes to an end, you know, there’s new beginnings afterwards. So, Mark and I are still playing music, we’re still in Rhode Island, but yeah, it feels good. We had a great run. It’s a good stopping point. I feel good about it.
Dobbyn: I feel like The Whelks sound was kind of a combination of everything the three of us had done previous to that. So now I think just whatever we, the three of us, do moving forward, just has The Whelks influence in it.
Where: Myrtle, 134 Waterman Ave., East Providence
When: Sunday, June 28, 1-3 p.m. [Evening show is sold out]
Details: Eventbrite
