For this week’s episode of Artscape, an interview and studio session with Rhode Island band The Whelks, an acoustic trio defined by their three-part harmonies, and a shared love of early country, swing, and Rhode Island.
Note: The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.
TRANSCRIPT:
[Music: “Time to Miss You” performed live at The Public’s Radio]
NARR: A few years ago, when singer and bass player Erin Lobb Mason moved to Rhode Island, she posted an ad on Craigslist. She was looking for people to play music with – music like old-time and bluegrass, and she said she’d bring bourbon and pie.
Erin Lobb Mason: Very first session, we just met in their yard, and it turned out we knew a lot of the same bluegrass and old-time canon, and even some of the Irish stuff overlapped. And then the originals just really came together naturally. It was so fun.
NARR: With the lure of music, bourbon and pie, she had hooked guitarist Mark Dobbyn and fiddle player Peri DeLorenzo. Mark said he realized pretty quickly that they sounded really good singing together.
Mark Dobbyn: It’s fun to sing together in three parts. … It’s at the forefront of what we do as a band. … Erin and Peri are both really fantastic, natural harmonizers. Erin always finds a quick harmony that is just natural and sounds very unaffected and appropriate for the song. Peri can sing any part that’s given to her, so she usually takes the trickiest one. And then I just fit in where I can. I can usually only do one thing on any given song.
NARR: Calling themselves The Whelks, the trio started doing gigs around the state, playing the music they loved, and writing some of their own. This September, the band releases their debut album: “Reverse Mermaid.” What exactly is a “reverse mermaid”?
Mason: It’s a fish on the top and human on the bottom. And we were just looking for something that was whimsical, little tongue in cheek, but still nautical-related. And then I had been drawing a bunch of reverse mermaids randomly on ceramics, and so I was already doing them, and we all kind of giggled when we saw it, so it worked out.
Dobbyn: Yeah, you have to – you can picture in your head, but it’s really funny to see one of them. Like the traditional mermaid is this sort of sensual, elegant, almost sexy creature. And the reverse mermaid is just lewd. Like the fish head and the human legs, really a hilarious combination.
Mason: They are grotesque.
Dobbyn: Yeah, so we all got a big kick out of it, and we made Erin do show posters with them and everything. And now they’re on the album art as well.
Mareva Lindo: Yeah, they kind of look like evolution in progress or something, but backwards.
Dobbyn: Yeah, evolution but wrong.
Lindo: So one of the songs on the new album is called “Washington St. Bridge Blues,” inspired by some local transportation woes that a lot of our listeners might be intimately familiar with. Do you want to talk a little bit about that?
Dobbyn: It’s a sort of light hearted take on the recent disaster in commuting through Rhode Island. So, yeah, it’s just about what you do when the infrastructure is falling to pieces around you. And in this case, you’re supposed to buy an inflatable car, floating inflatable car that will get you around. Anyways, it’s just sort of a jokey song, but there’s a few different tracks on the record that are, you know, Rhode Island or Rhode Island adjacent. So we try to write locally if we can.
[Music: “Washington St. Bridge Blues”]
Lindo: Another song is called “If This Were a Date.” There are a lot of songs in recent years about the ambiguity of modern dating, and this is your addition to that canon. Can you talk a little bit about that?
Mason: Yes, that was really fun to write. That song is about going out with someone and having a great time, and not being sure if you’re just friends or if you’re going to be more than friends. And each verse actually happened in some form. It’s also a little tongue in cheek.
[Music: “If This Were a Date”]
Lindo: Did you say it’s inspired by a particular experience, or a collection of life experiences that you’ve had?
Mason: Yeah, it was definitely inspired by a collection of experiences and, yeah, ambiguous dates where it’s a really good time and maybe it’ll be something more, maybe you’re just friends. I think a lot of us have been on that date.
Dobbyn: Can we say on the air which way it went?
Lindo: Please.
Mason: You know, jury is still kind of out.
Dobbyn: TBD. Stick around for the next record.
Lindo: Any other songs you’d like to highlight?
Dobbyn: Yeah, we wrote a tune about our favorite band meetup spot in Warren, Rhode Island, which is a little bar on Water Street. It’s called Jack’s, and we encourage you not to go, because it’s just for us. So don’t make it a crowd. But anyways, it’s one of the last bars around where typically there is no music being played. You just got to show up and chat with the bartender and whoever else is sitting at the bar with you. So we kind of wrote an ode to that, that old style of tavern where people actually still show up just for the chat.
[Music: “Jack’s Bar” performed live at The Public’s Radio]
That’s The Whelks performing in our studio, featuring Peri DeLorenzo on fiddle and vocals, Mark Dobbyn on guitar and vocals, and Erin Lobb Mason on upright bass and vocals. Their new album, “Reverse Mermaid” comes out in September, and they’re doing a free record release show at Nick-a-Nee’s in Providence on Saturday, Sept. 14 at 5 p.m. Go to whelkswhelkswhelks.com for more information.
Got a question, comment or suggestion for Artscape? Email us at arts@thepublicsradio.org.