Jordan Gonzalez/The Pit
[dropcap]W[/dropcap]hen most people think of Cleveland and Akron, Ohio, musicians, they’ll immediately think of The Black Keys. Those who are more serious music fans might know Kid Cudi, Machine Gun Kelly and Nine Inch Nails also hail from the Cleveland/Akron area, to name a few more.
While Cleveland has certainly made its mark in the rock and rap world, not many think of it as a folk-rock city. Perhaps that’s part of what makes Cleveland/Akron-based indie-folk band Bethesda so unique.
Bethesda is a complex mix of acoustic, indie and folk. Esquire Magazine gave them a shout-out around their performance at Bonnaroo 2012, noting that “not every band from Akron sounds like the Black Keys,” but that “some, in fact, sound like a female-led Decemberists.”
Such a comparison is fair, as well as comparisons to the Avett Brothers, Mumford and Sons and other folk-infused indie-rock bands. But pigeonholing them into cliché comparisons wouldn’t be fair since they have their own unique twist to the folk and indie-rock genres.
They are chock full of foot-stomping rhythm changes, spunky acoustic riffs and cheerful fiddling. Add on toppings such as banjos and xylophones and lead singer Shanna Delaney’s sharp, high-rising vocals and it’s quite a unique combo.
“We really just love to throw things to the wall. We want to do what’s best for the song and see what comes out,” Delaney said.
Neither Delaney nor Ling envisioned a folk band originally. Ling was into stuff like Bright Eyes and Elliott Smith, while Delaney focused on musical theater growing up. After meeting in Kent State University and finding the future members of Bethesda at their church (including original bassist Dan Corby), they decided to start the band before they got married.
Around this time they started getting into Sufjan Stevens and other folk bands, said Delaney, and they mixed Ling’s love for indie-rock with Shanna’s bluegrass roots (she was raised listening to bluegrass) and vocals, which she said “lend more to folk.” They’ve since they’ve added violinist Estee Beasley and guitarist/banjoist Alan Walker to the lineup, which seems to have added to their folksier vibe in their latest album, “The Reunion.”
Bethesda is a band of contrasts. They have rocked indie-pop, complete with a touch of some electronic vibes and tangy riffs, as well as folk-rock, featuring fiddling and hand-clapping. Delaney’s vocals, which are high-pitched, clearly enunciated, and tremulous (and often soaring into a growl) attract like a magnet to Ling’s softer and richer backup vocals.
But perhaps their most intriguing contrast comes in the relationship with their lyrics and their tunes, which often feature serious and sometimes tragic circumstances to a backdrop of peppy melodies.
The song “The Reunion,” for example, is about Ling’s grandfather dying. It starts off slow, but quickly escalates into an upbeat, happy sounding song. While such a stark contrast might seem almost irreverent, Delaney explained it goes along with the theme of the album “The Reunion” – finding the joy that comes out of darkness. The songs “The Reunion” and “Fit to Leave” (which deals with the passing of her brother) offer hope in that they muse about reuniting one day.
Following on the theme of reuniting is the song “Go,” which is a story about a Ugandan mother who was separated from her kids for 12 years and finally gets an opportunity to go see them again.
In general their lyrical content (Ling is the main lyricist) consists of stories, both personal and those of friends, that deal with faith, nature, magical realism (a favorite topic of theirs), and day-to-day life struggles.
The last few months have been tough for Bethesda, Delaney said. They lost their original drummer due to family commitments, and since then they trained three drummers who all quit in a month’s time.
To make matters worse, lead singer Shanna Delaney, said they had to cancel their upcoming summer tour, and they almost canceled their performance at the Cleveland Museum of Art for Cleveland Foundation Day, a local festival, in early May.
Despite their unplanned circumstances, they pulled together, dismantling a drum kit and having all the members pitch in with improvised percussion.
“I think once we get used to it, it’s [going] to be ok,” Delaney said.
She admitted she is worried about the bands future. It’s their baby, she said, and they’ve endured blood, sweat and tears for seven years (literally blood because one time she was accidentally hit with Ling’s guitar while performing). But she said the band isn’t going to quit – they will instead adjust.
“You can only do so much when someone falls out of thin air,” Delaney said. “But even then we were like we’ll just keep going, [maybe] start a singer-songwriter duo, start playing around with some sounds and noises, maybe drum machines, keys, things like that and start reimagining the sound.”
She also thinks her marriage to guitarist and back-up singer Eric Ling has helped.
“Music is like a marriage in itself, too, it’s like a give and take,” Delaney said. “When we first started music it was much like starting a marriage, learning how to give and take and it definitely wasn’t smooth.”
For now they may be going through a rough patch while they juggle the band’s future with their jobs (both Ling and Delaney are high-school teachers), but Delaney said it would take something drastic to stop them.
“We never give up,” she said. “You’d have to pretty much throw us off a roof or something, which is why we’ve been able to stay together for seven years. We love what we do.”
They cite Good Old War, The Decemberists, The Arcade Fire, Feist, and Sufjan Stevens as some of their influences.
Check them out on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter (@bethesdaband) and Instagram (@bethesdamoments).
