After 11 years of joyful music, performances and laughs, Grand Rapids’ popular all-female string band is calling it quits with a celebratory ‘grand finale’ on Dec. 10.
Dying Joyfully: Nobody’s Darlin’ plays its final show Dec. 10 at One Trick Pony. (Photo/Taylor Mansen)
As Sara Quashnie views it, Nobody’s Darlin’ has basked in the glow of a charmed life in its 11 years as a band.
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So with the old-timey, all-female string band hosting its final, farewell show on Thursday (Dec. 10) at One Trick Pony in Grand Rapids, there’s sadness mixed with celebration, “much joy and gratitude.”
As a Fivesome: From left, Sara Q, Becca Ling, Janet Shelby, Barb Weatherhead and Natalie Beversluis of Nobody’s Darlin’.
“We are ending on a very high note. And we all know how privileged we are to be in that spot. So many bands die badly. We will not. We will die joyfully,” said the mandolinist and singer known as Sara Q, a founding member of the band.
“We have all had amazing transformations in our personal life, and as musicians, and collectively as a band, as one. Births and deaths, and the acquisition of pets, and the comings and goings of lovers, and great food, and stupid shoes, and huge crowds of fans, and tiny little smatterings of crowds not paying attention to us, and hecklers, and driving all night, and sweating our asses off on stage, and elation, and suffering, and laughing until we cry or pee, and just life.”
With standup bassist Barb Weatherhead retiring from her day job at the end of December and spending more time in Florida, the time was right to arrange a “grand finale” for the band which also features acoustic guitarist Becca Ling and violinist Natalie Beversluis.
MUSIC ‘TO COME HOME TO’ AND GRATEFUL FOR THE COLLECTIVE EXPERIENCE
“I felt it was time to retire from the band as well. I will not be as available as I was and I felt it wasn’t fair to be only half there,” said Weatherhead, who’s been booking shows and hosting band practices.
‘We Were Safe Together’: Sara Q with Becca Ling. (Photo/Taylor Mansen)
“I will continue to play with Pete, since we will be in the same places at the same time, but I can’t book the Darlins as much as I used to. They decided not to continue in their current format, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see some new stuff coming from some of them.”
From its inception, the band has embraced the old-timey genre and American roots music. As Sara Q once put it, “We love the dichotomy of that upbeat, happy music and those fantastically tragic lyrics.”
As part of its farewell appearance at One Trick Pony, former band members and co-founders Janet Shelby (banjo) and Delilah DeWylde (guitar) will join the band for part of the show. The music starts at 8 p.m. Thursday (Dec. 10); call 235-7669 for reservations.
“We’re going to miss playing music with each other,” Beversluis conceded, “but it’s just time to move on.”
Quashnie said the band members’ original songs have reflected their experiences as musicians and friends.
“We all had this music to come home to. It was home base. We were safe here together,” she said. “I am very sad about its ending. But I am so, so grateful for everything this band has seen and done and been, and that I have been able to be a part of that.”
Read more about the band in this 2014 Local Spins Artist Spotlight.
VIDEO: Nobody’s Darlin’, “Satan’s Purse” (Local Spins Live, 2014)
Copyright 2015, Spins on Music LLC
Great article! But I play guitar in the Darlins, not bass 🙂
So noted and corrected!