San Luis Obispo's Shadowlands makes music, magic
When Bob and Wendy Liepman – known locally as the San Luis Obispo folk duo Bob and Wendy – first met their future bandmates, they were smitten.
“We started listening to their albums and we loved them immediately,” Bob Liepman said of married singer-songwriters Mark Davis and Karoline Hausted. “We started writing (together) and having dinner at each other’s houses.”
It was only a matter of time before the four decided to form a band that blends ethereal folk-pop with Californian and Scandinavian influences.
Shadlowlands performs Sunday at D'Anbino Vineyard and Cellars in Paso Robles. The band is also slated to play June 20 at Live Oak Music Festival in northern Santa Barbara County, marking its second appearance at the popular outdoor music festival.
The members of Shadowlands can trace their band’s formation to a mutual friend, musician Brett Perkins.
Hausted met Davis, her future husband, in 2002 in her native Denmark at a songwriting retreat organized by Perkins. The two reconnected eight years later at another Perkins-organized event.
Three and a half years ago, Hausted moved to Los Angeles, where the couple wed.
“After a year, I was telling Mark that I didn’t think I could live there all my life,” she said, so he started searching for other California cities they could call home.
They picked San Luis Obispo “on a whim,” Davis said. “We loved being here … right from the start.”
Perkins introduced the couple to the Liepmans. As luck would have it, they live less than a mile from each other.
“Once we found them, we said, ‘They’re ours. We’re not going to share them with anybody,’” Bob Liepman joked.
Although the quartet originally toyed with the name The Grownups, they settled on Shadowlands — the title of the haunting first track on their eponymous debut album, which was released Jan. 31.
Wendy Liepman said the name was inspired by the ancient Greek myth of Persephone, who is stolen away from her mother, Demeter, goddess of the harvest, by Hades, god of the underworld.
“Shadowlands is when creativity goes underground,” she explained. “It’s winter and you don’t know if creativity is going to sprout again, but it does.”
All four band members share songwriting duties, with Wendy Liepman and Hausted specializing in lyrics and Davis and Bob Liepman handling arrangements. The two women take turns at the microphone along with Davis.
In addition, Hausted plays piano, keyboard, cymbals, organ and glockenspiel, while Davis plays acoustic and electric guitar and ukulele. They’re joined by Bob Liepman on cello and mandocello.
“I describe it as four kids in a sandbox, but none of us is fighting with each other,” Bob Liepman said.
Davis agreed.
“There’ve been many times when I’ve tried to collaborate with people and it doesn’t really gel,” he said.
In the case of Shadowlands, “None of us really has a strong ego when it comes to music,” Davis said. “We’re all fluid, or flexible, in terms of where it ends up going.”
The quartet recorded “Shadowlands” at Laurel Lane Studios in San Luis Obispo, working with producer and Central Coast music scene stalwart Damon Castillo.
Wendy Liepman said much of the album was inspired by nature, mythology and literature.
The song “Selkie Girl” had its beginnings in “The Secret of Roan Inish” by Rosalie K. Fry, while the bluegrass-tinged “River Song (Part of the Landscape)” was inspired by Willa Cather’s “O Pioneers!” The wistful melody for “Billy Walker” emerged from one of Hausted’s dreams.
Another track, “Restless Mind,” won song of the year at the New Times Music Awards in August.
“Partially because we had financed (the album) with Kickstarter, we were not as concerned with the clock ticking,” said Bob Liepman, whose band raised $12,260 last year through a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign. “It allowed us to take our time in the studio and create this album that people love.”
In particular, he said, Shadowlands has received strong support from public radio station KCBX, Songwriters at Play organizer Steve Key and Peter Steynberg, owner of the Steynberg Gallery in San Luis Obispo. Steynberg gave Shadowlands a regular, six-month-long showcase last year to work out new material.
“Right away, we have this community that’s supportive of us,” Davis said. “It’s awesome, and it was kind of effortless on our part.”
Shadowlands
2 p.m. Sunday
D'Anbino Vineyard and Cellars, 710 Pine St., Paso Robles
227-6800 or http://danbino.com
This story was originally published May 27, 2015 at 11:46 AM with the headline "San Luis Obispo's Shadowlands makes music, magic."