By Mark C. Horn

Every once in a great while, a new female voice comes to the fore which rises above the din of sameness proliferating the worlds of rock, country and folk music.  In the vein of Patsy Cline, Janis Joplin, Joan Jett, Chrissie Hynde, Karen Dalton, Syd Straw and Lucinda Williams, Erika Wennerstrom, the lead singer and songwriter, is such a strong talent.

In an era where marketable form has become more a priority than original substance, Wennerstrom cut her teen rock’n'roll teeth in her native Dayton, Ohio on the sounds of local original breakout bands, and now she has definitively arrived on the national stage.  It is that unique melodic voice which Wennerstrom brings to Cleveland’s Beachland Ballroom next Thursday, July 22, with her band Heartless Bastards.

The band, which has released three highly acclaimed albums since 2005, is hitting the road again before heading back into the studios to record its fourth album later this summer.  Only for the first time will it be traversing the country as the headliner, where Minneapolis’ Peter Wolf Crier and American Gothic band Builders and Butchers from Portland, OR will open for the Bastards.

From a very early age the shy Ohioan was into a variety of music from R&B to jazz to country to punk to alt-rock and classic rock.  Her first vocal inspirations came from childhood when her single mother would play recordings of Ray Charles, Otis Redding and Aretha Franklin, to name a few.  As a teenager in the ’90s, she found Joan Jett and Iggy Pop and the Stooges, along with being inspired by fellow Daytonians Guided By Voices, The Breeders, The Amps and Brainiac who played her local haunts.

“My voice might sound unique because I am not trying to emulate one or two singers,” Wennerstrom notes.  ”I get inspired by 50 different singers.  I was always drawn to those styles because they have a lasting sound.  I feel that a lot of the stuff from the ’90s sounds dated.”

But she is quick to admit, “Some of my favorite bands are from that era, too.  Bands like The Pixies, My Bloody Valentine and GBV sound timeless to me.  I am a product of listening to hundreds of different bands.”

Her pitch and volume mix with an ability to undulate her voice and break up single syllables into two.  Her voice is like a strong reed that bends in the wind – it bends, yet never breaks.

While the media is hard-pressed to find a female influence to match Wennerstrom’s style, it is a list of classic male singers she is more inclined to emulate and pattern, but again, not just one.

“I see my voice as a product of having listened to like 50 different singers, well, maybe 50 is a lot,” Wennerstrom shares.  I am influenced by a number of singers; from Wire to Otis Redding to Iggy Pop to Ray Charles to Robert Plant.

“On the first album, I was very inspired by and the song ‘When the Levee Breaks’; ‘The Will Song’ (from the Heartless Bastards first album Stairs and Elevators) was my take.”

Her first group was an all girls band called Shesus.  The band played locally and was beginning to not only gain regional popularity but sign to a record deal.  It was at this time Wennerstrom left to form Heartless Bastards.  Within three months of she had a demo ready to be distributed to find a label.

The band’s name was inspired, as it has been well-written about, when Wennerstrom saw a Mega Touch trivia game at a bar in which she was working.  One of the questions was to name Tom Petty’s backing band.  One of the incorrect answers was “Heartless Bastards”.  Wennerstrom found that amusing and later decided to take the name for her own new band.

The 5-song demo, essentially a solo project for Wennerstrom at the time, was recorded in December 2002 at Ultrasuede Studios by Shannon McGee and featured Wennerstrom on guitar, piano and vocals.  Her band initially included Dave Colvin on drums, along with contributions from Reuben Glaser on lead guitar and Jesse Ebaugh on bass.

After the demo was recorded, Heartless Bastards became a four-piece band with Wennerstrom , Colvin, Adam McAllister on bass and Michael Weinel on lead guitar.  They played their first live show at The Comet, a bar in the Cincinnati community of Northside, in August , 2003.  After parting ways with Colvin, McAllister and Weinel, the group reformed as a three piece with Kevin Vaughn on drums and Mike Lamping on bass.

The fate of many a band can often be linked to one small event or instance that separates local bar regular to national prominence.  Such was the case with Heartless Bastards. On one of many regional tours in 2003, the band was to play a gig at Akron’s former Lime Spider (now Lockview).  After seeing that there was as few as four people attending the show, Wennerstrom says they were given an out from Lime Spider owner Danny Basone, a former area punk drummer.

“It was kind of funny that night we played.  He (Basone)) walked up and he had money out, and he said, ‘You know, you guys don’t have to play.  I can just pay you.’  We said, ‘Well, we kind of like playing, and we drove four hours to get here.’

“If anything, it’s a great warm-up for the rest of the tour.  It was just a four or five-date tour we had lined up.  We were like, ‘Well, can we play?’  We got him to let us play, and Patrick Carney walked in about halfway through the set.”

Carney’s band the Black Keys had played with Heartless Bastards in Newport Kentucky several months prior.  Erika gave Carney a homemade demo to help promote the band’s efforts to find a label.

Meanwhile, Fat Possum Records (The Keys’ label at the time) had actually been emailing the band, showing interest in signing them.  The emails from Fat Possum had been going to her junk mail, and so she was unaware of the label’s level of interest.  One computer’s junk mail turned out to be the Heartless Bastards treasure to be.  Erika got home that night from bartending and discovered that Fat Possum had sent one last email to reach out to the band.

“I’d liked to think if we kept playing, something would happen eventually.  But that was certainly fate and luck to say that we would (be interested in signing).  Touring can be tough without a label.”

As it was, the band was signed to Fat Possum in 2004 and its first album, Stairs and Elevators, followed in 2005.  For a debut album, it rivaled those of more accomplished bands of the time, and Wennerstrom’s raw and strong vocals was earning a place in the boys club of the male-dominated rock genre.

The album was in-your-face, straight edge rock’n'roll akin to Iggy Pop, T-Rex, Ramones, GBV or Led Zeppelin.  Wennerstrom’s vocals are raw and relentless with a backdrop of hard-driving drums and guitar.  It garnered the band some notice, from Rolling Stone to the Village Voice.

Having let the rock animal out of the box, Wennerstrom now focused on musicianship.  Cut back were the buzz guitar licks and rumbling drum beats.  The result was the band’s second release, All The Time, in 2006.

The sophomore release was more introspective, even hypnotic, and definitely more refined.  The band kept an undercurrent of serious rock, but with a country and near psychedelic feel.  While some found the album to be a departure from the harder, raw Stairs and Elevators, Wennerstrom was simply spreading her musical wings.

It was after the album that Wennerstrom broke off an 11-year relationship with bass player Mike Lamping.  Feeling she had begun to accomplish what she was setting out to do musically; she felt the need to move out of Cincinnati and re-root someplace new.

“Mike and I still play together but it was really hard to play those shows.  I think we were going to drive ourselves crazy if we continued playing together.  We have a lot of the same friends.  It was very hard living in the same town.”

She decided on Austin, Texas.  Wennerstrom not only has family there, but Mike McCarthy (who produced the band’s third and most recent album, 2009′s The Mountain) lives there as well.

“I really love Austin.  When I moved there, I was originally planning on moving back to Cincinnati but I really fell in love with the town.”

With a new environment, distance from her old relationship and a fresh lease on life, Wennerstrom wiped the slate clean and re-inserted original drummer Dave Colvin and bass player Jesse Ebaugh.  Austin native, guitarist Mark Nathan, is also touring with the band, which began to truly broaden its sound even more with its third effort.  Wennerstrom added banjo, violin, mandolin and steel guitar, all influences of her new more folksy, country rock digs in Austin.

So inspired by the hip Texas town’s musical community, Heartless Bastards showcased its energetic sound in June of 2009 on the Austin City Limits, as a part of the show’s 35th anniversary.  This was not the first time, however, that Heartless Bastards had put their stamp on a more southern rock sound.  Back in 2004, they played with guitar slinger James McMurtry, son of novelist Larry McMurtry.  The session was recorded and released as Live in Aught–Three.

Until 2010, Heartless Bastards has been touring as an opening act.  For Stairs and Elevators, the band opened for Drive-By Truckers.  For All The Time, for Lucinda Williams.  For The Mountain, the band spent all of 2009 canvassing the country for new fans, opening for The Black Keys, Andrew Bird, Jenny Lewis and Wolfmother.  The band even travelled to the UK to play in All Tomorrow’s Parties showcase in Europe curated by The Breeders. But it was all by design as Wennerstrom wanted to build a following slowly and organically.

To supplement tour stops, earlier this year, the band got some national attention playing on Late Show with David Lettermen, Jimmy Kimmel Live! and MTV Iggy, which showcases break-through bands.

“Writing songs is definitely a challenge for me.  I don’t feel pressure from the outside world.  I just try to create, in my eyes, the best thing we’ve ever done.

“Melodies are constantly in my head.  I could be at the grocery store in the diary aisle and there comes a song that pops out of my head.  Because its melodies that come first, it’s always a challenge to have the words and express what I want to say to the same rhythmic patterns of the melodies.  I’m always thinking of Shel Silverstein’s ‘Ickle Me, Pickle Me, Tickle Me Too’ song.”

Wennerstrom doesn’t consider herself prolific when it comes to songwriting lyrics.  Yet her lyrics are clear and honest.  She sings of heartbreak, getting back on her feet, introspection and often her songs are unlike many songwriter’s, which craft a song to have two meanings, one more universal and one more personal.

“With each album I try to create something different.  I just write songs I believe in and hope people respond to them.  I think the moment I try to do the right thing to what I think other people are gonna like, then I am not doing it for myself.”

The current tour this summer, a 28-show tour is a precursor to the next album, which Wennerstrom has already begun writing.

Whether she is writing hard-driving rock numbers, ballads or blues songs, Wennerstrom works diligently on her art as a songsmith, and she does it unapologetically.

“I do feel musically I wear my heart on my sleeve, but there is a part of me I want to keep for myself.  Sometimes they (her songs) will have two meanings, but they are part of my life and I would never say directly the things that are hidden underneath.  It would be a little too personal.”

There is one thing that remains, whatever style comes across in the group’s newest album, and that is that Wennerstrom will dance the edge of universal and personal tales with an unabashed, working class appeal that continues to stretch the boundaries of heartfelt music that only such Bastards could produce.

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