Delilah DeWylde will bring her rockabilly sounds to Grand Marais on Friday, July 17. (Anthony Norkus Photography)
By Briana Rupel
Beacon Correspondent
Nobody ever would have guessed that Delilah DeWylde would one day be synonymous with what she calls a “combustible formula” of hard, steel-guitar driven country and good ol’ fashioned rock ’n’ roll, but today she remains a key player in the Michigan rockabilly/psychobilly scene.
“I never knew anyone that played rock music growing up,” DeWylde said, “and I never really saw live music until I moved to Grand Rapids after high school.”
DeWylde grew up in Zeeland, Michigan, a city settled by Dutch immigrants that she said was quite conservative. She was raised on her parents’ vinyl — a collection including The Beatles, Motown records, Bowie, Santana and Johnny Winter, to name a few. But her influences are all over the place, from 1940s western swing and jump blues to the surf music that was revived in the 1990s.
“I’m Gen X, so I also have a huge soft spot for ’80s new wave/alternative like Echo and the Bunnymen, The Smiths, The Psychedelic Furs, Bauhaus and Simple Minds,” she said.
This conglomeration of musical influences was the catalyst for what was to come.
“Seeing live music really shaped the music that I enjoy playing,” she said.
DeWylde played electric bass in her first show with an all-girl rock band, eventually evolving to the classic upright bass she still plays today. She’s been fronting her own band since 2004, playing everywhere from Nashville to New York to Colorado.
“For the Grand Marais show, you’ll see me and also my longtime guitar player Lee Harvey,” she said. “We have a tendency to lean heavy into the covers, but all of them aren’t songs that you’ve heard before.”
Listeners can expect a full immersion into the rockabilly sound and style, with some early Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly and Chuck Berry tunes, some ’60s, like Patsy Cline, and surf instrumentals. DeWylde and Harvey also play originals that are in that same upbeat vibe.
“Keeping things fun is our main priority,” DeWylde said. “I’ll talk about the background of some of the songs … and hopefully there will be some appreciation of the music history.”
The history of rockabilly, for one, is a place she would gladly start.
“Rockabilly is just the sound of early rock ’n’ roll,” she said. “It didn’t start with Elvis when he first recorded in 1954, but for purposes of white radio, that’s when it began.”
Still, she said, that great early rock only lasted until 1959.
“By then,” she said, “Buddy Holly was dead, Elvis was in the Army, Jerry Lee Lewis was disgraced worldwide for marrying his cousin’s daughter and Chuck Berry was arrested for violating the Mann Act. … However, the lasting impact the early rock had is still being felt today. It influenced all the big rockers that came along later.”
DeWylde is scheduled to perform at 7 p.m. on Friday, July 17, at the Woodland Park Pavilion in Grand Marais. Listeners can learn more about her at delilahdewylde.com.