The New Age Adenas are scheduled to perform this evening at 7:30 p.m. at the Black Sheep Vineyard.
Each of them was already making music.
Eric Wellman played guitar and was a vocalist for The Rust Belt Orphans. Mary Blake was singing lead for The Fossils in the Steubenville area. Greg Pawlack was playing his mandolin with the Robin & Eddie group before the namesakes moved away to Florida.
Somehow, each of them – and none of them are really sure how – ended up Adenas.
A whattas?
“The band is named after the Native Americans that constructed the Moundsville Mound,” explained Blake. “That’s a pretty awesome thing to do, so it’s a lot to live up to, right?”
Blake explained something about the members of the Adena Tribe building the Grave Creek Mound in Moundsville and how that makes it really important the band lives up to the greatness of the Native American burial ground.
The historic mound is definitely impressive at 62 feet high and 240 feet in diameter, but 1894 years ago all archaeological evidence was destroyed by vandals who tunneled into the burial ground.
“It would really cool to know how it was built and who it was constructed for, but I guess we really never will,” Wellman said. “But no matter, it’s a great piece of history, so why not?”
Two Plus One
If you ask Eric, the unofficial spokesman and band leader for the New Age Adenas, to tell the story about how the trio came to be, it’s a tale that begins with love, romance, and harmony.
“There really isn’t a good explanation about how we all came together. When Mary and I met, we knew we were going to be together when we could be, so that was a part of it, but when we added Greg, it just clicked. It made sense,” Wellman recalled. “So, when we could, we started to play with each other, and then other things transpired, and now it’s the three of us.
“We do duos, Mary and I do solo gigs sometimes,” he said. “But we’re always at our best when it’s all three of us.”
Pawlack, a man of few words during the group’s many shows, was in the right place at the right time.
“At least it ends with me joining, too,” Pawlack said with a laugh. “It worked out perfectly because my friends were getting ready to move to a warmer climate, and I was staying here in the Valley, so when Eric and Mary were ready to add a third person, I was ready.
“I guess I’m the quiet one,” he said. “That’s fine with me.”
Finding the Groove
There were albums – real vinyl LP (extended play) records – spewed all over his parents’ living room floor when he was a child growing up in Marshall County, and they would sing, and they would dance, and Eric would join them.
“To this day,” Wellman said, “I believe that’s why I dance so much, even if it’s just in my head.”
That is one of a few reasons why when the New Age Adenas take the stage, one immediate piece of business is sizing up the audience to determine whether or not their original songs are appropriate.
“It’s OK when we are playing in front of a crowd that doesn’t really want to hear originals because we know sometimes there are people who want to be part of the show,” Wellman said. “We love that, too. We love when people decide they want to sing along with us.
“We have our favorite songs, too, so when we play those, most of the people in the audience know the words, and they sing along,” he said. “When we see that it’s a crowd like that, we just keep singing the hits, and those folks just keep singing along with us. It’s a true blast.”
There are those nights, though, when Wellman originals “City of Lights,” “My Hometown,” “Dreaming in Blue,” and a few others make the playlist so these Adenas can shiver even the prehistoric in their final resting places.
“I pick up my guitar every day and sometimes a new song just comes, and sometimes a song doesn’t. It really doesn’t depend on anything, really,” Wellman explained. “I don’t choose the story. The story chooses me,” Wellman said. “If it’s in me, it’s going to find its way out. That’s really all I can say.
“I’ve wondered why my originals just come to me the way they do, but there’s no changing it now,” the singer/songwriter added. “As long as Mary and Greg like what they hear when I take the song to them, well, that’s when it becomes ours.”
