A sense of well-being

They call themselves The Well-beings, because they are. And because they live together in the Well-being House at Wesleyan University.

This young string band played Javapalooza on Main Street Friday night, and their charm, charisma and musicality framed the promise of an interesting band with something going on.

While the group demonstrated all the rawness of a band getting to know each other, and the instruments they are learning to love, the rawness was part of the charm. And their enthusiasm for the music was obvious. Anna, who played banjo and fiddle, explained how she discovered the banjo, and the meaning of life, which drove her on a summertime expedition to Kentucky to discover the source of the music she had fallen for. As a result, many of her songs and tunes began with the introduction, "I learned this in Kentucky from...." Emily, who is an accomplished fiddler and accordion player, discovered her ear for the music at Contra dances in the Boston area. Aliza, who doubled on uke, and euphonium (and is now learning drums), leaned toward interesting songs of her own composition, which showed an affinity for the freak-folk movement of her generation. And Josh, was steady and solid on guitar, and showed a remarkable vocal prowess as he delivered a version of "Frankie and Johnny" learned from a Doc Watson album. And with covers of songs by Stephen Merritt and Justin Timberlake (the latter, inspired by the Gourd's take on Snoop Dog's "Gin and Juice"), the Well-beings demonstrated an ability to synthesize a broad variety of genres into something they can own as their own.

Singing and playing without the benefit of a PA, and outmatched occasionally by the milk steamer in the little cafe, the band took it all in stride, enjoying the fact that they played nearly every song they knew together as a band.

I suspect that as the band learn the language of band-ness, and come to be even more proficient on their instruments, that we will see them on the stages of festivals. Maybe as soon as this summer.