The Well Pennies are an American folk-pop music duo, formed in 2011. The band consists of husband-and-wife Bryan and Sarah Vanderpool.

History

Formation

The Well Pennies were formed in

Northborough, Massachusetts Northborough is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. The official spelling of the town's name is "Northborough," but the alternative spelling "Northboro" is also used. The population was 15,741 at the 2020 census. History ...

, later relocating to

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

, and eventually to

Des Moines, Iowa Des Moines () is the capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Iowa. It is also the county seat of Polk County. A small part of the city extends into Warren County. It was incorporated on September 22, 1851, as Fort Des Moines, ...

. Bryan and Sarah met at a coffee shop in Northborough where Sarah was working. They started out occasionally supporting each other's solo acts, before deciding to form The Well Pennies.Laura Studarus
"Discovery: The Well Pennies,"
''

Interview An interview is a structured conversation where one participant asks questions, and the other provides answers.Merriam Webster DictionaryInterview Dictionary definition, Retrieved February 16, 2016 In common parlance, the word "interview" ...

'', October 9, 2012. The band name comes from a line in the

Tom Waits Thomas Alan Waits (born December 7, 1949) is an American musician, composer, songwriter, and actor. His lyrics often focus on the underbelly of society and are delivered in his trademark deep, gravelly voice. He worked primarily in jazz during ...

song "The Fall of Troy", where he sings, "The well is full of pennies."Gary Trust
"Folk Duo the Well Pennies on Covering the Beatles & Thriving as an Independent Act,"
''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

'', January 22, 2015.

Debut EP and Endlings

The Well Pennies released their debut self-titled EP in 2012. The following year, their version of " All My Loving", a reworking of the 1964 song as a ballad, was featured on

The Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...

covers album ''Beatles Reimagined'', which also includes cover versions by

Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros is an American folk rock band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 2005. The group is led by singer Alex Ebert. The band's name is based on a story Ebert wrote in his youth, about a messianic figure named E ...

, Leftover Cuties, and others. They released their debut full-length album, ''Endlings'', on January 27, 2015, featuring acoustic instrumentation and vocal harmonies, with the uptempo lead single "Drive". The single was inspired by a road trip the Vanderpools took when moving from Boston to Los Angeles. The ''Endlings'' track "The Echo & the Shadow" is the closing theme for the Spanish television talk show ''En la tuya o en la mía''. ''

'' magazine columnist Gary Trust named ''Endlings'' one of his top three albums of 2015. In October 2015, The Well Pennies performed in Anchorage Alaska alongside the Anchorage Youth Orchestra which spurred a series of shows where the band collaborated with youth orchestras. The Well Pennies were also the opening act for

Diana Krall Diana Jean Krall (born November 16, 1964) is a Canadian jazz pianist and singer known for her contralto vocals. She has sold more than 15 million albums worldwide, including over six million in the US. On December 11, 2009, '' Billboard'' maga ...

for part of her "Turn Up The Quiet World Tour".

Murmurations and a Move to the Midwest

The Well Pennies relocated to Des Moines in the summer of 2016 after 7 years in Los Angeles and started the record label and recording studio, ''Golden Bear Records''. They signed Boston-based artist Kaiti Jones and produced the album ''Vows'' which was released November 17, 2017.Mac McDonough
"Studio Spotlight: Golden Bear Records,"
February 28th, 2019. The Well Pennies sophomore LP, ''Murmurations'' was released on February 25, 2019, featuring the single Ooh La La, which No Depression called "...folk/pop perfection". The album's second single and music video ''Oh My Blue Sky'' was premiered by

Billboard Magazine ''Billboard'' (stylized as ''billboard'') is an American music and entertainment magazine published weekly by Penske Media Corporation. The magazine provides music charts, news, video, opinion, reviews, events, and style related to the music ...

who described it as "...the joyful, try-not-to-handclap-along-you-can't 'Oh My Blue Sky' from Murmurations." The band explained, "The song was written as an encouragement for when we're feeling discouraged or worried or just struggling while we try to figure out who we are and what place we have in the world."Gary Trust
"The Well Pennies' "Oh My Blue Sky" Premiere: 'There's life and light all around us',"
''Billboard'', January 24, 2019.

Covers

During the early months of the 2020 pandemic, the band posted regular videos of cover songs, requested from fans. On October 30, they released ''Covers'', the bands 3rd full-length album. ''Covers'' was included in several "best of" lists, including from No Depression. "...The song choices are delightfully quirky and delightfully rendered, tied together only by Sarah and Bryan Vanderpool’s evident love for each selection and ability to take each somewhere surprising."Stacy Chandler
"2020’s Silver Lining? A Whole Lotta Roots Music Cover Albums,"
DECEMBER 18, 2020. The music video for ''Stressed out'' featured masked ballet dancers in popular New York City tourist locations, subsequently deserted due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

shut down.

Members

* Bryan Vanderpool – vocals,

banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and usually made of plastic, or occasionally animal skin. Early forms of the instrument were fashi ...

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

mandolin A mandolin ( it, mandolino ; literally "small mandola") is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of 8 ...

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

* Sarah Vanderpool – vocals,

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German ''Akkordeon'', from ''Akkord''—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a reed ...

Additional Live Band Members

* Tony Green – bass * Tim Weed –

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

viola The viola ( , also , ) is a string instrument that is bow (music), bowed, plucked, or played with varying techniques. Slightly larger than a violin, it has a lower and deeper sound. Since the 18th century, it has been the middle or alto voice of ...

* Christian Hogan –

drumset A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair of matching drumsticks ...

Discography

Albums

* ''Endlings'' (2015) * ''Murmurations'' (2019) * ''Covers'' (2020)

Extended plays

* ''The Well Pennies'' (2012)

Singles

* "Jingle Bells" (2012) * "Drive" (2014) * "Ooh La La" (2017) * "Wedding Song" (2018)

Compilations

* "All My Loving" on ''Beatles Reimagined'' (Community Projects, 2013)

Television soundtracks

* "Home Is In My Heart" - '' Twisted'' (

ABC Family The American cable television, cable and satellite television network that is now known as Freeform (TV channel), Freeform was originally launched as the CBN Satellite Service on April 29, 1977, and has gone through several different owners (and s ...

, season 1, episode 5, July 9, 2013) * "Home Is In My Heart" - '' Switched at Birth'' (ABC Family, season 2, episode 18, July 29, 2013) * "The Echo & the Shadow" - ''

True Blood ''True Blood'' is an American fantasy horror drama television series produced and created by Alan Ball. It is based on ''The Southern Vampire Mysteries'', a series of novels by Charlaine Harris. A reboot is currently in development. The serie ...

'' (

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...

, season 7, episode 9, August 17, 2014) * "The Echo & the Shadow" - '' The Fosters'' (ABC Family, season 2, episode 15, February 9, 2015) * "The Echo & the Shadow" - '' Switched at Birth'' (ABC Family, season 4, episode 14, September 14, 2015) * "The Echo & the Shadow" - ''En la tuya o en la mía'' (2015–16) * "Worldshaker" - '' Here and Now'' (HBO, episode 108, May 14, 2018) * "The Echo & the Shadow" - ''

Roswell, New Mexico Roswell () is a city in, and the County seat, seat of, Chaves County, New Mexico, Chaves County in the U.S. state of New Mexico. Chaves County forms the entirety of the List of micropolitan areas in New Mexico, Roswell micropolitan area. As of ...

'' (The CW, season 2, episode 13, June 15, 2020) * "Jingle Bells" - '' Deliver By Christmas (2020 Film)'' (Hallmark, Oct 25th, 2020) * "Ooh La La" - ''

Atypical ''Atypical'' is an American comedy-drama television series created by Robia Rashid for Netflix. It focuses on the life of 18-year-old Sam Gardner ( Keir Gilchrist), who is on the autism spectrum. The first season was released on August 11, 201 ...

'' (Netflix, season 4, episode 10, July 9, 2021)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Well Pennies Musical groups established in 2011 Musical groups from Massachusetts Musical groups from Los Angeles Musical groups from Des Moines, Iowa American pop music duos American folk musical groups Folk music duos Married couples Male–female musical duos 2011 establishments in Massachusetts