Justin Evans follows a long family tradition in American country music. According to Ben Gerrard of Flagpole Magazine, Evans’ “grandfather was a singer and guitar player during the Great Depression who played with the likes of Gid Tanner and various traveling medicine shows earning money for his family back home.”
He has an immediately recognizable voice – the kind that most people tend to love or hate. Think Dylan, Waits, and Young. Per Gerrard, Evans has a “strikingly unique deep and husky, yet gentle voice” which he uses to explore “classic Americana themes with solid lyricism and beautiful melodies. Here are songs of the road, late nights in the bars, whiskey and black coffee, hard rains, hard women, and long desires.”
Poison Peaches is reminiscent of a slow country waltz. The Heart of New Orleans tells a story of romance and life by the river. The bluesy saxaphone in The Heart of San Francisco sends one daydreamming of nights by the sea in California. The lyrics of Muscadine wine are something like a spiritual song of pain, of losing hope, and yet finding peace at the end of the road. The fiddle playing in Mercy’s Roadhouse is also quite enjoyable.
As Gerrard notes, Evans’ voice certainly suits the style of country blues that he sings. His guitar playing is uncluttered and allows space for the unusual instrumentation found on The Owls & The Hounds (available now from Cowboy Angel Music). Unusual for country that is. The saxaphone and piano arrangements create a unique sound that is distinct from the guitar twang so many country music fans have become accustomed to.
Like many newer country artists, Evans is doing his best to take old traditions in new directions, and he assembled an all-star cast to pull it off. Recorded and produced by AJ Adams (Kinky Waikiki, The Granfalloons, ex-Blueground Undergrass) at his Troubadour Den Studios, the record is graced by David Blackmon (Curley Maple, Widespread Panic) on fiddle, Tommy Somerville (Squat, The Granfalloons) on saxophone and piano, Carlton Owens (Stewart & Winfield, Kinky Waikiki) on drums, and Adams on bass and guitars.
Overall, I would highly recommend this album to anyone who enjoys country and easy listening bluesy style music. He is very talented and I look forward to his next album.
