MACK EVANS

LOWDOWN

2008-05-06

Mack Evans has a Ph.D. in the blues as American Literature. On this, his debut, he applies his smarts and chameleon like ability to take on different personas to 13 original, mostly acoustic tunes that mine everything from the blues to soul to stone cold country. On "Elvis When He Was Elvis," Evans reminisces about the King “before the movies and the pills” over a bluesy backdrop. When "Scotty Moore Played" features Evans in a Johnny Cash mood and gives credit to Elvis’ long time guitar player as one of his seminal influences. "Wrong" is a country style weeper which makes the Tone-Loc rap like delivery of "Shakespeer" all the more surprising. Keeping things off kilter, Evans lays down a Boz Scaggs style soul tune on "Three Between the Sheets" and seemingly channels Dylan on the blues shuffle, "T.V. Mama". "Lowdown" is a swampy Tony Joe White style number with saxophone adding just the right amount of grease to the groove. Overall, a nice change of pace for acoustic blues. Smitty

More reviews tagged #Blues

  • reviewed 04/2011

    JOHNNY AND THE MoTONES
    NOTHIN' TO LOSE

  • reviewed 09/2008

    LIZ MANDEVILLE
    RED TOP

  • reviewed 04/2009

    JOHN SCOFIELD
    PIETY STREET

  • reviewed 10/2009

    IRMA THOMAS
    THE SOUL QUEEN OF NEW ORLEANS 50 Th ANNIVERSARY COLLECTION

  • reviewed 11/2018

    LINDSAY BEAVER
    TOUGH AS LOVE

  • reviewed 10/2011

    FIONA BOYES
    BLUES FOR A HARD WORLD

Compiled by the WYCE Journalism Club

The opinions expressed in these reviews are those of the individual volunteers that submitted the article and do not necessarily reflect the views of WYCE or GRCMC; nor its staff, donors, or affiliates.