MP3 Mark Evans - I Crawl Out
Songs of hilarity and heartache. "Country in the way Guy Clark is country"
12 MP3 Songs
COUNTRY: Country Folk, COUNTRY: Country Blues
Details:
A truly gifted singer-songwriter, Mark Evans has been writing songs ever since he can remember, and what he’s turning out now puts him squarely in the Kris Kristofferson - Billy Joe Shaver - John Prine category of talented tunesmiths.
His debut CD I Crawl Out was recorded in Nashville, Tennessee during the summer of 2005 and the spring of 2006.
It features Grammy nominated, ASCAP songwriter of the year, Darrell Scott.
And Kathy Chiavola - a premier voice in bluegrass and acoustic music, voted Outstanding Background Vocalist in the Nashville Music Awards having recorded with Vince Gill, Ricky Skaggs, Tammy Wynette, Kathy Mattea, Garth Brooks, Emmylou Harris, Bill Monroe and many others.
Mike Hyland Hyland Hills Music (ASCAP) Nashville. TN.
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WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING
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"Mark possesses an original, exceptional and honest voice. I am proud to be included on his new recording.”
Kathy Chiavola - Vocalist of the year -– Nashville Music Awards
“Mark''s is the best true country music I''ve heard since I moved to Nashville in 1993. It''s not a put-on; it''s the real https://www.tradebit.come people have a knack for writing really good up-tempo, fun, novelty, https://www.tradebit.comers have a knack for writing really good tear-jerker ballads. You, my friend, are equally adept at both – a truly rare quality."
Fett Producer/Chief Engineer – Azalea Music Group
"Evans’ three minute vignettes were up there with the best of them – and then some…lyrics that would yield applause for a 16th Avenue stalwart."
Craig Baguley - Country Music People magazine
"A BIG Thank You for the CD! I just got it today, and i got it goin. I laugh EVERY time I hear about the Manoeuvre with the seven dwarfs and our old Hoover.. great stuff!"
Arlon Bennett
New Jersey USA
"Have received CD. What can I say? I thought it would be good and it is. Your CD is more raw than I was expecting (raw as in harrowing – I hope all these things didn''t happen to you personally) but as a piece of work, I think it''s outstanding. I love Bluer Than The Movie and See What You Been Missing. I Crawl Out hasn''t been out of my head all last week."
Nigel Cammegh
Windsor UK
"Regardless of genre, this is one of the finest examples of the songsmith''s art it has been my pleasure to buy. Outstanding."
Andy Bailey
Cambridge UK
"This long journey and fields of moving storys upon this top album, you are surely going to enjoy, Mark has a voice set out for the Country scene! you won`t be able to get enough!.
(fantastic LIVE to!)"
Mike Snell
Stevenage UK
"Mark Evans is a lyrical genius. A pure and honest sound. Seriously man! I love your lyrics and your voice is awesome in the songs...''I was a drunk'' for example! I love you! :D"
Luke Bage - Ely - UK
"I listen to your music everyday now. I can relate so much to ''I Crawl out'' thanks for putting your heart in music. You must have been in so much pain when you did it. I think it could be a hit in its own right (not just in country but in mainstream charts)"
Nick Foster - Girton - UK
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Mark''s Story
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A truly gifted singer-songwriter, Mark Evans is a most unlikely country music devotee. He’s been writing songs ever since he can remember, and what he’s turning out now puts him squarely in the Kris Kristofferson - Billy Joe Shaver - John Prine category of talented tunesmiths.
Born in Kent, England, Mark grew up listening to his mother’s country records. “When I was little, I found this EP with a picture of a cowboy on the cover. It turned out to be a four song disc by Hank Williams and I just couldn’t believe that voice and the things he had to say,” says Mark. “I didn’t know anything about songwriting, but I knew that’s what I wanted to do.”
He started writing poems and songs and keeping a record of his life from as far back as he can remember. He also tried to listen to as much country music as he could find. “We even bought a record off the television called ‘Country Comfort’ that featured Johnny Cash and a bunch of other country stars. People thought it was a little weird for a young boy to like that country music, but I didn’t mind, it spoke to me,” said Mark.
He wanted a guitar but wasn’t allowed to have one. “People like us don’t have guitars,” he was told. So he saved his money and finally got one when he was around 13 or 14. He taught himself to play and began immediately making up songs. “That’s where the fun was, making stuff up!”
At age 15 and totally bored with school, Mark dropped out and took on a succession of manual labor jobs. “I was out of my element at school. The work was so easy and my mind would wander all over the place,” Mark said. He started working construction jobs, roadwork, street sweeping and basic factory jobs, something to earn a living as well as to stay occupied.
He went to open university for two years and then began a four-year psychology course at Middlesex University. He interned at the prestigious Applied Psychology Research Institute in Cambridge, and eventually completed his four-year degree in a mere 13 years.
“I would get sidetracked from time to time, so it took me a while to get through the course. But I did get a Bachelor of Science Honors Degree in the end.”
And with his degree, Mark began selling pet supplies, doing some road building and handling a little social work on the side. He also worked for a non-profit organization aiding the homeless. “I loved doing that work and truly enjoyed the people, but you reach a point where you can’t do it anymore, you just get burned out.”
However, all of those experiences helped to create the songs that were swirling around in Mark’s head. “I’ve got notebooks and notebooks of songs, song ideas and just notes that I’ve gathered over the years from the people that I’ve come in contact with,” admits Mark. “A lot of my songs are based on experiences of the people I’ve met and befriended over the years. Surely, you can’t believe that these songs are based solely on my life!”
His turn toward a full time career in music took place in April 2005 when he attended a songwriting seminar in Oxford (England) put on by Sore Fingers Summer Schools and led by Darrell Scott. Scott, the 2002 ASCAP Songwriter of the Year has written hits for Garth Brooks, the Dixie Chicks, Travis Tritt, Sara Evans, Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, Brad Paisley, Patty Loveless and others. Additionally, he is a much in demand session musician.
Mark took the week long course, got several one-on-one sessions with Darrell Scott, as well as singer-songwriter Kathy Chiavola, who was attending as a student but had taught a vocal course at Sore Fingers the previous year. Encouraged by everything he learned at the seminar, three months later, Mark took his first plane ride and flew to Nashville to continue his education. He went to clubs, songwriter venues such as the Bluebird Café, and all the traditional honky-tonks on lower Broadway and soaked it all up.
He met as many people as he could and in a chance meeting, Mark met a music publisher who just opened his company. Sitting on a friend’s porch on a hot July evening, Mark was asked by the publisher to sing a song, and then another and another. Mark gave the publisher a disc of 12 songs that he had recorded in his kitchen back in England. The publisher’s parting words that night were “don’t sign anything with anyone until you talk to me.” A few months later, Mark was signed to a publishing deal in Nashville.
While on that first trip to Nashville, Mark Evans entered a studio and recreated his “kitchen tapes” with producer Fett. “My songs are a composite of my travels over the years,” says Mark, “and it was a thrill to record in Nashville and have both Darrell Scott and Kathy Chiavola contribute to it.”
The album, titled I Crawl Out, will be shopped to smaller labels in the States while it will have an immediate but limited release in England. Mark will begin performing throughout England and wherever the road will take him, eventually returning to the States for his third visit and a potential tour.
The old adage, “be careful what you wish for because it might come true,” is an apt saying as far as Mark Evans is concerned. A few chance meetings and an in depth seminar have proved that dreams do come true.
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The stories behind the songs...
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Pass On By
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I was homeless for a short while. The bones of this song came when I was working with homeless people. I took it to a songwriting seminar where Darrell Scott encouraged me to finish it. I sat in my car, in the rain, for a couple of nights and finished it.
Bluer Than The Movie
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I remember lying on the couch in fits of hilarity. The more times my son walked through frowning with teenage disapproval the worse it got, until he was thoroughly disgusted and I deemed it finished. I really wrote this for my own amusement but it’s the song everyone asks for when I play out. It’s kind of bizarre to hear a pub full of people singing along.
Let Me Be Gentle
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This is a true story that I still don’t understand. Not much more to say about this one.
How Low Do I Have To Go?
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This song is partly truth and partly fiction. At a songwriter’s night in a big old nightclub, the only time the sound man showed any interest in any of us was when he asked me, “What magazine exactly did you send your wife’s picture to?” I always fancied Johnny Paycheck singing this.
I Was A Drunk
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I found the first verse in an old notebook that had been kicking round for years. I kept going back to it but couldn’t get any more. In the end I tried to I follow the old advice to write what you know.
Vicious Little Memory
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Loads of people tell me this is about cats and dogs. Truth is I was watching Tasmanian Devil cartoons – he’s a fanged little creature who whizzes round causing general mayhem – I pictured the memory looking and acting the same way. I got the hook and – when I tore myself away from the cartoon channel – did a lot of rewriting on this.
Stop Saving Me
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I got the first line ‘I know what I’ve done’ then got nosey to find out what he’d done, why he’d done it, and whom he’d done it to. I never did find out exactly what went on between these two. People tell me different stories about what happened, and how that fits with their experiences.
See What You Been Missing
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This came from the old blues idea of laughing just to keep from crying. With some wishful thinking I wrote the opposite of what I was doing and feeling at the time. The chorus came complete; the verses took a lot of writing and re-writing.
If Only I knew Where To Start
I wrote this from the hook, imagining what life would be like if all the happiness I had at the time disappeared. No sooner said than done, it did. But at least I got a song out of it.
Hate You In My Sleep
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The first two lines came when I was driving. They got me thinking about Viagra - now we’ve got this technology to make us physically love people we hate, how long ‘till we have a similar a quick-fix for our emotions? And how much we’d all save in lawyer’s fees.
Daddy’s Heart
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I had a weird line in my head that I thought would never make a song. It pestered me for ages so I followed it to see where it would lead. This is where it led. The song came out pretty much as is from first to last line.
I Crawl Out
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I was lucky. I had a chance to get feedback on a song from Darrell Scott. Trouble was I was shaking so much I couldn’t play guitar, and when I tried to sing all manner of peculiar squeaks and grunts erupted. As I stomped off, sulking and raging at myself, this song fell out my head – all I did was write it down. It’s one of my favourites ‘cause it gave me some answers when I needed them, and it reminds me of Darrell’s generosity in a week that changed my life.
All songs written by Mark Evans
© 2006 Hyland Hills Music (ASCAP)