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. ******* WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING ******* "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 deal.Some people have a knack for writing really good up-tempo, fun, novelty, stuff.Others 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 *************** REVIEWS Country Music People David Allan Good to hear again from Mike Hyland former Nashville correspondent for BBC Radio 2's Country Club, and now running a new publishing company. He tells me he's just signed up the singer-songwriter from Cambridge, Mark Evans, and I reckon he's made a very wise move. Mark received what was nothing short of a rave review from our editor Craig Baguley when he did a showcase at Taylor's club in Soho a few years back. After noting the brilliance of Mark's writing, Craig urged him to head for Nashville and parade his wares there. Mark did just that and it seems to be paying off. Mark's debut album, I Crawl Out, (recorded in Music City with the likes of the wonderful Kathy Chiavola helping out) is a classy affair indeed. Mark may not make the vocalist of the year short list but the 12 songs - all original compositions - are stunning. This is British country music talent at its finest and at least half a dozen songs have "hit" stamped all over them. I confidently expect a couple of the songs to be picked up by a major artist. Watch this space. Mark, who describes himself as a grumpy old geezer from England, tells me that it's been a bizarre year for him so far and if it continues this way he'll "have to consider giving up moaning or at least taking it to a new level! ****** Classic American Douglas McPherson Mark's blurry, slurry voice, delivered with idiosyncratic timing aver a loosely strummed acoustic guitar lets us know from the off that people like Guy Clark, John Prine, Billy Joe Shaver and maybe David Allan Coe and Steve Earle are influences. But Evans is more than a mere copyist. By the second track it’s clear he has a nicely off-kilter view of the world as he regales us with the tale of a man whose wife walks out and leaves him with a video diary of her adultery. 'I'm bluer than the movie you left playing in the VCR,’ sings Mark an a track that shames today’s sanitised Country music industry with a timely reminder that the genre has always been at its best when cracking sick jokes in the gutter of human behaviour. And Mark certainly plumbs the depths, from drug abuse to domestic violence, an album that's not far the faint hearted, but certainly worth investigating if you like a walk on the dark side of life. Indeed, Mark could almost be singing about Country’s new breed of shiny, happy singers when, on another track, he addresses an. ex with the words, 'If ever you get tired of that horse’s a** you’re kissing, came back and see what you been missing.' ******** www.altcountry.nl John Gjaltema Mark Evans has a problem. Because there’s no escaping the fact that his voice is almost identical to that of Billy Joe Shaver. The danger exists that readers knowing this fact will drop out and will think beforehand that this album won’t be very original. Which would be completely unjustified, since the opposite is true. Because Mark Evans writes excellent songs. I Crawl Out (own management) is an outstanding debut record. Twelve numbers he wrote and there’s not one flop among them. Last year Mark Evans did a song writing course in Oxford under the guidance of Darrell Scott; three months later he got on an airplane for the first time and flew to Nashville. There his qualities were recognised and soon Evans found himself in a studio recording his songs. With a couple of excellent accompanists as well. Darrell Scott (dobro) was there of course and also Mike Daly (pedal steel), Tim Lorsch (fiddle) and Rick Gordon (mandolin, dobro). Because of that sparse accompaniment and the great lyrics this album reminds a bit of Mercy by Sam Baker, also one of those debuts that cannot be praised enough. With lyrics like “I’m bluer than the movie you left playing in the VCR”, Evans proves his capability as a writer of a good country song. And that voice is, in all honesty, nothing other than convincing. ************ Country Music People Douglas McPherson Mark Evans hails from the flatlands ... of Cambridgeshire, but it could just as easily be the dusty plains of Texas. Steve Earle is a clear influence on Mark's blurry, slurry delivery which often sounds like the whine of a man in real pain. The loosely finger picked acoustic guitar accompaniment and intensely dark lyrics, meanwhile, are frequently reminiscent of David Allan Coe, especially on the snail's pace laments of I Was A Drunk and If I Only Knew Where To Start, which wallow in the deepest depths of despair. But, although the opening Pass On By owes a distinct melodic debt to Guy Clark's L.A. Freeway, it quickly becomes clear that Evans is more than a mere copyist. Having swept floors, built roads and worked in factories while completing a degree in psychology over 13 years, Evans has been both homeless and worked with the homeless as a social worker. Along the way he has seen as much of the dirty side of life as anyone deserves to and he pours his experiences into a series of songs that, while not for the fainthearted, certainly have a ring of truth about them. Better still, Evans lights up the darkest recesses of human behaviour with a sense of humour that reminds us of the days when singers like Johnny Paycheck regularly sang of scenarios so sick and tragic that the choice was either laugh or go mad. In the sprightly second track, for instance, the protagonist's ex walks out on him, not with a Dear John letter but a video of her countless sexual infidelities, leaving him, "Bluer than the movie you left playing in the VCR." By that point, Mark had won me over, and the rest of the album didn't disappoint, in terms of either the funny songs or the slow, fragile and achingly intense tracks. Cleanly recorded in Nashville, with the vocal help of Kathy Chiavola and the musical support of Darrell Scott, this is a powerful debut with the depths to withstand an awful lot of listening. *************** Mark's Story ============ 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. ***************