I'm excited for you. I'm much you care about it. I'm very excited for you to do this. I probably remind you every few weeks.
Stay Steve. Have you done it yet? Yeah. Hello and welcome to WNC Original Music, episode 187, the Triacus Tetrahedron episode.
This week on the podcast, part two of the return of Stephen Evans, of Stephen Evans and the True Grits. Stephen is talking about his album, Buzz of Bees, a really great album. Go and listen to the review that Alison Price, our resident reviewer, did for the album. Really great album.
Also, you might notice through just a random series of circumstances, I'm recording this in a rainstorm outside. So if you hear some rain, that might be why. So if you do hear a little noise in the background, just remember that is relaxing rain. Just just enjoy it.
Go with it. Maybe some traffic. You can find Stephen Evans or Stephen Evans in the Triacus at StephenEvansMusic.com. You can also download his music on Bandcamp and Apple Music.
I'll go to his website and the show notes for more information. Here is Stephen Evans. This was interesting because I wrote this song really quickly after I saw one of those Star Wars knockoff movies. This one was a Han Solo story, I guess it was called.
I just really grew up with Star Wars. It brought me back to, especially because Chewbacca is all over this film. It was my favorite character when I was a kid. It just brought me back to those days.
I was thinking a lot about those days when I was a kid and I had all these fantasies wanting to be a cowboy, wanting to be a rock star because my dad was a musician. Having all these super fantastical ideas about what I wanted to be. And how you never really grew out of that completely. Yeah.
Because you still, when I go to see this movie, I'm like, oh, that would have been fun to be. A Jedi or live in that kind of world. And so yeah, this song is about just being a kid and wanting to be amazing and all these things that are pretty much impossible. A lot of them.
But that's basically it. No, but you didn't recommend Star Wars for your movie. I know. How dare you.
I was trying to think more modern. Yeah. Yeah. What do you think is the best non-original trilogy movie?
Non-original trilogy? Yeah. You know, the first three movies, Star Wars. From the Star Wars?
Right. So obviously they were the best three movies, but other recent movies, what's the best one in the past? I think I was mostly entertained by the last one. Oh, non-chillogy?
Yeah. Any Star Wars movie that's not the original, not Star Wars ever starts back or... Oh, right. Like I would say my favorite I think was Rogue One.
Yeah, I'll agree with you there. I was thinking in trilogy four, for some reason. But yeah, Rogue One definitely was the best, like from beginning to end, good movie. Very well done.
I don't have Disney, so I haven't seen any of the series. So I'm just gonna get that when I retire and just watch it. They'll be the first day of retirement I'll just start watching. I recommend the Mandalorian for sure.
Yeah. That's Kate, um, me and Brian. Yeah, she wrote that for me. Asked her to do an intro to Estefania.
Oh, okay. And that's the intro. It's just her playing violin. I asked for like a dark and sexy, intriguing intro, and she played it.
I wrote an amazing intro for that song. And I gave her, you know, I wanted to make sure it was a separate track, because I wanted to give her all the credit and any airplace she might get from it. Oh, yeah. Yeah, it sounds really good.
Yeah. She said it means ornament, ornamental, I agree, the word. Does she play live with you guys sometimes? Yes.
She's played twice with us, once with me as a duo and twice with the band at the Gragal two patio shows. She's done with us. And she's actually gonna do another one with us on June 3rd, another patio show. So she's very dizzy.
I see her playing all over the place, playing with a lot of people. Yeah, she's in high demand. Yeah. And she plays solo sometimes too and teaches lessons.
Yeah. So if anybody out there is wanting violin lessons. And then say that again, it's the... It's Stephanie in Spanish.
Yeah. And that's Stephanie in Spanish. And it's... My name is Stephen, so it's like a female version of my name.
I didn't even guess that. Yep. Uh, tricky tricky. But yeah, Stephanie, actually I was on the phone with my good friend Stephanie.
And we were just talking about stuff and it came up somehow that maybe we should write a song about her. And we were just kind of goofing around and I kept going... We didn't really come up with much together, but then I started saying, maybe I'll just go, Stephanie, Stephanie. Like I was just joking around.
And then it came to me, uh, Estefania. Or actually, I didn't think of... I didn't know how to translate Stephanie to... Estefania correctly.
So I was saying, Estefania. Estefania, Stephanie over and over. And just as a joke. And I started coming up with some lines.
And I came up with some lines and I sang them back to her and she liked it. So I was like, okay. I wrote a full song and it's not really about her. She just has her name in Spanish form.
But it also includes my desire to really want to go to Spain. Because I have a lot of interest in going to Europe and visiting Spain. This will make a great marching band song. I think...
Yeah, because of the snare? Well, the snare. Well, I think I'm kind of tilted the net direction because when I was in high school, our marching band had a, like a matador theme. Well, we had like the matador hats and our uniforms.
And every year we played one or two, like, I don't know what the brand of music is, but you know, like this, that kind of scale, like Spanish. Like, so flamenco. Yeah, a little bit like, yeah, but like with a lot of brass and all that stuff. So when I heard that, it kind of reminded me of that.
But yeah, I don't know if you're... I definitely, I agree. I definitely could hear a marching band playing. Yeah.
Do you have a no music notation? Yeah, I played trumpet in college for the marching chiefs. Oh yeah, you should write it out and send it to Ashwell High or somebody. I guess I have a marching band.
I'm not sure. I have no idea. But some, well, send it to a bunch of high schools and let them all do it. Yeah.
Yeah. I don't know how to, like, there's a lot like bass clef. I'd have to have help with that. Maybe there's a computer program that would help.
Yeah. Yeah. There's like online translators for all that kind of stuff. Yeah.
Good. There's, I used to have, there's a good, I used to, because I used to be in a band with a girl that played cello. And so I would write out on that computer the cello parts and it would, and that's bass clef. So it would convert it to bass clef.
Oh, nice. Okay. And it would even play it like you write it out and it would play you like you know, a synthesized version of it. So you could make sure it sounded like what you thought it did.
Yeah. Definitely. I'm excited. I don't know how much you care about it.
I'm very excited for you to do this. Yeah. I probably remind you every few weeks. Say Steve.
Have you done it yet? Yeah. Yeah. I should though.
You're exactly right. Yeah. It's a fun song. It's probably the most requested song.
This song I wrote about my dad because he was a traveling musician for a long time. And then he, you know, started a family. So, and this was back in the 60s and early 70s. He was playing in a band called The Four Saints and they traveled all over the country.
I'm not sure if they ever went out of, out of country, but he, you know, back in those days, everybody was smoking cigarettes, a lot of cigarettes. It's, you know, it's like a madman with music, smoking cigarettes, doing a lot of whiskey. And, you know, you're having a good time and joining being musicians and having some success. And then, you know, starts a family and everybody starts having their families and they realize they're not really seeing their families anymore because they're, they can't see their families because they're on tour.
They're missing, their children grow up. So they all decide to not play anymore. And so this, you know, this isn't unique to one band at all. This is like all bands that get older go through this, you know, and then the party stops, but they're still addicted to alcohol or whatever.
Right. And so, Gene, it got married. It was a summer of 69. I forget who did what?
Exactly. Yeah. Exactly that. And it's, you know, it's basically about that how it's hard to, not only is that the traveling life hard, but adjusting to coming home after it all stops.
Right. And you're not getting the constant applause. You're not, you know, you're, you have to go to work, like regular work now. Yeah.
And, and I related it to myself too, because I stopped playing music after playing music for a long time. I stopped playing and I became depressed and I was drinking a lot more, not to the degree that my dad ended up drinking. But, um, so I related what my dad had gone through to my, and I can understand, to help me understand them as an adult more because I could relate to him. And that's what the song is basically about, it's about me relating to what he had gone through as a musician and stopping.
Yeah. So. Did he do anything? Like, do you ever, is his music online somewhere that you know of?
Any old videos or anything like that? I don't think it is online. There is a, they were actually on deck records. Oh, yeah.
Yeah. What's the, what's the name? The Four Saints. The Four Saints.
Yeah. Um, I don't, I don't, you keep talking. Yeah. I'm assuming you've lit them up before.
Yeah. I've seen there was like, it was on a blog or something. So they were showed up on a blog and someone was selling one of their old records because they're probably, it's probably a vintage. Oh, yeah.
But, um, there's, I don't think there's any actual recordings that you can play or listen to. Oh, man. Hold on a second. I should probably.
What kind of music is it? They were, they were a quartet and they played, they were almost like vaudeville. Wait a minute. Can you hear this?
Yeah. My dad played piano. Is that him? I don't think that's him.
Oh, okay. No, that's definitely not. Oh, yeah. This is like from the 40s.
He has a very like, the way I'm talking about violation now. I had to forget that. Yeah. You want to pay for that?
Right. Um, yeah. That's, yeah. I don't think you can access their music online.
I'd have to upload it probably. I'd have to find those recordings somewhere. Yeah. It looks like there was a, like a, maybe Italian do what group called the Four Saints to?
Probably. They were the Four Saints and then they became just the Saints after one of their members left at the end. Wait a minute. Were they active in 73 to 78?
Probably. Okay. Wait a second here. I got to watch this commercial.
I don't know. Just stupid YouTube. He used to be cool, man. I know.
You have to always have to dodge those commercials for Google. We got to hold it. No, he's not Australian. Nope.
I was very excited about this. All right. Well, probably somewhere deep in the internet somewhere, but I'd have to upload it myself. But they were like four part harmony quartet singing quartet.
There were a few other groups like that back then. They're like the four tops. Oh, yeah. Getting that right.
Yeah. Something like that. They, and they would do like vaudeville, like comedy stuff too. So they're musical and comedic.
And they did some covers of some musicals, like some songs from Music Man. That's not where that title comes from though. But and what was that? Riverboat?
Oh, okay. Is that a music? Showboat, maybe? Showboat.
That's what it was. Yeah. So, yeah. They're pretty cool.
I watched them growing up as a kid and that made me want to be an entertainer like that. Oh, yeah. Besides your dad's band, who are some music recommendations that you make, both national and local? I would I was hugely influenced by my brother's band as well.
They were called The Floating Men. And they do have a lot of other stuff online. And so the writing is incredible and the melodies are great. My brother Scott and his bandmate Jeff Holmes were the two main members of that band.
They had a drummer Jeff Bishop too. We even covered one of their songs on our second record called It Goes For Emily that Jeff Holmes wrote. But anyway, that's a band I highly recommend and checking out their stuff online. And locally, I really like River Wireless.
They're traveling. They're nationally known. They travel all around. Who else do I like?
Oh, drunken prayer. I think Morgan Gear is a really good writer. And I definitely highly recommend people check him out. By the way, just so you don't feel like you have to don't feel bad for leaving people out after you say the next one, I'm going to cut you off.
Okay. Oh, and that way you can feel like oh, and I was going to say 20 other people. There's just so many. There's so many in town.
Well, we don't have time for all your recommendations right now, Stephen. All right. Daydream creatures. Oh, yeah.
They're good. Bantu. Yeah. Wait a minute.
Oh, okay. Yeah. They're good. I was thinking of someone else that's been on the podcast.
They have been on the podcast. So I'll cut that out. Okay. I've been on the podcast.
You don't get missing. Okay. More from Stephen in just a few moments. Do you want to remind you can find Stephen's music at Stephen Evans music.com.
You can also download his music or stream it at Apple Music, also at Bandcamp. Also, don't forget to subscribe to the podcast, either go to the website, wnc, original music.com or search wnc original music wherever you get your podcasts. I let the little interlude in there so you can hear that that rain again. Hello, my name is Jackson Harden and my new EP, Dakota Blue Moon is available now wherever you listen to music.
To learn more, you can visit www.jaxonharden.com. That's J-A-C-K-S-O-N-H-A-R-D-E-N.com. Thanks for listening. Corrections and clarifications from last week's episode with Andrew Wakefield.
Golden Colorado is a city in Colorado and a Colorado Golden is a type of dog. So we were both right. Hi, this is Steparsalana from Cravo Mico. Oh, that's why Steparsalana is a group of Cravo Mico.
And you're listening to WNC original music. Yes, that's a scuchando WNC in Musikon, O'Rihinal. What was your favorite kids show when you were your kid? Oh, I would have to say it was Mr.
Rogers. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know why.
But that was like a specific kid show. Like it was I watched our gang a lot. Yeah. Like spanking in the gang those guys.
But I think that was just a show. Whereas. I never got a Mr. Rogers because I rode the bus home and I was like the I live way out in the country.
I was like I was getting home like at five o'clock from school. You know school would let out three thirty and I'm on the bus for an hour and a half. So I had to watch like NewsHour, PBS NewsHour. I see like the last 10 minutes of Zoom or something like that.
Actually Sesame Street too. Sorry. I don't know how I forgot that. I really like the Muppets.
Right. So I don't think they called them Muppets before the Muppets though. I think they did. Didn't they call them you know they started even before Sesame Street.
I don't know if it's the same time. But you know they used to be on Saturday Night Live. In the first year. That was so they had some like really weird ones that were on Saturday Night Live.
Like it was a really bizarre thing. But I'm curious if they that might have been the same. Well no Sesame Street started like in the early 70s right. Yeah.
Yeah. So they must have been before Saturday Night Live. Yeah. There's some good kids shows back then.
Yeah. That's one of the bands. I almost said it earlier. Just I just wanted to say it in case you brought it up.
That's one of the songs that the band really transformed when I brought it to them. When I brought it to them. It was really slow. Like it was so slow.
And then we played it and I was like we need to do something to this in the band. And they suggested playing it faster. And then it became almost like a barn burner. Sort of like you could picture people dosey-dowing to it.
But yeah. That's a fun song. I wrote that about basically how I was getting the feeling that every time I got in a relationship that when things started to take a downturn. You know after you know the initial honeymoon period that people wouldn't stick around.
So I actually had a dream of a woman waving from a train. And I didn't know it really meant when I dreamt it. But I put it in the song because in the rain obviously it's easy metaphor for you know bad weather. So that's not really a metaphor for that.
But it represents you know dark or stormy times. So that's basically what that song is about. It's just how I fall for somebody and then things you know the honeymoon periods over and then there might be some trouble times and then they're just gone. They don't try to stick through it.
The last rose is like the only protest song I've ever written. And I wrote it during Trump's administration not to get political but it made me sad. And it wasn't just because of Trump. It was everything going on at that time.
It was just you know I was hearing about climate change. I was hearing about shootings and you know black people getting shot by cops and just like a focus on how much you know gun violence there is. And it just made me sad. And the last rose is basically about how we're everyone's becoming divided.
And we're the earth you know our environment is getting worse. And it's like you just picture this rose dying like love in the world dying. Yeah. That's what that represents to me.
And it's I had to get it out. I had to like and it's basically about if we don't come together at some point and do something or just be you know love each other then we're it's that's it. Right. There's going to be a point where we're not going to be able to come back from it.
Lonely. Lonely rocket. Lonely rocket. I thought I said lonely rolodex.
Man. This is not small writing either. Lonely rolodex would have like one card in it. Right.
Oh man. That's okay. I'm gonna write that song. I hope that's okay.
I called it. Yeah. Do it. Is that a harmonium in there?
Well that's the synthesized accordion. Oh yeah. Yeah. Basically a synthesizer playing the accordion sound on there.
That was Aaron Price's keyboard. Yeah. And yeah. That was right.
This song is silly. I just wrote it about I just pictured like being in a you know feeling lonely but like being up in space in a rocket and how lonely that might be if you're just by yourself. Yeah. Of course.
But that's what it feels like when you're lonely. You just feel like you're so isolated and I wrote this before quarantine too. Like this wasn't you think you'd think that it come up with a string. Yeah.
You're scarily pressing it. So much so. But um and just thinking about is it time to come out you know come back into the atmosphere or back to earth and start being social again and and and am I ready and is the person ready that I'm gonna meet? Are they ready for me?
Right. Right. That's basically the idea of that song and just made it fun with the scanning and the and the accordion. Yeah.
Nice bouncy song to finish the record especially after a serious song like The Last Rose. Right. Right. Yeah.
What was a good closing closing song there? Yeah. It reminds me of like when you used to see like the credits on like Bugs Bunny and have like a like a happy finish. Right.
Long at the end. Yeah. That's all. Yeah.
That's all. Don't think too much of it. Oh yeah. I think they use all well no I should check but you know they're using like Kill the Wab it.
Kill them. Those are like 500 year old songs. I think she'll be okay with those. That's true.
I am going to double check that one though. Who's uh you have someone that um that you you get um I'm sure it well probably the band but people that you get feedback from on your songs as you're as you're writing them. That's why like uh all these songs were played live before um before I recorded them. So we we you know engaged by the response.
Yeah. Um how they were doing and when I write I write if I don't think the song is good I I'm actually you know I'm the first editor in the song if I don't like it I'll uh just to get rid of it. It doesn't stick with me you know it doesn't resonate I won't keep it and so but it's playing them live before you like a lot of bands that get on the studio and they bring all these songs that no one's ever heard and they just and they just they just self-edit all this. They're something like they don't have any feedback before they put the record out.
Right. And then they go on tour and then the people hear them whereas usually bands that don't have you know they basically have to play the gigs to get the money to be able to record right and you're not as well known. So you test out you have the ability to test them out before you record them. Sure.
Favorite vacation spot. Ashville, North Carolina. I really like that's a funny question because I really haven't I just like traveling I I like national parks so out west like Glacier National Park and the Tetons and places like that or Olympic National Park in Washington. Um there's some beautiful spots I like camping and stuff like that's why I live in Asheville because I like camping and hiking.
But as far as tropical I really like the keys and the Bahamas. Have you ever been to um uh what's the place in Canada? It's like my favorite place and I can't think of it. Vancouver?
No it's like the Rocky Mountains in Canada. It was a large national park in Canada. Well I know Glacier goes up into Canada too like half of it's in Canada and half of it's in Montana. It's like outside Alberta.
Anyway you should go there find out where that isn't going there. Okay thanks one more time to Stephen Evans for being on the podcast. Don't forget to look for his music all around town he plays live a lot with his both solo and with his band the True Grits Stephen Evans and the True Grits just a really great live band. You can catch them all around Western Rock Carolina and sometimes elsewhere and don't forget to go to his website StephenEvansMusic.com as Stephen with a pH.
That's pretty hot. Don't forget to subscribe to the podcast WNC original music.com or search WNC original music wherever you get your better your better podcast. We don't you know you're not going to go to one of the crappier podcast places and find WNC original music I take that much. The closing song this week is provided by Jack Hyken.
Jack Hyken was born out of the split of the indie rock band Point Zero from the town of Hurt for Sure I think I'm pronouncing that right it is Point Zero. Jack has taken the act from a one piece to a four piece band with a much larger sound. You can find his music at jack-com here's Jack Hyken have a good week.