SUN VALLEY, ID (Empty Beach Records) - Just in time for his network TV debut this Sunday in the PBS documentary film "Driven to Play," Boise-based singer-songwriter and fretless-guitar virtuoso Ned Evett released his third solo record, "iStole," today on Empty Beach Records. Evett's new CD, available nationwide via Burnside Distribution Corp., fuses pop songwriting with the skillful fretless-guitar work that secured his victory at the 2003 North American Rock Guitar Competition - which "Driven to Play" is chronicling nationally on public television June 20.
The 11 highly wrought pop/rock songs on "iStole" explore themes of wonder and joy, loneliness and longing, putting down stakes, and pulling up roots. An ample array of Boise musicians provides a sumptuous background for music already rich in imagery. Evett, who handles all the guitar work, is joined by longtime collaborator Bret Porter on drums, Russ Pfeifer on keys and backing vocals, Jared Tolley on bass, Dan Costello on harmonica and backing vocals, Jonah Shue on violin, and John McMahon on cello.
"iStole" is a road record composed on various tours in 2002 and early 2003, with Evett - under the influence of sketchy accommodations, weird food, and audience-fueled adrenaline rushes - writing the songs in green rooms and hotels and on tour buses and airplanes. "My songwriting process is very portable," he explains. "I don't require familiar surroundings or a controlled environment - I just keep my cell phone handy to catch the good stuff when it starts happening. And since the messages expire in 30 days and I never resave them, it puts me on deadline to forge these little demos into full-fledged songs."
Producer Amos Galpin, owner of Sun Valley, Idaho-based Empty Beach Records, sculpted the record's lush, 70s-era pop/rock sound with an old-school collection of NEVE preamps, a less-is-more engineering approach to overdubbing, and a state-of-the art digital backend. Seattle-based RFI/CD Mastering, which has mastered albums for such noteworthy artists as Pearl Jam, Nirvana, and Juliana Hatfield, sweetened and mastered the final mix.
The results are artistically refreshing and timely considering the growing appeal of singer-songwriters like John Mayer, Ben Harper, and Chris Whitley, whose records dynamically blend pop songwriting with noteworthy guitar performances. In addition, "iStole" reaffirms why guitar heroes as disparate as Joe Satriani and Built To Spill frontman Doug Martsch sing Evett's praises and why Guitar One magazine says, "Ned's command of the fretless guitar is astonishing."
"Ned's guitar playing astonished me when I first encountered him on another artist's project in 1996," says Galpin, whose label has released two other Evett albums in the last 18 months. "When we started Empty Beach Records, Ned was the number-one artist we wanted. Mature, accessible songwriting, prodigious guitar playing, and an outstanding live show - he's got 'The Three Big Ones.'"
As he has on all of his releases, Evett recorded every guitar track on "iStole" exclusively with fretless electric and fretless acoustic guitars, which are close relatives of the slide guitar and lack the interposing frets set across a traditional guitar's fingerboard. The new record, however, is the first to capture Evett's new steel resonator fretless guitar, the distinctive sound of which can be heard on the songs "Claim To Fame," "Fly Myself To Sleep," and "Token Hearted."
Like the other axes in his arsenal, Evett's new fretless resonator is equipped with a custom mirrored-glass fretless fingerboard - a sonic and visual trademark that has earned him the moniker "Glass Guitarist." The tonal qualities of the glass affect the sound, plus light seems to dance from the guitar's neck - or, in the case of the chrome-bodied Resonator, the entire instrument - as Evett performs onstage.
Evett's music is gathering increasing acclaim. Guitarist magazine gave his last record, an experimental-pop/rock collaboration with French guitar pioneer Franck Vigroux called "Evett/Vigroux," 4 stars out of 5, and 20th Century Guitar magazine described his last solo record, the vocal pop/rock "Circus Liquor," as "brilliant" and "infectious."
Plus "An Introduction to Fretless Guitar - Evett's groundbreaking, nearly all-instrumental debut record that Fingerstyle Guitar magazine says "will make you rethink the plucked-string instrument" - was recently featured in NPR's "All Songs Considered" online music show.
