Ned Evett – Treehouse CD Review
Ned Evett
Treehouse
RAGING KRILL RKCD006
****
AH
The Blues just got interesting!
One of the main reasons that I love No Depression is that it gives me the opportunity to discover fantastic new music every month. TREEHOUSE is Ned Evett’s sixth album yet he’s a still a newcomer to me and probably you too; but that’s our loss and this is our chance to put that right.
The album kicks off with a low down dirty Blues tune called Pure Evilwhich is exactly what it says on the tin. Evett’s rough baritone voice, gritty guitar chops and chunka-chunka rhythm section are a perfect match for this song about an unobtainable woman that has a ‘voice like Hallelujah/but is probably Pure Evil.’ What a great start to an album.
Next up is a great poppy Roadhouse song called Falling In Lineabout wanting to be a Rebel; but having to do what you are told by the lady in your life. (Perhaps it was a bit too near the truth for fools like me!)
Sayonara Serenade is an arms raised aloft/fist clenching rock and roller but Mars River Delta is a beautiful Cowboy song set on Mars in 2128 and played out on a National Steel that will bring tears to a glass eye.
Evett has a very vivid imagination but manages to keep his music and melodies very simple and accessible in the best traditions of the Blues.
He’s not afraid to be commercial and use tunes (remember them?) when necessary and Bend Mehad me smiling as I tapped my toes to the beat; which doesn’t happen very often these days.
This is an album for playing on a road trip or cranked up on the Stereo as you get ready to out on a Friday or Saturday night as it gets the heart pumping and the adrenaline flowing in a way I haven’t heard for a long time.
As you’d expect with a Blues album there are plenty of tales about broken hearts and Evett’s rich voice and guitar playing (electric, acoustic and National Steel) take them well away from ‘the ordinary.’
The worst part about this album is that I now have to hunt town his previous 5 albums!