Mikal Evans
Saturday night at my house featured lots of gin, lots of bourbon, and lots of music and discussion thereof. Sunday featured headaches. So when a friend called late in the morning to ask if I wanted to see Mikal Evans at Iota in the evening, I didn’t jump at the chance.
“I know it’s Sunday,” she said, “but it’s a low-key acoustic set. We can sit in the back and have a drink.” OK.
As it turned out, all the seats were taken when I showed up a few minutes after Evans started playing, but it didn’t matter. Her performance was just the thing for a low-intensity Sunday night — mellow and understated, but very beautiful and very compelling.
Of a January performance, DCist said:
Evans’ style is best summed up by an observation from one audience member: “This reminds me of a really good P.J. Harvey song.” Well, Evans may drop her “g”s more than Harvey does, but the point is that it’s tough to do the indie-singer/songwriter shtick without blending in with the likes of Joss Stone, Liz Phair, and oodles of other talented women.
DCist called Evans an “Appalachian songstress,” and indeed my first impression brought Alison Krauss and Emmylou Harris to mind. Evans, who alternates between acoustic and electric guitars (despite my friend’s description), was accompanied by another singer-guitarist, named Justin,* whose surname I didn’t catch but who complemented Evans perfectly — think of Ryan Adams’ “Oh My Sweet Carolina” (Heartbreaker, 2000), if Harris had had the melody and Adams had sung backing harmonies. The depth of their combined sound belied the fact that it was just the two of them up there.
I very rarely buy CDs at shows, but I was disappointed when Evans announced that she had none for sale. There are four recordings on her MySpace page, but none of them do justice to the performance. A proper album will come out in the fall; look for it.
*Correction: The accompanist’s name is Timothy Bracken.
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