Reviews
Artist:Evan Boyer Album: The Devil In Me
Label: Medicine for Mary
Tracks: 8
Website: https://www.facebook.com/evanboyermusic
Raised in a small rural North Carolina town and now based in Dallas, Boyer's come a long way from his formative years inspired by acts like The Wallflowers, Foo Fighters, and Blink-182. These days he's an acoustic American singer-songwriter, albeit one who still has Southern rock traces in his musical DNA. Case in point are the Duane Allman guitar echoes of album opener 'Mockingbird and Monticello', which starts out as a simply strummed, fiddle-coloured reflective ballad ("I don't know what I was thinking/But I've been thinking since you left/All these nights that I've been drinking/These days not much is making sense") before the drums and ringing guitars take up the banner for an upbeat resolution ("We do our best and I'm damn proud/You're so patient I'm so loud we've found the best of us/But it took a minute/So I'm saying now what I could never say/Look's like you and I have finally found our way").
Picking up on the home lines there, fiddle introduces 'Home To You', another drum-driving number about emotional support and rescue ("I've battled from the bottom/It's been all uphill/At least it's just the bottle/And not those damn pills…Baby you pick me up/When I'm going down/You dry me out when I drown… I don't know who I'd be without/Coming home to you").
Taking the pace down with baritone guitar, 'Cedar Creek' is a love song that heads out of Fort Worth to journey back to Carolina, referencing both the titular stream and the Texas town of Seven Points, to gran some country calm ("We'll leave at four and take our time/With the lake and the countryside/While it's still just you and I").
In contrast, a duet with Della Rose on vocals, 'Burn the Ships' is a slow swaying soulful walk away from abuse ballad ("I'm never coming back for you, it's not like before/You can keep all we've got/'ll take my guitar and the Ford…I'm so tired of the bruises from all your bad nights/I'm done hiding/I'm done saying its fine/Cause it's too hot in Texas for long sleeves to do all your lying").
A similar theme informs the moody, fiddle and banjo-led self-reflecting 'The Devil In Me' ("I'm a bad man, doing bad things/I've walked the line so many times for all the joy it brings/I've got a bad way, pray for me like rain/I should've died so many times and all the souls it would've saved") that carries a hint of menace in the lines "I don't where you're going/Or the stories you will tell/I can't have you just walking out, with all you know so well" and "I might get drunk enough and tell you where I hide the keys/But it's been so damn long I doubt you'd even know to leave".
That namechecks Betsy Layne in Kentucky while the upbeat, driving drum and guitars of 'To Somers' returns to his home town ("Born in North Carolina, never came to know that side/But grateful to the one who gave me life/Then the family that I know and love, drove me home that night/To Somers…on the Massachusetts line") before taking the road to Boston and Dallas but keeping home in heart ("And so as life/Will pass me by/I'm thankful for that town/Where I was born to die").
Switching to an echoingly sung, circling fingerpicked guitar opening before taking a more upfront sound, the dark-shaded folk The Fear again addresses drink and demons, regret ("I've turned this happy home into a god forsaken place") and a search for redemption ("I'm sorry, I'm drying out today/I can't help much or find the words to say/I'm doing all I can to be the man you want to stay… still you know I've gotta go/And fall asleep before my demons show/'Cause sleeping through temptation is just as good as saying no") but knowing "I'll never live without the fear".
It ends with hints of Guy Clarke and similar Texas troubadours with the poignantly sad 'Sweet Mary' ("If I could bottle up a feeling/I'd fill it all with you/So when you're grown and I'm lonely/That bottle would get me through/Try and do your best to call me/When I'm old and missing you") with its ruefulness about how quickly the years pass ("I'm feeling old/ But I'm the youngest version of myself that you'll ever know…time is bold/You've got forever in your hands and then just like that/You're feeling cold").
While, as on 'Cedar Creek', clearly some elements are personal, the songs should be read as character narratives rather than autobiography (Boyer's happily married with kids), exploring universal themes of mistakes made, inner demons and a search for salvation, all of which make us human
Mike Davies
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| John Jenkins: Do You Ever Think About Me | Ciderhouse Rebellion (with Molly Donnery/Jessie Summerhayes): A Little Bit Slanted/ And Even The Sheep Shall Dance/ Tales Of Colonsay |
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