| CD REVIEW Ron Evans Group |
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Band : Ron Evans Group In spite of their very Anglo Saxon bandname, this is a German band. Also, although frontman Ron Evans turned 60 a couple of years ago, and released his 5th album to comemmorate that happy fact…I have to admit I’d never heard of him before! Let’s investigate the reason of said facts! You see, Ron is the child of a German mother and English father, and was born in December 1947 near Hannover, Germany. Shortly after the family moved to Cambridge in England, but when his father got a job as radio broadcaster for ABC in 1954, the threesome moved again, this time to Australia. In 1962 his parents separated, and mummy (whom took her child in tow) returned to Germany. Aged 16, he gets his first guitar, and influenced by the two leading bands of the ‘60s (Beatles and Rolling Stones) begins his first musical ventures. In the mid-‘60s, he attends the renowned Kamber bording schoolnear Starnberg, where he becomes a member of school band The Generation and discovers his vocal talents. After school, he becomes a trainee at the Bavaria Film Studios, making his first experiences in professional show business. On top he earns an extra mark as movie extra, cable guy, and DJ…but always with a musical career in his mind. In 1971 Ron comes in contact with the British International DJ Company, and in the following 4 years he travels throughout Europe under their contract. After that, he gets married, divorces, opens a record shop in Starnberg…playing with different musicians in several bands. In 1994 he closes his shop and starts to concentrate his efforts completely on his musical career. That same year, he accepts the offer of the Goethe institute for a speaking role in a children’s musical. In the years that follow, Ron and his band get to play quite frequently around Germany, pickingup the abroad gig when it came along. Several CD productions followed: (starting with 65 To 97 followed the live albums Live On The Road and Live In Austria – the latter as Ron Evans Trio – then 2006 studio album Next Time Around, and eventually the one we now have in our greedy hands…as a download, mind you, because none of Ron’s albums are only available as downloads! Seen Ron’s original influences, you should’t expect any “modern” music here. Over the years, Ron picked up additional influences from Jazz and Reggea which he added to his original infinity for Rock, Blues and Soul, to blend it in sometimes very diverse songs! A track like “Rolling Blues”, for instance, is very rootsy, and sounds like a calmer late ‘50s Rock ‘n’ Roll track, including piano play. Oh…time to introduce Ron’s band, I guess! On the lead guitar, there’s one Matthias Holzapfel (looks Ron’s age, goin’ from the pictures I’ve seen), then there’s Hansi Enzenberger on the keyboards, Frank Thumbech on the bass, and Jörg Regenbogen on the drums (these three visibly younger but apparently well at home in Ron’s music world). Because the info is lacking, I suppose Holzapfel occasionally also handles the saxophone (as in “Realize It”, which has sax playing the lead in stead of the guitar). Oh, the musical versatility, right? Both “Don’t Take Sides” and “Watcha Gonna Do” have nice Reggea undertones (sax again here, and although there IS a lead guitar part in the latter, it does nót co-incide with the sax that’s bein’ played). The rest of the album, except for the album closers, is rather Blues Rock, with a diversity of intensities, with some songs remeniscent of Gary Moore, but with another singer. The album closers now, is where Ron added a touch of Jazz. Not so very evident in “Dream On” (where the Jazz is introduced through typical drum support, piano, and some sax), but very much so in album closing track “Six Eight”, which sees Ron even playing some very, véry nice bit of flute, Focus style. Vocally, Ron is a rather calm singer, but he doés have a nice voice…and gets plenty of moody backing from his bandmates. Lyrically, the album can be seen as an autobiography, dealing with several moments in Ron’s musical career. To get a whiff of this man’s music, there is of course the trusted MySpace page, but although you’ll find 5 tracks posted off the 2006 album at myspace.com/ronevansgroup, there’s only a snippet from this one. Luckily, there’s (www.) ronevansgoup.com, where in the “CD’s” section you’ll not only find samples to all tracks on Can’t Stop Now, but also off all other albums. Now, don’t be deceived by my rating of this album! Although I’m not catapulting it into my personal year-lists, Can’t Stop Now is one of those albums which I could listen to any time…preferably on a hot summer night’s evening, cool longdrink in my hand, sitting on the porch (I actually have one, you know, fronting the street side, but I hàve one)… 85/100 Tony. |