REB-CD-1787

Born in Portsmouth, Ohio, Dave Evans has been an avid lover of bluegrass music since the age of eight, when his father playing the old-time clawhammer-style introduced him to the 5-string banjo. Dave says "I would find myself able to play that ole' banjer really well someday. Needless to say, after six or seven years of hard, never-ending practice and determination, I found I was well on my way to becoming what I wanted: to be called a 'banjer picker'". Along with playing banjo Evans started singing and then came the next phase… a songwriter of Bluegrass Music; "It became an obsession to me. I wanted to create my own melodies and write my own lyrics creating a new sound altogether."

Around 1968 Evans landed his first professional job, playing banjo for Earl Taylor and the Stoney Mountain Boys. In 1972 he went to work for Larry Sparks and became one of the Lonesome Ramblers and then worked with a few well-known groups such as Red Allen and The Kentuckians, The Boys from Indiana, The Goins Brothers. In 1978 he fashioned a band that would become known all over the world as Dave Evans and River Bend.

High Water finds 12 tracks on the Rebel Records label underscoring 6 of Dave's own songs along with a fine set of covers. Amongst this selection of covers can be found the traditional Put My Little Shoes Away and Fair River Side alongside Freddie Hart's troubled Drink Up & Go, Flatt & Scruggs racing instrumental Dear Old Dixie and a rousing rendering of Y'all Come. Of Dave's own compositions, you won't find better, either lyrically or musically arranged in today's field of bluegrass. The opening Stone Coal, West Virginia conveys a fast paced warning of running young and wild in the coal mining area of West Virginia. The title track High Water (Bad Blood) delivers that traditional high lonesome sound with a tale of stolen hearts and tortured love gone wrong, while the pace is slowed right down for a heartfelt song of the lovelorn with Pure Gallo Wine.

Including some fine pickers this is modern traditional bluegrass at its best. With Dave's gospel-styled Humble Carpenter From Galilee concluding this energetic collection, High Water is an album not to be overlooked.

Graham Lees, Dewesbury, W.Yorks Write to | Website

1 May 2003