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... by Joanne Corsano ... joanne@picturelake.com

Will Evans
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of the concert

Scroll to below videos for a review of the show.

Restless Spirit

Unlike most solo performers I've seen over the years, Will Evans is not content to sound like one guy with a guitar. At this Spire Lobby Series performance, he made extensive use of electronic looping to add layers of guitar, percussion, and vocals to most of the songs. He also used some extraordinary instruments -- a steel drum and a didgeridoo! In my decades of concert going I have seen hundreds of performers, and this is the first time I've ever seen that Australian wind instrument played live.

If you'd asked me before the show to talk about live looping, I probably would have made a face and said I didn't think much of it. My response would have been that if a solo performer wants more sounds than he can make by himself, he needs a band. But there was something about the way Will used his looping that not only felt right musically, but was entirely fascinating to watch. He scurried around the stage, laying down a drum beat, creating a backing vocal track, inserting some guitar chords in strategic places, and he was working really hard doing it all. His level of physical activity to create these looping tracks made me feel I was watching a star athlete at work. It certainly helped that Will is an extremely skilled vocalist and musician, and his songs are all well written and vary effectively from one tune to the next. Then he played the didgeridoo! There was one song where he played that Australian droning device along with the steel drum, which had a beautifully melodic ringing sound, and at the end of the song he declared: "that was aerobic."

Again the Spire Lobby Series came up with a winner. The lobby seats about 70 people and there were few, if any, empty seats. Will clearly has a following since most of the attendees were familiar with his music, and there were numerous requests called out during the show. At one point a girl in the front row engaged Will in an endearing two-way conversation, indicating that she and her concert going companions were counting on Will to make their day bright. I think he did just that for everyone in the enthusiastic crowd. Thanks again to the Spire for coming up with this really good Lobby Series idea. Although, it would make me happy if they were still encouraging mask wearing, since this Covid thing is very much still a concern (numbers are up again these past few weeks in Massachusetts, as so many folks are getting careless about masking up).