Evergreen found me through the kind recommendation of Melissa Gail Klein, one of her musical cohorts in the musical mecca of Austin, Texas. Raised as a classical cellist, according to her bio, she studied a variety of other forms of music on her travels. I will leave that to your internet searches and imagination because it might spoil what’s in store for you here. I would not be surprised if Evergreen was the entire band on some tracks. She is certainly capable.
This album is a musical pilgrimage. If you view music as a spiritual experience or journey, this is that and infinitely more. It is certainly a journey, as Evergreen takes us from one experience to another, allowing us to savor every minute detail and taste, beginning with a collective individual prayer.
The album launches into Overture, what I could only describe as an immigrants’ journey, but there are elements of what feels like Ragtime jazz merging with classical and an uphill but satisfying climb up a steep mountain to reach the top. Dreams is a bass, keys, and vocal lament, a prayer of things to come, sparse, sincere, and hopeful without words. The most liberal label I can attach to this track is jazz, which, in spite of the efforts of the powers that be to stick a label on anything, still defies the label, over one-hundred years in.
And in complete unexpected fashion, Drive comes out of nowhere with this driving bluegrass beating melody, equally as accomplished as Dreams with the stand-up bass just as driving as it is everywhere else on this album, and it slaps! And what is nice here is that all of the tracks explore a different or different mixture of genres, and none of them seem to be out of place.
Honestly, the album is too short, and if Evergreen isn’t selling out crowds, they don’t know what they are missing. You can find Evergreen here.
RadioMike, 9 January 2024