Morgan Evans Writes a Love Letter to Home on ‘Steel Town’
Country superstar Morgan Evans discusses his new album Steel Town, being inspired through new music and collaborations and his upcoming Australian tour.
Words Thomas Jackson // Image supplied
Aussie-born, now Nashville-based country superstar Morgan Evans is returning to Australia this May to tour his new album Steel Town, a love letter to his hometown of Newcastle. The album started when he returned home after going through a dark period in his life.
“It was like a moment where it was just really grounding,” Evans explains over Zoom while in Australia.
“I remember coming home, and my mates looked at me, and they're like, ‘Are you alright, mate?’ I was like…‘Yeah, I am alright, now’, and they said, ‘Anyway, cool, did you see the Knights play on the weekend?’ It was just like a snap. It was the snap that I needed at the time, and I think that, combined with just [how] music has changed so much, and the way people consume music and country music is such a wide palette of sounds and stories now. I felt it was time for me to find a way to sing about home in a way that I hadn't before. I think just that moment, all of those things came together and sort of inspired the beginning of this next journey and chapter. That ended up being this album.”
Before this interview, Evans had just performed at Meatstock and also made a guest appearance performing on Australian Idol. Finally getting to perform these new songs live has been completely rejuvenating for Evans.
“Playing this show on the weekend was just amazing,” Evans recalls. “It's been so long, and I forgot that feeling of putting out new music and then playing it and seeing people sing it for the first time. Just playing an album track and seeing thousands of people sing it on the weekend. We have this song called ‘Another Drink Coming’... We played that one and it was like, ‘oh!’, just like this pop moment in the crowd. It just felt really special and energising too. It was like, ‘Oh, yeah, that's right, that's what I do’. I need to get back in and write some more, too.”
He continues, “It's inspiring and fulfilling at the same time. I've really enjoyed the last few weeks, honestly. I haven't been a big fan of just generally reading the comments and taking everything to heart. I feel like that's a bit of a trap with social media, but putting out new music and seeing the feedback to that is a really positive loop for me.”
READ MORE: Australian Rock Collective: Celebrate 50 Years Of Hotel California
One of the standouts on Steel Town is the song ‘Two Broken Hearts’ which features Evans’ partner and country singer Laci Kaye Booth. It was the oldest song that Evans had written on the album, but the song didn’t completely click together until Booth entered the equation.
“On that song, I learned the difference between a song that two people sing together, and then a song when two people sing it together, it becomes this whole other thing. There's a bit in that song, specifically the second verse, she sings the second verse, and then we sort of come in together at the end. The way that that happens and grows and goes into the second chorus was just, I still remember the first time it happened, it was like this goosebump moment. Holy shit, that song cannot be any other way than that.
“I got up the next morning and recorded the guitar parts exactly the same way that we played. I finished off the record with one of my mates, Chris DeStefano, and Lace jumped on the record as well. It was really special for that reason. It's weird that we didn't think of it as a duet when we wrote it, even though it's got two in the title and that's conceptually what it's about.”
The song ‘Land I Love’ is a highlight of Steel Town, which is another tribute to home. To complete this feeling of Australiana, Evans contacted celebrated didgeridoo player and musician William Barton to add his finishing touches to the song.
“I love that song so much. It feels like the most uniquely special song that I've ever made. I think I wrote the chorus when I was driving from Armidale to Byron Bay and it was one of those gifted choruses that just kind of falls into your brain and comes out. Then I finished it in Nashville with two of my Australian friends, Lindsay Rimes and Danielle Blakey. It felt really special as a song, but I produced it with Lindsay and we were like, ‘This needs something to ground it’. I just started asking around. I was like, ‘If we wanted to get someone to play didgeridoo on this, where would we look? Who would we get?’ I asked four or five people, and they all just said William Barton. He was the only name that came up.
Evans hasn’t performed ‘Land I Love’ live yet, but William Barton has an open invite to join them on stage on this upcoming tour.
“I've hit him, I'm like ‘dude, these are our dates. Please, you're welcome anytime, come out.’ He's a busy dude, though. Whenever the moment comes that we end up on stage playing that together, I'll be sure to hit record, because I feel like that'll be a special moment.”
Catch Morgan Evans at Thebarton Theatre on Monday 25 May. Tickets on sale at ticketmaster.com.au
