Evie Ladin

Artist Information

Biography

The polyrhythmic heat and funk of Evie Ladin's clawhammer banjo, resonant voice, real stories and rhythmic dance - have been heard from A Prairie Home Companion to Celtic Connections, Lincoln Center to Hardly Strictly Bluegrass. Known as a driving force behind San Francisco's Stairwell Sisters, Evie's solo debut Float Downstream (2010) was produced by Mike Marshall and Keith Terry. No Depression reports "She can write, and she can sing, and she pulls back from the saccharine brink with just enough wit - a sharp intelligence." Based in Oakland, CA, Evie tours solo, as a duet with Keith Terry or with her expansive stringband, with a new CD out May, 2012.

The Evie Ladin Band, with Keith Terry (bass, Body Music, percussion), Dina Maccabee (fiddle) and Erik Pearson (guitar), are remarkably talented and quirky interpreters of new and old music. They tease out gorgeous beds of original trad music that support Evie's ripe, catchy stories, and deep interpretations of old songs, they add rhythm dance into the track, they put on a fantastic show. In live performance, Evie is a demonstrative, delightfully gorgeous storm.

Evie has been touring for 20 years, playing major festivals and concert venues internationally, and is hailed as a fantastic performer and teacher of traditional and original old-time influenced acoustic music. She can give a lecture on the roots of American percussive dance, and call rowdy square dances while the band plays.

Solid song craft performed wonderfully end to end...Very strongly recommended. --Sing Out! Magazine

Her rich and smoky voice resembles Natalie Merchant’s, and her songs are as fetching as Nancy Griffith’s…they’re all catchy, with mature lyrics and skilled phrasing.
--OLD-TIME HERALD


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PRESS RELEASE FOR FLOAT DOWNSTREAM (2010)

This is a girl who grew up falling asleep on a pile of coats in the corner of the music party or square dance; her childhood home in Northern New Jersey had an open door to folk musicians playing anywhere near. This is a girl who ran barefoot through muddy festivals, soaking up traditional American music and dance —in the rhythm of her step, in her sleep, as the backbone of life.

This is also a girl, a teenager in inner-city Baltimore, with the pulsing roll of early hip hop high school cafeteria, a girl drawn to Africa as a place where music and dance are social communication, the way she grew up. In Nigeria she showed people her clogging and body percussion, and it opened doors to myriad creative collaborations. Years later, she is synthesizing these deep, sometimes disparate influences into her own music - grounded in tradition, emboldened by experience, flying freeform in the modern world.

This becomes obvious in the first moment of the album. “I Love My Honey,” exhilarates the listener with soaring harmonies above a mesmerizing trance-inducing banjo, all of it anchored by a funky half-time rhythm on the cajón (wooden percussion box). Evie got the song off a recording of fiddler Santford Kelly released by The Field Recorder’s Collective. In Kelly’s original, he strums his fiddle, pizzicato style, inspiring Evie’s approach. His whoops and hollers in the name of love were the selling point, and Evie gives it all she’s got.

“I have a very strong old-timey aesthetic, I know what good stringband music sounds like, but I also listen to a lot of world music, old and new country, indie rock, soul – music scenes that often don’t overlap that much. I like a lot of interesting new treatments of Americana and traditional music; well-played, well-phrased music is just good. In making the album, the music that was old-time had to be real old-time, but I also needed to let songs stretch toward a pop aesthetic, a more contemporary aesthetic. The mix of the two can be very exciting.”

The songs themselves can be energetic, poignant, or downright sad like the title track. “I had been away from the Eastern woods for a long time,” Evie recalled. “I was teaching at a camp in Tennessee and went walking in the trees. There was something so familiar about the way the sunlight came through the leaves, spilling on the forest floor, that made me feel like I was floating. It was so beautiful it was heartbreaking. The first verse of the song fell into me on that walk, and then it took me a year to figure out the rest of what happened in the story.” Evie is playing a fairly traditional clawhammer banjo style here, with Mark Summer’s cello swimming underneath and contemporary lyrics floating along the surface.

For Evie, who started her career as a percussive dancer and choreographer until moving to Oakland and hooking up with the Stairwell Sisters, the all-gal old-time band with whom she still tours, writing music is a full-body experience. “I write a lot of songs riding my bike,” she explained. “Sometimes I feel like the world is just feeding me music. A lick or a line will get stuck in my head and I’ll keep singing it until the story comes.” Her performances are also full-body experiences. Evie sets rhythms with her feet to support her banjo melodies, layering her voice on top, sometimes switching it up for her feet to solo while her instrument or voice holds a steady groove.

Producers Mike Marshall and Keith Terry brought different but equally adventurous musical brilliance to the record. They are no strangers to pushing boundaries, making odd musical bedfellows seem natural together. They worked with Evie to flesh out the musical arrangements and textures that would give her stories wings. “Mike and Keith both have amazing, creative ears. They added colors and shape to my music that made the stories in each song more real; gave them a deeper bed to lie in,” she recalls.

Mike Marshall is a renowned mandolinist equally versed in classical, bluegrass, and world music. Mike worked with Evie to create the more contemporary sound she wanted to explore, sonic collaborations with organ, cello, various guitars, while still maintaining her roots sound. When Evie felt that “How Did You Know” had great words, but was sagging as a country ditty, Marshall suggested they play it calypso, and they got a real laugh. He next suggested a ballad, and led it on guitar. When Evie laid the song in, they all got the chills. It was like a secret unearthed.

Keith Terry is a jazz and world music drummer who developed a singular style of Body Music, percussion that is music you can see, dance you can hear. Keith and Evie are married, and they work together often on international cross-cultural projects that combine music, dance, and song in integrated performance. Keith brought a variety of rhythmic timbres to the tracks – from the Balinese bells evoking a far-off, wistful feeling on the title track, to bone-rattling bass harmonica and struck metal silverware, the perfect support for Dock Boggs’ “Mistreated Mama.” Keith and Evie have long explored the banjo in unusual combinations – bells being among the most satisfying.

In a rare autobiographical moment, “Dance Me” sings of something Evie always wanted, and has found: “just such a man, who can dance me the way that my baby can.” Evie claims that that is the only autobiographical note in the song. The story came to focus on the struggle between falling in love and staying in love. “I think it’s very difficult to not let the stresses and details of life take you too far you from the love you started with; if you could just dance together, maybe you could remember the sweetness, and bring it back.” The track was recorded with a swinging jazz waltz in the drum set, a part that Terry later removed; a more rootsy feel, but with that swing in the music.

New with old, real and ethereal, permeates each song on the album, synthesizing Evie’s mastery of traditional music and her original sense of the world she lives in. Still, the blending of rhythm, texture, and color in her music is seamless and simple. Evie’s resonant voice, the thick timbre of her banjo, the richness of her rhythm and pattern, cannot be classified – it is one of many new old-time musics. She still sleeps best in the middle of that roaring music party.

ON THE RECORD:

Evie Ladin - banjos, vocals
Mike Marshall - guitars, mandolin
Todd Phillips - bass
Keith Terry - drums, percussion, bass harmonica
Abby Ladin - harmony vocals
Amber Hines - harmony vocals
Caleb Klauder - harmony vocals
Chris Webster - harmony vocals
Dina Maccabee - harmony vocals
John R. Burr - organ
Karen Heil - fiddle
Lloyd Maines - dobro
Mark Summer - cello
Matt Knoth - guitar
Mike Rinta - tuba
Suzy Thompson - fiddle, accordion

Instrumentation

Evie Ladin - banjo, guitar, vocals, feet, body percussion

Keith Terry - bass, vocals, percussion, body percussion

Dina Maccabee - violin, vocals, feet

Erik Pearson - guitar, slide guitar, banjo, vocals

Discography

Evie Ladin Band 2012
Float Downstream 2010
with The Stairwell Sisters
Get Off Your Money 2008
Feet All Over the Floor 2005
Stairwell Sisters 2003
Buckdancing for Beginners DVD 2002

Links

• Facebook
• Twitter
• YouTube

Audio

• Weathering
  Listen  
• Coffeeshop
  Listen  
• Got You On My Mind Live on KRFC
  Listen  
• Float Downstream
  Listen  
• I Love My Honey
  Listen  
• Mardi Gras
  Listen  
• Mistreated Mama/Yew Piney Mountain
  Listen  
• Dance Me
  Listen  

Lyrics

• Float Downstream
• Dance Me
• Mardi Gras
• One Of These Days
• Precious Days
• I Love My Honey
• Mistreated Mama
• How Did You Know
• Romeo
• Maybe An Angel
• Weathering
• Weathering
• He's Not Alone

Video

Got You On My Mind.mp4

2.Precious Days_Duo11.mov

Photo Gallery

Press

• No Depression [+ Show ]
  

  She can write, and she can sing, and she pulls back from the saccharine brink with just enough wit -...She can write, and she can sing, and she pulls back from the saccharine brink with just enough wit - a sharp intelligence.

• San Francisco Chronicle [+ Show ]
  

  Whether she's belting out old-time tunes with the Stairwell Sisters, calling a square dance or execu...Whether she's belting out old-time tunes with the Stairwell Sisters, calling a square dance or executing syncopated dance moves with husband and rhythmic partner Keith Terry, Evie Ladin is a natural entertainer with a gift for infusing folk practices with contemporary verve.

• Sing Out! [+ Show ]
  

  EVIE LADIN, Float Downstream, (Evil Diane Music). Evie Ladin, banjo player for the Stairwell Siste...EVIE LADIN, Float Downstream, (Evil Diane Music). Evie Ladin, banjo player for
  the Stairwell Sisters, steps out here with her first solo album, and it is sweet. “I Love My Honey,” one of several public domain selections, opens the set in sterling old timey fashion. Next “Romeo,” the first of 10 originals here, is more modern, a tale of star-crossed love wafting on John R. Burr’s organ. These two set up a dynamic balancing modern and ancient that’s the album’s hallmark. Solid song craft performed wonderfully end to end; with Mike Marshall co-producing and with Evie playing prominently, you’d expect that. Very strongly recommended. — MT
  

• Midwest Records [+ Show ]
  

  Whew, here’s a high point for contemporary folk/lo-fi! When you have Mike Marshall and Lloyd Maines...Whew, here’s a high point for contemporary folk/lo-fi! When you have Mike Marshall and Lloyd Maines both on your team, this has got to be something special. As you listen to it, you’ll think of a dozen things this reminds you of but strangely, you won’t be able to put your finer on any of them. A sure winner for contemporary folk fans that have an affection for old timey vibes, this is no throwback and this is no desecration. It’s contemporary down home music at the top of it’s game. There’s been a lot of entries in this genre lately, and many have had a lot on the ball, but this one simply hits it out of the park. Well done.

• East Bay Express [+ Show ]
  

  With all the alt-country and folksy fusion bands that are around right now, it's interesting to hear...With all the alt-country and folksy fusion bands that are around right now, it's interesting to hear a straight-up folk album for once. Evie Ladin plays folk in a way that's faithful to tradition — classic storytelling; crisp, clean banjo and folk guitar; and sweet vocals. If you like folk you'll love this, and if you're from the South it'll feel like taking a trip home.

• Old-Time Herald [+ Show ]
  

  Old-Time Herald June-July 2010 -Toni Williams Evie Ladin is likely best known as the energetic b...Old-Time Herald June-July 2010
  -Toni Williams
  
  Evie Ladin is likely best known as the energetic banjo player and flatfooter in the Stairwell Sisters, a California female old-time band. In this newest project she flexes her songwriting muscles and stretches her banjo borders.
  
  This is not an old-time CD, but one that presents her more as a contemporary singer-songwriter with a folksy flair. Her rich and smoky voice resembles Natalie Merchant’s, and her songs are as fetching as Nancy Griffith’s. (She composed all but one of the nontraditional songs.) They’re songs of life and love and loss – some celebratory, some contemplative, and some plaintive. They’re all catchy, with mature lyrics and skilled phrasing. The production is top-notch, with an array of instruments – mandolin, Dobro, organ, drums, fiddle, even tuba on the Mardi Gras song – taking turns adding texture and seasoning with just the right restrained touch. And the vocal harmonies, while used sparingly, are lovely and full.
  
  Evie plays clawhammer on most of the cuts. On one or two the banjo seems almost superfluous, and oddly syncopated, but as a whole it’s surprisingly fitting and successful.
  
  There’s a mighty fine, get-down version of Doc Boggs’ bluesy “Mistreated Mama,” plus a few hoedown tunes that pick up the pace and add variety. I think these traditional cuts attest to Evie’s roots and range, but some listeners may feel they give the album a non-cohesiveness or scattered sense. Maybe the CD doesn’t know what it wants to be, but I know that I like and appreciate just about everything on it. Recommended for fans of the Stairwell Sisters, those who like to see old-time musicians expand into other fields, and those who like female singer-songwriters with full accompaniment.
  

Setlist

Set lists are amended for every venue, audience, festival - usually two 40-45 sets for a concert - a mix of traditional and original songs, seamlessly blended with percussive dance:
Set One
C I Love My Honey
C Charleston #1
C One Of These Days
Am Got You On My Mind
A Romeo
C Dance Me
C How Did You Know
A Dime Store Glasses →
Duo →
Dina-Keith duo →
Evie-Erik duo →
D Sleepy Eyed Joe


Set Two
A Float Downstream
Bb CooCoo
A Precious Days
D Maybe An Angel
Am Sugarbabe
D Going Across The Sea
Am Mistreated/Yew
A Home From Airy
A Floating Downstream
C Mardi Gras

Encore: Jump Back

Basic Requirements

Calendar