Jack Evans

Jack Evans, a multi-instrumentalist, has been involved in the Scottish music scene for many years, as a member of Jock Tamson's Bairns, The Easy Club and The Cauld Blast Orchestra and more recently Keltik Elektrik.  He has also sessioned on and produced many other albums and has also written music for several stage presentations.

The Easy Club were without a doubt one of the most infuential groups ever to appear on the Scottish folk scene. Although fairly short-lived as a band, their music is still fresh and relevant today. "The Easy Club" name was taken from the 18th century literary club founded by Allan Ramsay (one of many clubs which met in taverns the better to allow for both drink and discussion). In 1984, the band sent shock waves throughout the scene with their scintillating brand of rhythm and swing fusing Scots folk music and jazz.  The musicians in the group were straight out of the top drawer and their concerts attracted large audiences eager to hear their 'new' sound. Much of their material was written by their cittern player Jim Sutherland who has gone on to a glittering career as a record producer and composer for films and television.

Jim Sutherland and Jack Evans both owned citterns made by Stefan Sobell, and they loved his instruments. One evening at a Bairns gig in Newcastle, Stefan appeared with two guitars he'd made.  Based on the design of an old 1930's Martin, these instruments had carved tops like a jazz guitar, but round soundholes like a folk guitar. As The Easy Club's music started to come together, Jack realised that his old flat top guitar wasn't cutting the mustard, and that Stefan's new guitar could be just what he needed. He asked him if he could make one with a very loud treble side, even at the expense of some bass. He explained that most factory guitars were made too bassy anyway so they'd sound good in the shop, and that he had a piece of spruce with grain so close that it would be perfect for the guitar I was after. It was.

“We ended up getting a guitar and a new spruce-top cittern from Stefan, whose mattress now bulged with Scottish tenners. I bought every chord book I could find, and sat down to change my playing style from the bass-heavy jugband stomp that I'd used with the Bairns, into something a bit more sophisticated - and swingy.”

“The style I was working on was dictated to some degree by the sound that the Sobell guitar made, and differed from what's sometimes referred to as the Shetland style of rhythm guitar, which has a very mobile bass line. I was happy to keep the bass simple, often just pedalling on the open A or E string, while the treble voicings of the chords moved up and down, adding melodic and percussive licks to the arrangement. This melodic chording style was similar to the way electric guitarists play, with riffy chords and shapes that you can slide around, high up the neck.”

Jack Evans and ‘Peerie Willie's 10th Chords’

Willie Johnson of Shetland started playing guitar with trad fiddlers in the early '30's, but learned jazz style comping and applied this to his dance band work.  These are the sorts of voicings (known as 10ths by many older players, often referred to as Freddie Green chords after their most famous exponent) that though originating as jazz chords can be used to great effect with more open folky voicings to create a varied style and sound.