The last time you saw Tom Evanchuck, he was likely walking off-stage after displaying forty-minutes of dizzying acoustic folk and blues, finger-picking like a mad appalachian and hammering and sliding like a blues troubadour, burying his wife then going home to see his sweet mayapple.
After extensive touring in New York, West Virginia, Colorado, Pennsylvania and Kentucky and sharing the stage with folk-legends Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Josh White Jr. and Carolyn Hester, Akron rock-icon Chrissie Hynde and receiving unheralded response at The Kent State Folk Festival and Cincinnati’s MidPoint Music Festival, Tom has taken a step back to enjoy the dynamics and sounds of playing with a band. Armed with his Les Paul and his cousin Anthony Evanchuck on drums, the Evanchucks have slowly but methodically haunted the highways and side streets of northeast Ohio like Clint Eastwood in search of a bounty. Playing warehouse spaces, bowling alleys, houses and crowded hipster bars, teasing audiences with his up-tempo folk and blues then blindsiding them with this juggernaut of pulsating, gritty rock and soul that appears to be the hybrid child of Akron-natives The Black Keys, Otis Redding and Lightning Hopkins.
When you hear Tom croon, then shout with a slight crack in his voice, “let me slow, down and roll with you” it makes you want to jump in your car and hit the gas until you max out at 120 miles per hour; drink, dance and shout at the top of your lungs until you’re drunk, exhausted and have lost your voice. As the online magazine AltOhio mentioned, “Ohio has a new son of soul and his name is Tom Evanchuck.”

RIGHT ON!
Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.