Locals Covering Locals: Eva Walsh Covers Allison Francis
While it may seem egotistical on my own part, I am going to quote myself to introduce this next Locals Covering Locals act… “I will say this about Eva’s fiddle playing, she is the most tasteful musician I have had the pleasure of playing with. She knows exactly what to play, when to play it and never overdoes it. That, on top of the fact that she always has a smile on her face…”. I could end why I asked Ms. Walsh to be a part of this project right there, but I won’t.
The very first time I met Eva was by chance, I suppose. I had met Mark Whitaker (who plays banjo on this track) at an in the round gig, was floored by his playing and asked if he would want to play a show in the same vein, except we don’t take turns playing our songs, per se, but rather take turns leading songs while everyone else in the round plays your song with you. He agreed and asked if it would be cool to bring along a friend who he had been rehearsing stuff with. A fiddle playing, ukulele pickin’, songwriting friend. I agreed and he showed up with Eva to the Plough and Stars one fateful evening that will forever cement Eva as one of my favorite people and musicians. Literally every single note she played that evening added something colossally wonderful to all of my songs. I didn’t know they could sound that way, but they did. Fast forward a few weeks and I am back playing at the Plough and Eva showed up from another gig to just have a drink and take in some music with her fiddle in tow. I immediately made her join me for a song, which then escalated into her playing for my entire set.
This is why I have such respect for Eva. She not only is the most tasteful player I know or have ever played with, she is also extremely giving with her talents. She genuinely loves the music. I mean all music. You can see it in her eyes when she plays and her sincerity when she speaks about playing with other folks. Many people love music and performing for some of the wrong reasons…you know, the everyone pay attention to me while I sit up here syndrome. I expect Eva would be just as eager to come hang out and create music in a living room, in a tiny listening room, a coffeehouse, a noisy bar, a large rock club, or luckily for all of us in this case, a studio for a community recording project.
Another thing Eva brought to this was a different perspective. She chose Allison Francis’s song “Secret Sounds”. A song, that I may not have heard if she had not brought it to the table. This is what I initially wanted to do with this project. Spin the web and expand it to reach not just the small community within my own grasp, but to cast it out far and wide to encompass a great family and community of music. She truly helped in doing this.
