Michigan Music: Banjo Mike Evans — Obsession … or passion?
Photo of Banjo Mike Evans by Robert Beech
by Steve Girbach
Within minutes of stepping into Mike Evans’s home in Brooklyn, Mich., to do this interview, I began to see his obsession with the banjo, its history, music, and culture. I probably should have realized it sooner — after all, he does reference it in his name, Banjo Mike Evans.
“When you get here, enter through the egress on the left side of the house” was Mike’s instruction to me when I arrived at his home. When I did, I was instantly transported into an Irish pub. A space so authentic, any Galway native would find comfort in its barstools. Three walls of the “Pub“ are covered with stringed acoustic instruments, more than 30 of which are banjos. Most are custom made; some very rustic in nature.
“Every other month or so we have a jam party — they’re a lot of fun, you need to come out to one,” he told me. Color me there, Mr. Evans!
Mike is of Welsh decent (his family speaks the Welsh language in the home). If you don’t know Mike, you may think him a bit intimidating at first; he’s a good-sized, bearded man, a onetime mixed martial art fighter, head shaved on the sides and very long in the middle, about to his mid back. One arm is “sleeved“ with Celtic tribal tattoos, the other adorned with musical notes and, you guessed it, a banjo (yet another clue to his obsession). He couldn’t be kinder.
Mike is a classically trained musician, having graduated from the music program at Western Michigan University studying tuba under the tutelage of Andy Miller and Roger Rocco, a world-famous brass instructor. “I was raised by my grandparents. My grandfather was my best friend. I wanted to be like him. He was singing ‘bawdy’ songs all the time, you know, stuff kids probably shouldn’t hear, those old Irish limericks and such,” he says. “We’re of Welsh decent. Welsh is the land of song, so he was always whistling, humming, and singing. Dude was always the life of the party.
“He was a tuba player, too, so that’s why I picked up tuba, but he always wanted to play banjo. He unfortunately passed before he picked it up. So I was in a Celtic band a while ago and I knew nothing about banjo; I was playing bodhrán drum. I was thinking, Man, I want a nice campfire instrument to play. You can’t just pick up a tuba and serenade people around a campfire. So I picked up a banjo, not knowing anything about it. At first, I snapped a bunch of strings, because I was trying to tune it normal, but I had bought a long-neck banjo from a pawn shop and was putting regular stings on it. It was frustrating at first, but after a lot of reading and YouTube watching, I fell in love with clawhammer (style) and the old banjo sound, that old mountain music out of Appalachia.”
Mike explained that when Africans brought their style of music (the banjo is an African instrument) and then the Irish came and settled in Appalachia with the newly freed slaves, those two cultures made a unique American experience in that mountain music you hear today. Asked if he enjoys the Scruggs 3-finger banjo style (a bluegrass music staple), Mike responds, “I have a certain appreciation for it, I certainly do. Banjo is a crazy-hard instrument compared to other things, so anyone who can pick it up and make any sort of noise on it, I appreciate! I don’t know if other people do, because you always hear the banjo jokes. I fell in love with it, its history, its sound. I also make banjos,” he says, pointing to the wall. “I made that ‘minstrel’ banjo right there. I also have a lot of musician friends, so if something needs repaired or set up, they bring it to me. I love it! I teach, too, and one thing I reiterate to my students is, I hate the word ‘talent’ — if you invest the time, you will be good.”
Mike also teaches other Celtic instruments such as bagpipes, bodhrán, and concertina, as well as brass — tuba, euphonium, trombone — adding, “...Anything but French horn. My lips are too big for that! All out of my home.“
It’s amazing to think Mike has only been playing banjo for about eight years at the time of this writing. Impressive, knowing that Mike was a member of The War and Treaty, a husband and wife (Michael and Tanya Trotter), Grammy Award–winning music group that reached international prominence. “I played bass trombone and banjo with them,“ he shares. “It was kind of a weird thing setting up two opposing instruments on the stage like that. It was a lot of fun, but I had to leave. I couldn’t be on the road all the time. I missed my oldest son’s first day of kindergarten because I was on the road. I remember crying in the airport. They’re growing so fast it’ll be a blink of an eye and I’ll be out on the road again and they’ll be calling me from college telling me to slow down, old man!”
Then came Railcar Graffiti. “After the Celtic group I was in disbanded, I was having so much fun playing out, I couldn’t let it go, but I also couldn’t sing,” Mike explains. “I couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket. So, first I focused on banjo, thinking someone’s gonna need a banjo player. Then I sort of started to sing along with playing, just training my ear. I was horrible! I don’t know how my wife put up with it. For whatever reason, one day it just clicked, and I started picking up all these songs. I think it was six or seven months after picking up banjo, I was out screwing around, playing at a local bar, and they were like, Hey, you want to play here? I was like, Absolutely! When I got home, I thought, Oh, no, I only know about five songs! I have a buddy that I grew up with, we were in our first punk band together. He was strumming acoustic guitar and I said, Hey, St. Patrick’s Day is coming up, it’ll be fun to play together. Then his girlfriend (now wife) played viola. We needed a fiddle player. So I bought a cheap fiddle online and gave it to her to play. She’s now one of the finest fiddle players I know.”
So after adding a few more multi-instrumentalists, including an upright bass player and a mandolin player, Railcar Graffiti was formed.
Describing Railcar’s sound, Mike says, “Old-time music, everything from the hills of Appalachia to Ireland and everything in between. Groups like the Freight Hoppers are a huge influence. We have a deep library — one of the oldest songs we do is from 1650. We write our own music, too, we just need to commit to it more. This year I promised I’m going to write a lot more.”
When asked what he sees down the road for Railcar, Mike states, “My oldest is into music composition and my youngest is into the fiddle. We got her a fiddle for Christmas, and she follows Carly (the Railcar fiddler) around when we jam. My plan for Railcar is, when the brakes are beat off me and I can’t do it anymore, I’m gonna give it to the kids. Assuming that’s the case, I want the band to keep going. I want it to be like one of those bands like the Freight Hoppers — they’ve had a hundred different versions of them — or these old family bands that have been through a couple of generations. I want at least one of my kids to keep Railcar alive and keep the old songs alive. Because that’s why I started the whole thing in the first place. I love these old songs and traditions so much. A lot of people just don’t realize how great they are”.
So maybe obsession isn’t the right word to describe Mike’s relationship to the banjo and old-time music. I think passion and commitment are a better fit. To learn more about Banjo Mike Evans and his group Railcar Graffiti, look them up at:
https://www.facebook.com/BanjoMikeEvans
https://www.facebook.com/RailcarGraffiti
https://railcargraffiti.bandcamp.com
Photo of Railcar Graffiti courtesy of Railcar Graffiti
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