By Deborah Evans Price, senior music editor, gmc.com
It’s no secret that sometimes the most powerful art is the product of a difficult time in an artist’s life. A combination of creativity and angst can lead to vulnerability and a deeper connection to an audience. In the case of Anthony Evans, it fuels his new CD Undisguised.
A broken engagement became a catalyst that prompted the gifted singer/songwriter to re-evaluate his life and music.
“I think I have always been truthful,” he tells gmc.com. “But over the years, I’ve faced some stuff that I couldn’t hide. I went out in front of an audience and told them, ‘I don’t want to do this tonight.’ It was after my broken engagement. Through that awkward moment of honesty came one of the most connected nights of worship. I told them my story and I sang songs anyway and it was a night of healing. So from this point on, no matter what’s happening and what’s going on, no matter how hard it is – and it’s hard at times – I’m just going to tell the truth to my audience, knowing that that is my job. I’m a Christian musician. It’s about people leaving [saying more than] ‘oh, that was cool.’ I want them to leave with something bigger.”
It’s obvious Evans is in a very different place, and he readily admits it wasn’t easy to get through some of the changes that have taken place.
“It was a mutual break,” he says of his six-month engagement. “It was very hard. I saw my true reflection in her and it wasn’t her fault. I think a lot of it was me seeing things I needed to work on and it was just overwhelming for me because I’m such a performer and want everybody to think everything is great.”
On Undisguised, Evans wrote nine of the 12 tracks and is confident he’s delivered his most personal collection.
“It was a fruitful time. You wouldn’t think that during heartbreak you would want to write worship, but that’s what came out,” he says. “I was very intrigued by that – out of my heartache I wrote worshipful songs that ultimately I get to put on a record and communicate with audiences. [If] my pain brings thousands of people over the course of this year into a deeper worship experience, I would go through it again.”
Among those powerful new worship songs is “Wait,” a song inspired by Isaiah 40:31 that Evans wrote with a friend. On “Rejoice,” he enlisted Kari Jobe to sing with him. “I met Kari years ago at Gateway Church [in Southlake, Texas] and I remember thinking the first time I heard her ‘that girl can lead worship!’ She’s great at that and I had no idea that a few years later she’d be the top worship leader in America,” he says. “I was at her church when I started writing that song and she walked in and I asked ‘what do you have to do tomorrow?’ She didn’t have anything, so I flew her to Nashville and we worked on the song.”
After they finished writing it, Evans invited her to sing it with him. “It’s a great reminder to all of us as we face life’s hardships – even if we’re not going through anything personally, you turn on TV and we’re seeing life’s hard for a lot of people – and for those of us who believe we’ve been promised that great is our reward and kingdom of heaven is ours. I just wanted to remind people through that song.”
In order to capture the feel of a live performance on CD, Evans enlisted some of his favorite musicians in the recording process.
“I translated the songs by having some of my favorite live players come play the album in the studio,” he says. “I can tend to lose some of my feelings if I just use a session player that’s not connected to me. The people who played on this record, they knew me, they knew what I was going through, they know what happened and where the song is coming from. I’m real big on relationship with my players and the people around me who are close to me. I’m into that more than I am everything being musically perfect. I just want there to be an authenticity.”
Undisguised is the first project to be released on Evans’ own label. “With the relationships that I’ve made over the years I thought, I could really do this,” says Evans, who partnered with his former record company home, INO Records, for distribution. “Given the way the industry is changing, I feel like this is the time to start your own thing and create something substantial.”
These days Evans is relaxed and happy.
“I was uncomfortable because of what was going on emotionally inside of me but now I’m more comfortable in my skin and I’m excited about what is going on in my life. I’m very content.”
