Album Notes

Chickaloon is the debut solo album by Alaskan artist, Evan Phillips. Produced by Don Morrell.


Evan Phillips' new album, Chickaloon is truly interesting. It ranges from optimistic rock/ pop/ country hybrids to narrative blues/ folk and down tempo ballads. It is full of different but contemporary textures: slide guitar, bright banjo, harmonica, fiddle, both clean acoustic and fuzzy, effects-heavy art-house electric guitars, and unaccompanied solo guitar. The original lyrics are a pleasure to consider and could never be mistaken as simply a vocal accompaniment to the highly cool backing. Phillips' voice is comfortable crooning, as in "Slack Jaw Willy", a Dylan-esque soldier's ballad, or belting it out, as on "Been Down", a high energy march toward freedom and away from sadness.
There are two extremely interesting tracks that deserve attention, even though they each last only 30 seconds. They are subtitled "noise 1" and "noise 2", but they are far from noise. These two instrumental tracks called "Old Glenn" and "Cold Steel", sound totally original, blending disparate styles into an intoxicating mix of ambient sounds that would ordinarily clash. The result is fabulous, full of playful exaction and genre-mixing joy. At the end of the short tracks, the listener craves the sound introduced. Hopefully the sounds on those two tracks hint at things to come.

-Scott Woodham, Anchorage Press

"...the kind of alt-country that makes you want to swivel your feet on a hardwood floor, shaking your rump with a bottle of whiskey in your hand".

-FasterLouder.com

"...the disc rolls along with the relaxed feel of a cross-country road trip, where the radio jumps from folk music stations, to alt-country to old country and back again".

-AK This Month

"This is America's music..."

-Josh Niva
Anchorage Daily News