Album Notes

Autoharp & Evoharp
One of the finest performers and teachers of folk style autoharp, Evo is known as the truest in the style of Appalachian master autoharper Kilby Snow. His books and videos are widely distributed and his design of autoharp known as the Evoharp is highly acclaimed and distributed nationally. His playing style is well displayed on his own cds and also on the landmark autoharp compilation known as Autoharp Legacy.

Call it luck, but Evo Bluestein was born into the right family-a musical family!
For many years, he performed in a string band with his siblings and father, the late Gene Bluestein, a well-known folklorist and English professor, first at the University of Minnesota, and later at California State University, Fresno.

Because of his father’s academic career, Evo learned folk music traditions from many legendary performers and teachers, who came into his home as guest artists and often stayed for the entire semester while they taught at the university. During his early years, Evo was extremely fortunate to have direct exposure to many of the great bearers of American folk tradition. Among those with whom he has studied are: Dewey Balfa, Dennis McGee, Bois Sec Ardoin, Tommy Jarrell, Bessie Jones and Jean Ritchie.

Professor Bluestein’s teaching career led the family abroad. They first performed as a family band in Paris. Prior to France, they lived in Finland for a year. Subsequent year-long teaching positions in China and Japan resulted in the family band touring those countries, as well as Israel. Back in the States, when Evo was 18, he formed his first band, The Roundtown Boys--a string band that performed mostly in California. By the time Evo was in his mid-twenties, he had performed throughout the United States. In recent years, Evo has added Germany to his list of summer music engagements.

During the early 1980s, The Bluesteins often toured California and started their tradition of reunion concerts in Fresno. The first family reunion concert in honor of Gene Bluestein in 1999. A commercial video of that show is available. The family has produced numerous record albums including several children's folk collections and albums representing their expanded interest in music from Cajun and klezmer to zydeco and reggae.

"Kilby Snow set the benchmarks by which all others are judged; Evo is the only player I've heard to compare. This disk transcends autoharp music too, being a fine oldtime country music display." Kerry Blech, Victory Review