Morgan Evans. Photo: P Tracy
Australian-born singer-songwriter Morgan Evans has a busy fall season ahead of him. As support on Brett Eldredge‘s “Good Day Tour 2021,” which kicked off on Sept. 16, Evans has also recently unveiled plans for his next studio project: The Country And The Coast Side A.
The six-song EP, set for release on Oct. 29, includes his newest release “Country Outta My Girl,” written by Evans, Ben Johnson, Hunter Phelps, and Mark Holman and produced by Dann Huff. The upbeat track gives not-so-subtle mentions of his wife, Kelsea Ballerini, and the habits and traits that she picked up from her hometown of Knoxville, Tennessee, and has taken with her all over the world.
Also included on the forthcoming project is Evans’ current radio single, “Love Is Real,” which has spent six consecutive weeks at the top of the AU Country Radio chart and is currently climbing the airplay charts in the United States. Written with Parker Welling and Jordan Reynolds, the timely track aims to capture the feeling of when everything in the world feels right, which is a welcomed feeling in our world right now.
“I tried to write the title a couple of different ways, but I felt like it was trying to be too clever or something,” Evans tells MusicRow. “When we wrote the song it was really as simple as that small feeling, but as songs tend to do, it’s found new meanings. That one feeling has become, ‘Even when all this awful stuff is happening around us, those feelings are still out there. Make sure you look for them and make sure you appreciate them when they come.’ It’s growing every time we get to play it and every time I get to talk to someone about it which is a great feeling as a songwriter.”
Of the new things that have been brought out of the pandemic, Evans has also emerged with a full band backing him for the first time since moving to the states.
Formerly using a loop pedal to build his tracks in real-time during live performances, Evans jokes, “I feel like I’m on vacation on stage now because all I have to do is play guitar and sing.
“In one way, it’s so nice because I can actually look elsewhere and I can connect with people. I can be in the moment rather than being in the technical moment of the loop pedal. In another way, it’s just so nice to have the camaraderie of a band and know that we’re doing this together,” he explains. “It’s what I started playing music for. I didn’t start playing music to be like, ‘Oh, I want to be this singer-songwriter that travels the world by myself.’ I wanted to play guitar in a band and I’m getting to do that again.”
Evans will be traveling around the country on the “Good Day Tour 2021” which has upcoming stops in Orlando, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Denver, and Salt Lake City, among others, before wrapping in Verona, New York on Nov. 6.
Before the tour’s launch, Evans shared, “I’m just looking forward to the feeling of playing live again. I’ve noticed at these [one-off] shows that everybody is equally as excited to be at a live show again. You get the energy from the stage going back and forth from the crowd, and it’s a pretty magical time to play music. Nobody’s taking it for granted right now.”
Named one of Country Radio Seminar’s 2020 New Faces of Country Music, Evans has earned nearly 610 million career streams, topped the charts with his debut single “Kiss Somebody,” and spent 25 weeks in the No.1 spot in Australia with “Day Drunk.” His upcoming EP, The Country And The Coast Side A, is available everywhere on Oct. 29.
The Country And The Coast Side A Track List:
1. Love Is Real
2. Country Outta My Girl
3. Beautiful Tonight
4. American Dream Truck
5. Sing Along Drink Along
6. Love Is Real (Int’l Mix)
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