The emotional rock and roll comes back to close things as “Be Mine” and “On Your Way” both burn in the vein of a textured, rich Southern style. Boys & Girls is a song focused effort from Alabama Shakes, showing off their talent as writers excellently; those searching for blissful blues/soul/rock in 2012 need look no further.
You need just a few more adjectives and addendums to nail all that is Evans, who cut his teeth playing jazz lofts in New York City starting in the late 70s, logged time with Miles Davis and many others throughout the 80s, remained a core member of the adventurous group Elements well into the 90s, and has over the past 20 years or so made armfuls of fascinating records in a wide variety of contexts and combos, jazz and non. This is the same Bill Evans who’s equally comfortable sitting in with the Allman Brothers Band – as he did, again, during this year’s Beacon run in New York – as he is with Herbie Hancock or Bela Fleck.
