Chatting with Nathan Fox Evans

Photo by Alys Barrow

Hey Nathan, how’s things with you?

Hey! Things are moving along. Thanks for having me.

So set the scene... where are you right now, and what have you got planned today?

Well, today I’m living a very glamorous life wrapping up a 42-foot wheelchair ramp I’ve been building for my parents. It’s the wheelchair ramp to end all wheelchair ramps — there are custom cedar post-toppers, 60 feet of goat wire, a 4-by-10 platform in the middle, and enough wood to build a sea-worthy ship.

OK, so that sounds quite the mammoth task! Something simpler for you right now though… introduce yourself to our readers.

I’m Nathan Evans Fox, a country/Americana songwriter (and sometimes fiddle player) from the hills of western North Carolina. I have a friend who called me a “gas station poet,” and I like that one. All I’m trying to do is make songs that feel like the strange, vernacular gas stations I’d find back home where you have a little bit of commercial trash, a little bit of finely-honed regional marketing (usually some kind of cardboard cut-out showcasing a local college team or stock car driver), and a little bit of homemade jam somebody’s grandmama is selling by the counter.

You just released your new album Wasted Love, what can you tell me about it in two sentences?

This new record is an ode to my late grandmother who always wanted me to “play a fast song.” So I wrote her a whole record of mostly upbeat, hillbilly songs I think she would have liked.

How did the record come together; did you write it all in the same time period or have you collected the songs over time?

Usually, I like to make records that reflect a common period of time. I think it makes a record feel more personal and idiosyncratic to hear an artist iterate on what they’re working through at the time. Most of my favorite records do that, so that’s what I tend to do, and it’s what I did for this record. I think the earliest songs were written in January 2020 and the latest was written in June of the same year.

What was the experience of recording the album like?

I really enjoyed making this record, which (to be frank) I can’t say for all my records. I really wanted to have fun on this one — it was a pandemic project that felt like a break from the constant deluge of bad news. I had been listening to a lot of country records from Kacey Musgraves, Eric Church, and Brent Cobb, and really got attached to some of the looser, more playful moments in some of their tracks. There’s a kind of fun and freedom in some of those moments that feels like it translates straight from the artists to the record. So I decided to not overwork things. Sure, I wanted to keep the tracks short and keep the record moving along — but I didn’t want to over-produce things or make sure every beat was perfect. That’s also why this record has a bit of a “country music mix-tape” feel to it — I’m having fun and experimenting with style and genre more than trying to create a super-cohesive sound for the entire album.

I really like ‘Mercedes Benz’ what’s that song about?

During the height of lockdown, my boo and I would go on long walks to try to keep our sanity. We kept walking by this garage selling this gorgeous early 90’s Mercedes Benz. I kept telling my boo how much that car fit her personality, and we’d imagine being able to buy it. At the same time, we were going through a lot: our apartment was being repaired from the tornado that came through Nashville a few weeks before lockdown; I was grieving my grandmother; and I had cancelled months of gigs. This song was written as an ode to the songs I missed playing with my friends and a dream of getting through a tough season.

Talk to me about ‘Carolina Boy’, what can you tell me about that song?

‘Carolina Boy’ comes from a conversation I had with my mom a few years ago about why I wouldn’t be moving back to my hometown despite loving North Carolina so much. Most of the stories in this song are true (except for the ones that could incriminate anyone).

What’s the song on the album that you’ve talked about the least?

I’ve probably talked about ‘What’s Intended’ the least. It’s a very personal song about grieving my grandmother who was a close friend and was the source of so much wisdom and feeling for me. It’s a very special song to play live with the band, and there’s some moves I did in the writing that I really love. Some of my favorite lyrics and concepts on the record are in that song.

Tell me about your hometown, what was it like growing up for you?

My hometown is interesting. It’s a blue-collar place in the foothills of North Carolina — not quite in the mountains but everybody who isn’t from the mountains calls it “the mountains.” It’s the kind of place lots of folks drove through on their way to more desirable tourist destinations. But, damn, it’s a very beautiful spot.

I grew up on family land a hundred yards from my grandmother. So my experience of my hometown was also very much my experience of deep-rootedness in a place where my family had lived and died. That can be complicated, but I’m grateful to have been raised in a world where there’s an ecosystem of generations and people and experiences. It’s really special to be in a place where the land conveys so much connection to your loved ones.

What are the best and worst things about living in Nashville?

Best thing about Nashville is the people — I have so many friends who are just a good hang. Plus, everyone is so daggum talented. It’s really a treat to be friends with so many folks who also happen to blow your lid back everyday with their talent and heart.

The worst thing about Nashville is that it’s so far away from North Carolina.

It’s quite the switch from training as a hospital chaplain to being a musician, what was the thing that made you make the change?

I tried doing both for many years, but it’s really exhausting to come home from the grind of the road and jump back into helping folks get through some of the most difficult experiences of their lives. On the road, it’s all ego — I’m put in front of a microphone every night and am expected to bring something that’s uniquely me to an audience. At the hospital, ego takes a back seat, and my job is to hold the biggest space possible for folks to work through whatever they need to work through. I quite literally had to toggle between making the most noise in the room to listening the most intently. And both of them have their place, but they both take a real toll as well. Eventually, I had to pick a focus just to keep myself from complete emotional and spiritual exhaustion.

If you could recommend one artist to hear this week, who would it be?

Dang. Picking just one is really difficult. Because my options are limited, I’m just going to go with what I’ve been listening to the most recently, and that’s the new Madi Diaz record, History of a Feeling. Good Lord, it brings the heat.

What’s the question we should have asked you today but haven’t?

I wish I would have had an opportunity to talk about my favorite movie because I would have talked about Logan Lucky, how it’s a vastly underrated film, makes the Ocean’s Eleven franchise look derivative, and how the accent work is perfect. But the accent work isn’t perfect because they nail the speech patterns (they definitely don’t). It’s perfect because they nail the “I might as well be talking to the wind” attitude that every good mountain accent carries.

Finally, how do you take your coffee?

I take my coffee black. Unless I’m feeling fancy and to-the-point and go for an oat-milk cortado.

To find out more about Nathan you can visit his website or check out what he’s up to on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram