Evan Bartels with Christopher Paul Stelling

Evan Bartels

Evan Bartels creates an epic, cinematic landscape with little more than an acoustic guitar and vocals on his new EP, To Make You Cry. Recorded in his handmade cabin just outside of Nashville, the stunning six-song set not only takes notice of those people who are often unseen but also explores the sacrifices and spirituality of a working musician.

“I wanted these stories and songs to be very intimate, where it feels like you're hearing something through a wall, or you're seeing something through a window, and you perhaps shouldn’t be,” Bartels says. “Also, I wanted it to feel expansive. I wanted it to sound like the West, which is often stark and intensely beautiful in a way that takes your breath away.”

The first track released from the project is “Lula,” a song Bartels wrote in 2017 shortly after his decision to abandon his assorted jobs and pursue music full-time. He says he held onto the composition for all these years because he knew it was special, yet he didn’t feel that the narrative fit any of his past albums. Written entirely without judgment, the song portrays a woman who lives and dies on her own terms after years of personal setbacks.

“I wanted the first song, for better or for worse, to be a song that zooms in on humanity,” Bartels says. “I wanted to have something that when people hear it, they go, ‘This feels like it matters.’ It feels like it matters to me. It’s a scary idea, putting out a storyteller song about an intense subject matter that’s predominantly acoustic. Not a lot of flash or ‘look at me’ there. Part of me wonders, ‘Is that a mistake?’ And that’s what makes me think, ‘If you’re a little scared, that’s the way.’”

Raised in the tiny town of Tobias, Nebraska, Bartels started writing songs, playing guitar, and performing at 13 years old. To encourage the musical talent of his two sons, Bartels’ father built a backyard wooden shack, which they nicknamed Coop Studio. With the full support of his parents, Bartels diverged from the standard path of a small-town Midwestern kid and started playing gigs wherever he could. In 2017, as he and his wife were expecting their first child, Bartels embarked on a five-month tour, trying to establish relationships with listening rooms and other small venues. 

A few weeks in, he pulled up to his gig in Nashville only to find it had been canceled. Exasperated and hurt, he sought refuge in a smoky bar, where he chatted up a stranger. Their conversation led him to write “Death of a Good Man,” the opening track on To Make You Cry. The character in that song is not so different from the woman in “Montana,” whose life is lived in the lonely shadow of an alcoholic husband and the dead son she discovered in his bedroom. She manages to get through the day with the knowledge that she could get to the state line of Montana by morning if she ever chose to.

“If you want to make songs into art, you give that pain a voice, and you bring it out into the world,” Bartels says. “As a teenager, I read Bukowski and Hemingway, and that’s who I wanted to be. So I looked for those experiences, and I put myself in situations that I shouldn’t have. I feel like my life has so many times been dipping my toes into very dangerous water, and luckily, the bank just never gave way. But I don’t regret doing that, because it shapes everything I do.”

After the first three songs, Bartels turns the lens on himself. The second half of To Make You Cry illustrates how he views himself in a changing world, and how his choices have affected his family. For example, “The Highway” confronts his own mortality. Referencing the title track, he adds, “To be told not to cry is to be told, ‘Do not live in this moment right now. Do not inconvenience others with your perception of reality.’ As an artist, I want to push back against that.” Concluding the project, the unresolved production at the end of “Waves” is intentional, signaling the notion that self-reflection never truly ends. 

The initial sessions for To Make You Cry were recorded in Bartels’ cabin without a metronome, pitch correction software, or punching in. With little more than rented microphones, red wine, and dim lighting, these six songs came to life in their own time. Bartels teamed with his manager Rico Csabai and audio engineer Dave “Squirrel” Covell to capture the performances live, with only acoustic guitar and vocal. The sparse surroundings provided an ideal landscape for Bartels’ expressive baritone. Whenever they felt they’d gotten the take they needed, they moved on to the next song without pausing for playback. Two days later, they revisited the performances, then enhanced them with guest musicians Paul DeFiglia on bass and Russ Pahl on pedal steel. “Once we had it all, we just took away everything that didn’t need to be there,” Bartels says.

Bartles says he hopes for recognition with To Make You Cry, but not for himself. Instead, he wants listeners to hear the EP and take a different view of the changing world around them.

“I’m interested in putting myself in situations where I’m going to notice things – where I have to notice things,” he says. “Even if you’re just observing, that’s as much redemption as you’re going to get out of some of these stories, because the reality of life is sometimes things just aren’t good. That doesn’t mean the story doesn’t need to be told or shared, or that somebody failed, or that it was something bad. Sometimes it just is what it is. Often there is no resolution. I think that’s a compelling way to tell a story.”
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Christopher Paul Stelling

To date Atlanta, Georgia based songwriter Christopher Paul Stelling has released 7 albums and played thousands of concerts across the US and EU. Over the last decade Stelling has toured as both headliner and as support for Son Little, Mavis Staples, and The Devil Makes Three, Ben Harper (who produced his 2020 album Best of Luck) and many others. Stelling released a trio of albums for indie favorite Anti-records (Tom Waits, Merle Haggard, Niko Case) and has performed multiple times at Newport Folk Festival and on CBS Saturday Morning. Stelling is known for his intricate finger- style guitar and road tested vocal delivery.
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