FROM STEEL CITY TO MUSIC CITY: The Unexpected Journey of Morgan Evans

Newcastle, Australia, 1985: a time of working-class hardship, where most men were destined to take up a trade or become a steel worker. But this wasn’t the future for the young Morgan Evans. Growing up in the sleepy suburb of Warners Bay under the influence of Silverchair and The Screaming Jets, few could have guessed that Morgan Evans would go on to become the next big thing for country music. With two critically acclaimed albums, an ARIA award, two Number 1 country albums, 1.5 million monthly listeners on Spotify, a highly anticipated EP just released, and a 21-date tour across America underway, Morgan Evans’ success is undeniable.

Despite how things may seem, Morgan’s success was far from an overnight one. His journey consisted of many chaotic and seemingly unrelated stepping stones that led to Nashville, aka Music City. To truly understand Morgan’s journey and his love of music, we have to go way back to 1989, when a four-year-old Morgan Evans was given a stack of classic country and rock records by his American aunt.

“It was like a Glen Campbell best of, a Garth Brooks best of, some Eagles, some Creedence Clearwater in there, some Deep Purple, some Dire Straits – so all just rock and roll and country of that era,” he explained. “They were just the sound of my childhood.” Safe to say, it was love at the first listen for Morgan: “I was just a kid singing in the back seat; I was just like, put that one on! Put that other one on!”. Sitting in the back seat for years singing his little heart out, he was blissfully unaware it was those very records that would go on to shape his entire future.

After spending his formative years listening to the likes of Garth Brooks and Eagles, Morgan went on to meet his best mate Nick Cook in kindergarten. After years of friendship between Nick and Morgan, soundtracked to classic rock and country, at age 15 the two became inspired to start a band. When Morgan began jamming, he had no plans and no idea what he wanted to become, he just had a true love for music.

“I think I’ve just always wanted to play music,” Morgan said. “Whatever kind of music has inspired me has just been what I’ve done.” And that’s exactly what he did, spending years with his mates playing anything and everything he loved and that inspired him. “I think the first rehearsal we played Eagles and then the next one we played Metallica,” Morgan said. “I remember I was trying to rap at some point, I was screaming; it was a great way to experience music.” The next few years of his life were spent performing chaotic rock music in and around Newcastle, but it wasn’t until he saw Keith Urban play live for the first time that Morgan felt truly inspired to do what he really loved – country music. “When I saw Keith Urban play for the first time I was like, ‘Hang on! All this old country stuff that I grew up listening to can be sort of combined with the rock stuff that I like and it can be its own thing’.”

Morgan spent many years on the road playing rock with his band, and country as a solo act; it was these many years of hard work on the road he accredits to his popularity today. “When I’m out on the road, doing radio promo, or I’m headlining a festival, there’s always something I feel, like I’m only doing what I’m doing because I played whatever bar, and that could be any bar in Australia, I feel like I’ve played all of them,” he said. Eventually Morgan’s band life led him to a show in his future home of Nashville. After a few visits from 2007 onwards, Morgan truly fell in love with the town known as Music City.

“Every day there would just be such a great experience, and I just wanted to come back and do it again, and then do it again and again.” After a long 10 years playing with his band and playing his solo music, the pieces of the puzzle began to fall into place for Morgan as he returned to Nashville to write and record his self-titled debut solo LP. The said LP released in 2014, and Morgan returned to Australia to tour it for three months. “We’d kinda been to most places that we could play and sell some tickets in, and I thought that was the time, that was the time to just pack everything up, sell everything and move over.”

Living on the other side of the world, Morgan did concede there are times when he feels homesick, as anyone would. “You realise you don’t have all the regular things that you love to do, like you don’t get up and go for a surf with your mates in the morning because the beach is like seven hours away and there are no waves there anyway,” he said. Despite this, the music in Music City has kept him feeling right at home.

“Whenever I’m doing music stuff,” he said, “if I’m writing, recording, if I’m on the road or jumping on a bus, or a plane or on a stage, of course, I feel super at-home here.

With his new EP just released, it’s doubtless he’s been hard at work in the studio again, but this time with a full band. After spending years alone on stage with a looper, and also locked inside like most of us were during the better part of 2020, Morgan felt he wanted a more human touch to his new music. “All the music I’ve been listening to and playing has been very human music: less electronic, less like DJ, just all people playing music and stuff,” he said. So Morgan decided to get a band together and really make some noise. “I got into the studio with just this epic band,” he said, and with regards to the recording process, Morgan said: “It was like ‘Let’s go and make some noise’ and when we finally got in there and pressed record, it felt like that too.” He’s also not lost the childlike wonder that comes with first learning music; talking about Dann Huff’s production, he said: “It’s the closest thing to magic I think I’ve ever seen with my own eyes.”

Over in the studio, Morgan has just been having way too much fun, loving the recording process, and loving playing with the band. He also spoke highly of his band and other collaborators, even describing his producer, Dann Huff, as “probably the greatest guitarist of all time”. Now that he’s done in the studio, Morgan is on the road with his band, performing across America until November before taking the show to Europe next May as part of the Good Day tour with Brett Eldredge.

When asked about his future, Morgan said he remains positive, knowing he’ll be happy following his calling in life, now that he’s found his place in the world. “It doesn’t feel like [I’ve found my place in the world] every day, but as I talk to you it really does,” he said. “I’m really grateful for the journey getting here, as well as the fact that I’m even here right now.”

WRITTEN BY LUKA FORMAN

PHOTOGRAPHY BY P. TRACY