Photo by Matt Marcinkowski
St. Louis indie singer/songwriter Beth Bombara needed a break. Touring in support of her 2017 album, Map & No Direction, and looking for a fresh start, she cozied up in a small cabin named Evergreen in the Colorado Rockies. “I needed to recharge,” says the singer, who’s been playing in bands since she was 16. “I did a lot of hiking and reflected on the past year. I was touring a lot more, so I quit my full-time job to dedicate myself to it.”
But in the mountains, a surprise: Two songs began to bloom. “I wasn’t writing a new record—at least, I didn’t think I was,” Bombara says. The almost-by-accident result of that trip is her new full-length album, Evergreen. It’s Bombara’s sixth, and she says it’s different from its predecessors in that it “had no intention at first of being recorded or produced—it just kind of happened.” Bombara moved to St. Louis in 2007, the year her solo career took off, and released her first EP, Abandon Ship. “I like how St. Louis takes people by surprise,” she says. “Some view it as a flyover city. When I moved, I thought I would be here for only a year.” Two years later, Bombara collaborated with her husband, Kit Hamon, who remains part of her now four-person band (the other two are electric guitarist and background vocalist Samuel Gregg, who joined in 2017, and percussionist Mike Schurk, who joined a year later).
Just as unexpected was how the 10 songs on Evergreen came together. After traveling home, Bombara had a new sense of creative purpose. Two songs down, she and the band dedicated a month or two to the remaining eight, written on the run—in friends’ basements, during sound checks, and on the road. Each of the windows-down summer jams “stems from a combo of personal introspective things that I was going through at the time,” Bombara says. “I was observing other things in the world, the political sphere at the time, or making observations of people I know.” Although the album is deeply rooted in personal experience, the singer describes its golden-hour vibe as having “a tinge of hopefulness.”
“The album resembles resiliency, and grappling with the ups and downs of life, ” she says.
As soon as the songs were completed, the band walked into the studio and knocked out the whole album in less than a week. Songwriter Seth Porter pitched in for “Upside Down,” and Bombara’s Oklahoma songwriter friend John Calvin Abney joined in on the keys for the whole album.
The beginning of the album might have been a surprise, but the next step is plotted out: The band is touring together for the first time, starting this August.
Liner notes
Three songs on Evergreen, explained by Beth Bombara
Upside Down
Written by Bombara, Kit Hamon, and Seth Porter, the electric vibe of “Upside Down” “is a reminder to myself to embrace change,” Bombara says. “I think that perspective is really healthy.” The lyrics are also an indication of better things ahead: “Leave behind your could’ve-beens, and we’ll get going somewhere else.”
Tender Hearted
Acoustic, percussive, and harmonic, this is one of the more upbeat tunes on Evergreen. The title refers to Bombara’s relationship with husband Hamon, both their marriage and their performing in a band together.
I Only Cry When I’m Alone
“My favorite song from the album,” Bombara says. “I remember a time when social media wasn’t a thing. That transition from then to now with social media...it’s so easy to control the images we put out for people to see. You can have this really well-curated life on the Internet, but we have a screen hiding our vulnerability.” A phrase from the song, “filter every frame,” refers to showing others only what we want them to see.
