Evan Silva: 6IX (digital outlets)

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It's Gett'n Late
Evan Silva: 6IX (digital outlets)

Those with a very long memory may recall Evan Silva as singer in The Action in the Sixties and as the more soulful man with the large Afro (he wrote his autobiography, Beneath the Afro, a few years back).

He's been long gone from this country but had a decent career in Australia and as a committed Christian he has a podcast, has done jingles and intermittently releases albums. We've picked up on a couple.

There's a sentimental streak to Silva and when he hits it – as he does here with the ballad It's Gett'n Late, in two versions – he brings a lived-in pathos which is genuinely moving.

Elsewhere he and the band – which includes Liam Ryan, Ernest Semu, Steve Wilson and other longtime friends – get into a slippery Latin groove (Anja), touches a place where Johnny Mathis and Nay King Cole would be right at home (the burred delivery on Beauty Through Your Eyes) and some lightly funky and slick MOR suitable for a cabaret (Made for Love).

There's also the orchestrated Just Us Two which would dovetail neatly with This Masquerade in a nightclub.

Closer to 80 than 70, Evan Silva still has the voice but the inevitable fragility and quiver actually add to his delivery on material like It's Gett'n Late – either version -- which deserves a wide hearing.

.

You can hear and buy this album at bandcamp here


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