So apparently when I say I’m going to update the site that means after a couple more months of insane happenings and whatnot.  I’m (oddly) happy to say that things have calmed down considerably, and I can finally start sharing some of the awesome things that have been going on over the past few months.  I’ll briefly summarize in this post and then dedicate some longer posts later to a more detailed account of certain events.

First up:  Summer Tour 2010!

The Jana Nyberg Group went on it’s official tour this past summer, and my goodness it was crazy.  We played something like 20+ shows in 30 days, and went everywhere from Door County to Appleton, WI, to Milwaukee, to Iowa City, and finally back to Minneapolis where we had our first show at the Dakota.  There really isn’t a better way to bond with your bandmates and friends then sticking yourself into a small confined space with them for several hours at a time.  Uffda.  If you check out Jana’s website though, there are some really great and funny videos of us on tour, including some live performances from our shows!  You can find her here.

The Departure of the Woodsbies and One Mr. Derek Dreier

We were also saddened this past summer as several great friends and fellow musicians moved away from Minnesota and made their way out to Massachusetts.  I hope that if Greg, Ellen, or Derek are reading this that they know they are missed, and I hope to see you all again soon!

New Jana CD!

Before leaving us, however, Derek was able to spend a few days with the rest of the JNG recording our new album!  I’ll be keeping you updated as we get through the printing process and move closer to a release date.  I will say this though: our new CD makes our first one look like a piece of junk.  Seriously, it’s gonna knock your socks off.

The Emergence of Social Juggernauts, aka, Dr. Montgomery’s 100% Natural Good-Time Family Band Solution, aka The Evan Montgomery Quintet

I recently had my debut in the Twin Cities as a bandleader, and I’m pretty psyched about getting out there with this group and playing some more.  I’ve been really blessed with the chance to play with some wonderful musicians, such as Jay Epstein, Matt Peterson, Park Evans, and Adam Meckler, who filled in for our usual saxophonist Aaron Hedenstrom.  I’ll be posting links to their websites shortly, but in the meantime you can visit the bandcamp page I set up and hear a live recording of our first performance!  You can find it here.

The Rise of Out From Inside

We’re getting things moving with the hip-hop group I play with, and some exciting developments are in the works.  I’ll be sure to keep you guys updated as we go.

Building Up a Studio

I’ve begun teaching at a couple different spots in the Twin Cities area recently, mostly with Signature Music Studios in Rogers, MN, and now with All Things Musik, in the northwest suburbs of Minneapolis.  I’m also very excited about a new project I’ll be starting up in January with Inspiration Dance Academy in the East and Southeast suburbs of St. Paul.  I’ll be starting group guitar classes in January as well as private lessons, and I won’t give too much away, but Inspiration DA may also be offering lessons for many different instruments other than guitar.  I’ll be sure to post with more updates soon.

Last but not least, I wanted to give a little shout-out to Mizuho and Abi in this post.  I met Mizuho briefly two and a half years ago in Door County while I was working for Tim Nyberg at his gallery in Sturgeon Bay (which you should all go and check out, btw, his artwork is amazing. You can find him here).  I remember that Mizuho was there with her mother-in-law, and during our conversation I found out that Mizuho was visiting from Japan.  I took a few years of Japanese in high school and college, and made a pretty lame attempt to say hello to her, at the time thinking I had embarassed myself pretty badly.  But a year later I got a message out of the blue from her saying that she had found my website and had been following the updates and video/music postings.  We kept up an email correspondence for quite some time, but recently things have been insane and I haven’t made time to write her back.  So, I wanted to take this opportunity of the vast free time I had at 6 in the morning to write this mini-update to all of you folks out there, but mostly for Mizuho and her adorable daughter Abi.  If Mizuho lets me, I’d love to post a few photos of Abi that she’s sent me.  There’s one of her playing with a clay dinosaur that she made – and I swear it’s so cute I could die.

From me to you, thanks for visiting the site, and I hope you come back soon.

~Evan

p.s. Check the videos page for some updated goodies from the past few months.  Enjoy!

Sorry for the hiatus on posts, folks, but it’s been an insane 6 months.  I will, of course, give full updates soon, but I’ll be doing it in installments so I don’t have one 10-page long post.

I have, however, reposted my entire album into the music player on the left, so you can now listen to the whole CD at your leisure.  It’s still available for purchase on iTunes or from the website here, but I figure what good is your music if you’re not sharing it?

Thanks for visiting, check back soon for more updates!

There’s a new post and discussion up on “Lulu’s Playblog” about free improvisation: how we approach it as a group, and how the listener should/could/may approach it.  I think it’s kind of a wonderful insight into how all of our minds work, specifically how much we are on the same page musically, though our dialects and languages differ greatly.

Since this is my blog, I’ll re-post my comment to Cory’s initial post.  I hope you enjoy it.

It’s been couple weeks since I posted anything new on the blog here, and it’s for a reason.  The past two weeks have been incredibly hectic, but have also yielded a whole slew of new media for me to share with all of you, so hopefully it was worth it.  I’ll break it down into the various groups I’m working with and share all the new stuff with you folks that way.

First up: The Jana Nyberg Group.

We had our first show at an actual club in Minneapolis a couple weekends ago, and it was AWESOME.  Packed the house completely, got some great video clips recorded and posted on youtube (which you can also find on the “videos” section of this site), and have already booked another date at the same club.  It’s called Honey, and it’s a really cool joint with TONS of live music during the week.  Check it out if you’re in the area.  We’ll be playing on April 24th if you’re interested in coming out to see us play.

Out From Inside

This is the tentative working title of the hip-hop project I’ve got going with Matt Ecklund (AKA Unus), and things are really starting to take off.  We’ve switched around the personnel a bit recently, and things are really starting to click.  We’re joined by Cory Grossman on bass (also the cellist in Lulu’s Playground), Adam Carlson on drums, a wonderful vocalist named Julieana (who’s last name I’m ashamed to say I haven’t learned yet), and an as yet to be named keyboardist.  It looks like we’re gonna start playing out pretty soon here, so I’ll keep you all updated on how this all goes.

Lulu’s Playground

This is definitely the project I’m most excited about right now (with the JNG in a close second), and I’ve talked a little bit already about what this group is up to.  We’ve officially set up our website, complete with music, contact and gig info, and our all-new “Playblog“, where we’ll be bringing all of you the ramblings and musings from the dark depths of our deranged subconscious.  We’ve got a few posts up already, but I strongly recommend checking out the “About the Band” section.    We’ve got an ongoing project called “New Music Sundaes” going, where we record and post a new piece of music every week and have one of the members of the group blog about it.  I’m super-pumped about everything we’re doing, so please go check it out when you get a chance!

I also made my solo-premier in Red Wing this past Saturday at a local talent-show-variety-thingie.  I only played one tune, but it was a lot of fun, and I really think I could turn it into a whole show of me playing solo guitar.  Something I’ll be working on in the weeks and months to come along with my “Endless” project and everything else I’m doing.  I’ve posted a video of it in the player that you can check out.  The song is “Minor Blues” by Kurt Rosenwinkel.  I’m a huuuuuuge fan of his, as any of my friends will tell you.  Anytime I see him play I start screaming like a 3-year old girl, it’s a little embarrassing.

In the midst of all of these rehearsals, performances, and projects I’ve got going, I’m still going to school 8 hours a day at the tech college in Red Wing for guitar building and repair.  I’m about halfway through my acoustic build right now, and things are starting to get a little stressful.  On top of THAT, I’m also starting to teach again, and have about five students and growing in the Red Wing area.  There have been two very distinct pulls in my life over the past two weeks, and I’m beginning to see two career paths emerging.  One in which I spend my days working as a repairman and builder and performing at night, and another where I go to graduate school in order to further my education as a player and budding musicologist while still maintaining my nightlife as a performing musician.  Things have been leaning very much in the direction of the latter recently, and I’m sure my lack of enthusiasm has been showing at school.  I can certainly tell that my instructors are perhaps frustrated and a bit aggravated at me.  I’m well aware of how my grade could be impacted by all of this, but a degree in this field doesn’t mean as much as the quality of your work, which has been decent and certainly nothing to be upset about.  At this point I’ve realized that I’m not going to be a builder (at least not for a while).  I may pursue repairs, and this program has been wonderful and taught me many new things, but among them is that I need to pursue my musical career now before I start anything else.

Remember when I talked about ramblings on the “Playblog” earlier?  Yeah, I’ll be the one doing the rambling.

Anyways, I’ll try and post more soon.  Until then, take care of yourselves and thanks for stopping by.

We’ll be playing from 8-10pm at Honey on Hennepin Ave in Minneapolis.  Should be a good show, so I hope you can join us.  I’ll post with more details soon.