Have guitar, will play, may maybe be the calling card of Invoice “Mr. Machine Gun” Evans, one of many Springfield space’s most famous, revered and revered guitarists ever to choose on these six strings. William J. Evans was born in Topeka, Illinois, and alongside along with his lifetime pursuit of music-making, labored at Springfield Memorial Hospital for 35 years, plus served within the U.S. Air Power. He handed away at his residence on Oct. 15, 2024.
A telling story on one’s life should be the tributes that roll in after one’s demise. For Invoice, together with type phrases from household, associates and associates, got here heartfelt accolades from fellow musicians reminiscent of Ken Carlyle, Lyman Ellerman, Ed Sellinger, Tom Fore, Tim Saterfield and David Lumsden, plus many extra, as Invoice bought round (musically talking) and performed with numerous people. The only most constant point out – after his extraordinary guitar-playing talents – was of Invoice’s kindness and mentoring directed to the opposite musicians. This isn’t all the time the case within the unstable and aggressive music world, however Invoice really felt music was to be shared, not solely from a stage with audiences, however with fellow gamers, driving the extent of musicianship and friendship upward on all accounts.
Invoice began in rock ‘n’ roll within the late Fifties and early 60s out in California, then migrated again to Illinois taking part in in bands such because the Mar-Vels, the Teenbeats and the Sting Rays. He then moved into different music genres together with nation and particularly the blues, taking part in in a number of space combos together with White Lightning, Cicero Slim’s WWIII Blues Band, Salt ‘n’ Pepper, the Knight Riders, Springfield Blues Machine and N Da Groove, to call just some. He additionally labored with Eddie Snow, Don Ship and John Crisp, plus jammed with nationally identified figures reminiscent of Magic Slim, Luther Allison and Fenton Robinson, simply to call just a few extra of his many connections within the music world.
In 2014, Invoice was formally acknowledged by the Illinois Central Blues Membership as a true-blue purveyor of conventional blues, most straight the Chicago-style, electrical guitar-based blues as exemplified by the likes of Otis Rush, Earl Hooker, Mike Bloomfield and Buddy Man. He was additionally a singer, turning into a well-rounded performer on guitar and vocals, holding a gradual hand and voice with anybody he carried out with, and that was an entire bunch of individuals.
He picked up the nickname “Mr. Machine Gun” from these early days when he performed “actual quick,” and rumor has it he bought the moniker whereas working with Cicero Slim. However extra importantly than simply taking part in quick, Invoice all the time had the power to mix smoothness and melody to his fast choosing, one other trait extremely admired by different guitar gamers and fellow bandmates, in addition to a lot appreciated by these within the listening viewers.
Along with his music-making credentials, Invoice knew methods to snap {a photograph} and gathered a rare variety of photos by his a long time of native gigging. He documented bands, venues, jam classes and rehearsals, and over time ended up handing a whole lot of the pictures out to people who needed them and have been in them. In a 2011 State Journal-Register article from columnist Dave Bakke that includes feedback on Invoice’s assortment from the early Sixties on, Bakke known as it a “treasure trove of native musical historical past” and felt it “ought to find yourself someplace just like the Sangamon Valley Assortment,” and Invoice agreed. Maybe they’ve and certainly they need to. Invoice was additionally quoted as stating that with all of the pictures “there are such a lot of bands and those who I do not bear in mind all of them,” and after some 40 years (at the moment) of persistently gigging like loopy, it is simple to see why he’d really feel that approach.
Because the fleeting nature of stay music is, most of Invoice’s artwork got here out as he performed, then drifted away into some smoke-filled barroom instantly after, left solely within the hearts and souls of all these he touched by his pleasant, soulful and very important music-making. There are some recordings on the market of his taking part in and the Springfield Illinois’ Music Historical past web site on Fb accommodates lots of his pictures – in reality, the web page is devoted to Invoice. For probably the most half, Mr. Machine Gun lives on by these following in his guitar-fingering footsteps and by listeners remembering how he may make that axe sing. Thanks, Invoice, for all of that and wherever you might be, we’re betting there is a guitar in your fingers and a tune in your coronary heart.
Tom Irwin was late to see Invoice Evans mess around city in comparison with a number of people and first had the pleasure of assembly him within the mid-Nineteen Eighties. Invoice was all the time as gracious as may very well be, complimentary of others, modest about himself and blew the place aside along with his delicate but fiery and persistently on-target taking part in in each approach.
