The Man and The Music. . .

What words would you use to describe your music?

I like to think of my music as soulful and thoughtful. Music is a way of expressing that which many times cannot be easily said.  Words can come from a greater depth of the human experience with music. To me, music is a passionate thought that adorns nature with a new thing.  Hopefully, the music of Don Eves' is conducive to the discovery of more of your heart and thoughts. We all live a life that is beyond the vision of what the world sees. Music is about imagination and inspiration. In many ways, music takes us above the petty frenzies which burden our lives. A moment of repose. The soul exists to see beauty and it is my hope that my music contributes to that end.

You are a singer, songwriter and play guitar, is that right?

Yes, that I play guitar might be an exaggeration. Ha! Definitely a laughing point of real guitar players.

How long have you been playing?

I started playing guitar my senior year of high school. I took a folk music class in high school taught by Russ Branden. It opened up the world of music to me. I learned a few chords but immediately started writing songs. It is so strange to look back on your life and see the supposedly little things that made huge differences. I laugh as I look back at the assignment  "Bullwhip Branden" (as he was affectionately called) gave the class of writing a song, and then playing the song on guitar...and singing it. I remember only being able to sing above a whisper. Most miserably assignment of my life...but life changing.

How did you know you could play, sing, etc.? What events or experiences sparked the talent?

The discovery was truly by accident. I loved playing the guitar with my arsenal of 6 chords learned in my folk music class. I loved writing which was just something that seemed very natural to me. The singing part was the mountain I had to climb. I was terrified of singing in public. But fortunately I had a friend, Max Birney, who threw me into the proverbial lions den.

I had written a song called "No Daddy."  Max submitted this song to a song contest and it won. The sponsors of the contest wanted me to sing the song at an awards banquet. It was either sing or melt. But a strange thing happened. After I sang "No Daddy,"  the emcee of the event asked me to sing another song, and then another. This went on and I sang a total of 5 songs that evening. Talk about transformation. I don't know that a star was born, but a singer definitely was.

Did you want to do this when you grew up?

It is still an issue of what I want to be when I grow up. I didn't have any musical aspirations growing up. Until the songwriting contest with Max's nudging, I really didn't know I was capable of doing this. I know that sounds strange but that is the truth.