Dave Evans – Elephantasia

"Elephantasia" is a glorious, long-lost folk opus from 1972, which has gained a legendary reputation for its openness and creativity, by Bangor-born singer/songwriter Dave Evans. Finally seeing the light of day again via Earth Recordings, the LP is a true gem from the vaults of British folk history.

For fans of Nick Drake, Bill Fay and Davy Graham - with a touch of Michael Chapman, Bert Jansch and Fahey for good measure. The story of Dave Evans is like a Pinter play: he went to sea in the Merchant Navy, was taught guitar by the 'mythical' Morocco John in a brief interlude, and shared a room with Steve Tilston in 1963 when they attended Loughborough Art College and ran the local folk club while he learned to make stringed instruments, the art of winemaking and ceramics. Over the next year Dave obtained a 2-track tape recorder for home use and experimented with its two speeds to produce the tracks 'Elephantasia' and 'Lady Portia'.

He enlisted members of local prog band Squidd, including future Hawkwind member Steve Swindells on keyboards, John Merritt on bass and Rodney Matthews on drums, who also designed the "Elephantasia" album cover and went on to become a well-known fantasy artist. the album "Elephantasia" was originally released in 1972 and showcased Dave's fingerpicking style, purple vocals and tape manipulation to full effect. It sold around 2000 copies and over the years became a much talked about rarity, considered too progressive for folk and too folky for the new prog-heads. In best "plot-thickening" style, Dave tried his hand at two more releases and then disappeared.

The sparse notes on the cover tell of the songs' genesis, of sound experiments inspired by elephants, of old memories with all the unpleasant bits edited out, of stories for drop-outs, of the denizens of St. Agnes Park, of broken beauty queens and a fat cat. It's an eclectic but beautifully flowing narrative from a fingerpicking maestro with a warm and engaging vocal style that wowed Peel and Whispering Bob back in the day. Dave Evans sadly passed away in April 2021. Earth Recordings is proud to reissue "Elephantasia" for the first time in over 50 years in collaboration with his estate and original Village Thing producer Ian A. Anderson.