How did the Burnt Taters hatch?
Craig and Brad put a little acoustic duo thing together for a party at Plan 9 in January 1997, and after getting a better than expected response, decided to throw in together as the Taters. George ran sound for a few shows and brought some of his percussive paraphernalia along. After about a month, it just became a band.

And the name? What’s with that?
We’re still in a fog on that. I know we wanted to avoid moniker duplication syndrome, so we stayed away from names like The Beatles or Elvis. After we pared them all down, we were left with Burnt Taters.

What’s the line-up and history now?
Craig Evans sings lead and background and plays bass, with occasional keyboards or acoustic guitar. Brad Tucker also sings lead and background, and takes care of just everything guitar. He’s also a great bass player! George Garrett plays drums, percussion, and assorted noise-making implements, and sings when no one is looking. He also handles all our stage sound and engineering.

What other bands have you been in?
We’ve been in all kinds of bands around the area, including Monday Week, HillWilliams, the Dads, the Bopcats, Big Posse, Shake & the Drakes, Club Zomby, and the Acousticats.

Wasn’t the band part of the Floating Folk Festival at one time? Do any of the Taters perform as solo acts?
We were with it at its inception, although the Taters had been together for about six months before the first FFF show. For the first year of the festival, we performed regularly and were also the house band for other regulars like Steve Fisher, Eileen Edmonds, and others. George also provided the PA and ran sound for all the original acts that first year. As far as us performing as solo artists with the festival, we’ve haven’t done it regularly. Craig performed a few solo spots with it, and also at VOCAL shows, but it was never a regular thing. We left the festival last summer so we could spend more time on our own bookings and to work on the CD, though we’re still in contact with many of the performers, like Gerry Laverty, for example. He was instrumental in helping us record our CD.

How would you describe your music?
Kind of roots, pop, country vocal type thing, very influenced by the Everly Brothers, Roy Orbison, Nick Lowe, Hank Williams, the Beatles, and Elvis, to name a few.

What’s your favorite venue?
Borders Books. It has a great listening audience. People really get into it. Penny and Jamie’s living room was also a lot of fun.

What’s been the most encouraging moment for the band so far?
Getting our first CD favorably reviewed in “Billboard” magazine! A close second was getting a favorable review from Killer Montone in the Journal! Another one was when we got asked on stage to play backup for Jimmie Dale Gilmore at the Moondance. We lived off that for weeks!

I assume, knowing how well maintained your website is,
the “Billboard” review is posted?
You can read it at www.BurntTaters.com. There’s also a stack of them under Craig’s bed.

What’s been the most discouraging moment so far?
Ricky Martin stole all of George’s best moves. But maybe it’s for the best.

Who’s writing the songs?
Craig does most of the writing, although Brad started adding songs, and George just co-wrote a new tune with Craig. Several of our songs are co-written with Gary Walker.

Where are you getting ideas?
Everything covered in any Burnt Taters song has really happened to us at least once. Except for some of them. Mostly. Actually, most of them are pretty straightforward. A lot of them are about girls I’ve known or imagined knowing at one time or another, or situations I’ve been in. Then there’s Mr. Molio…

Sound off: Influences:
Craig: Roy Orbison, Nick Lowe, McCartney, Dave Bartholomew, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Harland Howard, Lindsey Buckingham. Some might not seem too obvious when you listen to the Taters, but these are the people I grew up listening to, so it’s all in there.
Brad: Nick Lowe, John Hiatt, Hank Williams, David Bromberg, Ry Cooder.
George: Joe Ely, George Jones, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Lyle Lovett, Tom Russell, Jim Keltner, Gene Krupa, Tito Puente.

Do you have a stage look or wear a costume?
I don’t THINK these are costumes.

Favorite cartoon characters:
Craig: Milton the Monster, Underdog, Bullwinkle J. Moose. I’m not sure why.
Brad: Reggie and Marlon.
George: Henery Hawk. He’s very tenacious.

What does the “J” in Bullwinkle J. Moose stand for?
Jamiroqquai? Jay? (for Jay Ward?) Jalousie? Do you know?

No. Who carries the most equipment?
George, just ask him.

Secret method of ensuring you have the best possible show is…
Let George carry most of the equipment.

Best original song and why?
Always the newest one we’re working on. Right now it’s “Truth Is” by Craig and George.

The cover you’re most satisfied with is…
“Cecelia.” It has a great sound and it’s real easy to play on bass.

Best audience you ever had was…
Each and every one. Almost. (You know who you are.)

Most unusual piece of equipment in the band?
Some people think the box is unusual, but it’s not. It’s just a normal cardboard box.

What’s the worst place you had to sleep during a road trip?
Can’t tell you that.

The official food of Burnt Taters is…
RC Cola and moon pies. We’re also fond of tubers.

Biggest equipment nightmare?
Letting the cardboard box get wet. The box would survive, but George would kill us.

What’s different about this band, unlike all others?
We can’t remember the words to “Brown-Eyed Girl”.

Still working the day jobs?
Craig works for PRM Training, a computer training company in Glen Allen. Brad is at Target Marketing, a promotional marketing firm. George makes furniture and minds the kids. He and his wife own the Coconut Jewelry stores here in Richmond.

Wow, all super cool jobs. Where did Craig learn to do web pages?
I just started with HTML and a Geocities page. They have their own page “editor” that you can use on their site. The earliest Tater page was on Geocities and it was free, so it started there. This past spring, we registered the domain name of BurntTaters.com and moved the site to a company out of Atlanta. I now use FrontPage for most of my web stuff. I learn a lot just surfing around and seeing what’s out there. A lot of it is pretty fancy, and I can’t follow it, but I’m getting better!

Well, I’m impressed anyway. I do my web pages on Pagemill and they’re as ugly as the paper. Who books the band? You’ve been so successful at it, you must have a secret.
For the most part, we book our own shows. Both Craig and George do a lot of that, and we spend a good deal of time during the week calling venues, sending promo material, and following up on leads. We’re still learning, and would love to eventually work with a full-time agency, but for now we’re doing pretty well.

You play some venues I never would have thought to approach, like Starbucks. Do they ask you or are you calling them? Are the unusual places working out?
Starbucks actually came through a friend of ours, Brad Wells, with Frozen Rope Records. He put together a series of shows there, mostly acoustic acts, and invited us to open the series. Mostly, though, we contact places, give them the CD and some promo materials, and offer our services. Some take us up on it, others don’t, which I guess is standard. We did get a call a few weeks ago from the Birchmere in Alexandria, asking for our press kit, so I think the word is starting to get around outside of town. We’re real happy about that!

What do you want to accomplish this year, or what’s left of this century?
Get more people around the country with our CD in their hands, and in their heads. A tater in every pot. We’d also like to see someone cover some of our tunes and see where that takes us.

Band philosophy?
Try not to offend ourselves.

Plug the website one more time, please.
It’s www.BurntTaters.com. There are photos, RealAudio files, and links to some MP3 files, reviews of the show and the CD, and a current schedule of shows. You can also e-mail us at info@BurntTaters.com.

Their CD “Vox Box” is available at Plan 9, Tower, Peaches, Borders Books, and Circuit City and over the Internet at CDNow.com, Amazon.com, and MilesOfMusic.com

©1999 Burnt Taters and Richmond Music Journal

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