By Page H. Gifford
Correspondent
The trio ToBe Fare and Julian Evans will perform at Carysbrook Performing Arts Center on Jan. 20 at 7 p.m. Every January, the Fluvanna County Arts Council makes a habit of showcasing local talent with its Making it Local theme. Sometimes, making it local might include performers from neighboring counties, and ToBe Fare and Julian Evans come from Charlottesville.
Gary Hawthorne of ToBe Fare has a colorful way of describing his early interest and introduction to music at two years of age playing a plastic Roy Rogers guitar.
“Then The Beatles hit, and I was taken in by this new sound. I couldn’t get enough. By the time The Monkees landed, I was all in. I wanted to be Mike Nesmith.” He was six then and said he badgered his parents for almost two years to get him a real guitar. “The guitar became a reality with a super Jumbo Concert Kay which was bigger than I was. But I persevered. I can’t remember a time that I wasn’t interested in playing music,” said Hawthorne. A child’s dedication and passion at an early age often is a key to their continued interest into adulthood.
At first, he was on his own, being self-taught, playing mostly folk, singing and writing songs. In high school, he studied improvisation and jazz theory in the hope of playing in the high school jazz band, but that didn’t work out. In college he took music theory, which helped with his songwriting skills and technique.
It was local guitarist Carl DeTroia who all but dragged Hawthorne out of his house to begin playing solo again.
“That is inspiration,” he said. Other friends and local musicians, including Bryan Demory of the band Bremen are among those who have inspired him. It is unexpected that he bypasses well known artists for those lesser known but sees his fellow musicians with an insight and admiration they are not even aware of. “Oliver Anthony is just a guy singing some songs to his hound dogs and becoming the viral sensation of 2023. Katrina Starfish a multi-instrumentalist from Lexington, takes her sometimes upside down life, and translates it into some crazy cool art-rock-jazz-reggae, wherein nothing and everything makes sense simultaneously.”
As for Hawthorne’s music he describes it by the band’s tag-line, which they feel describes their music: Passion, Pain and Promise, from a Whisper to a Scream.
“Basically, at its core, it is rock music. Whether it is me solo, with just an acoustic guitar or two, all the way up to the fully amplified band, it is intense yet soulful, shocking, yet comforting. Compelling, emotional, and atypically positive and inspiring,” Hawthorne said. ToBe Fare has an eclectic unique style reminiscent of David Bowie and definitely rock with a sprinkling of jazz.
“I am sure that there is a specific genre tag for the ages, I just don’t know what it is. We call it alt-rock or alternative rock because it is a bit less blues based than how we started out. Every song actually starts out somewhat folksy and gets hardened as the process moves forward. I actually perform some old folk songs in my set that have been hardened over time. ToBe Fare started as an acoustic blues duo, and have just recently been described as hard rock, so there has been quite an evolution here.”
The other performer for the evening is Julian Evans, who picked up a guitar when he was around 15.
“The Christmas prior, my aunt gave me my first iPod. It had a bunch of my parents’ CDs on it and without a screen I had no idea what songs I was listening to. I just remember really liking this one (that I later found out was Relient K Be My Escape. My parents saw that I really loved music and started letting me play on the acoustic we had stored in a closet from a relative.”
Mainly self-taught, Evans was always finding songs he liked and exploring that style of music. In high school he took a guitar ensemble class for four years. Being surrounded by other friends and musicians “started the spark that has never gone down since.”
Evans plays mainly rock based instrumentals and doesn’t sing. A couple years ago he discovered musician Yvette Young.
“I fell in love with how much she could bring out of one instrument. I try to bring some of that aspect into what I do.” He said he will always have a special place in his heart for Relient K, who was the musician that made him pick up and love guitar.
“That with the eight straight years of pop punk power chords, I definitely have some roots there. Yvette Young and Relient K are where I pull most of my inspiration.”
