BY BRITTANY DANIELLE for WEEKLY VOLCANO 3/6/26 |
As the sun starts to peek its head out from behind winter’s chill, blossoms brave the early spring, and birds return with their songs in the morning, so musicians, who have hunkered down for the holidays and the winter months, start to bring us new music for the year.
Evan Purcell, a local musician, guitarist, writer and vocalist, released his third album under his name. Though he is no stranger to the local scene or the Volcano as the 2009 songwriter award winner and 2010 best guitarist, this is the third album released under his solo venture.
Growing up exposed to music from his father, a folk singer, and his mother, a vaudeville vocalist, Purcell picked up a guitar at 13 and never looked back. He spent his formative years growing up in Europe before eventually landing in Tacoma, where he started a punk band.
After his first release, Attachments, in 2006, Purcell succumbed to life in a way that many do not return from by stepping away from songwriting, working full time and caring for his disabled son.
When he came back in 2023 with his second album, The Big Hello, it was his way of introducing himself back into the musical world. He said, “I put the band together after its release, so I could play the songs out and about. Calling the band the Big Hello just seemed fitting. I like that it sounds like I’m extending a hand. I mean, who doesn’t like a Big Hello?”
Evan Purcell did just that, bursting back into the music scene with a new lust for sharing his music and creating relationships along the way. He did not make us wait for the third album. On March 1, 2026, Purcell gave us How the Wind Informs the Wing. As a seasoned musician, I can only imagine he has seen his fair share of highs and lows in the industry, life and relationships. To me, before even hearing the album, the title stated an understanding of letting go, enjoying the journey and taking life as it comes.
Upon listening to the album, Purcell is a storyteller. He paints lyrical pictures as he takes the listener on a journey. “Most of the songs I write come from some version of my own personal experience. They have to sit in the truth, but they don’t necessarily have to be verbatim. There are pieces of my life scattered all over the songs I write. From trips out to the Washington coast to the advice I wanted to give my son as he went off to school.”
Purcell shares in the collective experience of the shutdown in 2020. Though six years removed from it, as artists, there remains a scar from the pandemic. While many of us may still feel lost and in recovery, Purcell found light, growth and community.
“I think I’m a stronger writer than I was in 2023. When the pandemic hit, I was feeling pretty lost musically. The band with my brother was slowing down, and everyone was isolating. I was writing sporadically, and so even though I thought of myself as a guitar player and songwriter, I wasn’t producing all that much music. A friend of mine told me about an online songwriting workshop out of Portland with a songwriter named Matt Meighan that he thought I would like. I signed up and it really got me hooked. It’s a song a week with a prompt and it turns out I really work well with that kind of deadline. Before I thought of songwriting as inspiration-driven. What’s changed in taking this workshop is that I now see it as effort-driven. It’s sitting down and spending the time and focus with this looming weekly deadline. It completely changed the way I work and write,” Purcell shared.
This was not the only lesson Evan Purcell learned on this journey. “While this is my third solo album, I’ve been in bands and put out albums my whole life. Counting back, this is my tenth full-length album I’ve been involved in, which is crazy to me. Really what I’ve learned is that every album is a brand-new experience, and you are starting over from scratch. Like you’re staring at a bicycle that you own and know you’ve ridden and now for some reason you don’t know how to ride it. There’s a lot of fear stepping into the unknown like that, but I also know that I will find my way. There will be some lost hours and wrong turns and that’s all part of the journey. The lesson finishing an album always teaches me is that you don’t need a map. You just have to take that first step and then just keep on going. And then have a deadline, even if it’s only a soft one.”
And the beautiful rewards: “I’m pretty proud of the lyrics on ‘Filled up the Sky.’ ‘Use north as a guide, not a destination. Speak your truth to the world, take some time to listen, and if the wind ever dies, grab an oar and row.’ It’s that feeling of desperation that you are sending this son or daughter out into the world and that you’ve somehow failed in your preparation of them. So you throw these truths out there in the hope that they’ll stick and somehow make their journey easier. Things like it’s important to have a North Star, but not necessarily as a place to land, and sometimes if you’ve stalled out and nothing feels like you’re moving forward in life, start rowing.”
Purcell hopes that listeners find connection in this album, that something lingers with them for a while. He hopes listeners find something that speaks to them in a way these songs speak to him.
He also recommends the class he took at https://mattmeighan.com/classes if you are feeling lost.
March 14 will be the album release party at the Eleanor in the Armory. Tickets are on sale now at https://www.tacomaartslive.org/events/evan-purcell/.
You can find How the Wind Informs the Wing everywhere you get your music. Albums for purchase are on Bandcamp at https://evanpurcell.bandcamp.com/album/how-the-wind-informs-the-wing.
