Who I Am

My name is Larry Evans, and I have been involved in the Performing Arts for more than 46 years, first in Theatre, and then in the presentation of recorded and live music. I have spent my career advising musical recording artists and professional actors on the best practices of presenting their artistry on recordings and on stage before a live audience.

I have stood where you stand now more times than I wish.

Over the years, I have said goodbye to friends and a number of family members, and have found myself assigned the task of writing and then delivering eulogies to honor them at their passing.

The time involved to compose a great remembrance speech can be overwhelming, particularly when you also have to organize everything involved with a loved one’s passing, from a funeral or memorial service to disposition of the remains, all while you are grieving for your loved one. You are challenged to find the time to collect your thoughts and memories and then turn those into an engaging and coherent speech. This can be complicated, particularly if you are uncomfortable with, or are not confident of, your writing skills.

Then, you must stand and deliver in front of a grieving audience who will be watching and listening to you intently.

All of this involves connecting with people by presenting forms of storytelling that most often starts in the form of writing. Actors on stage take you into a make-believe world by performing a script. Recording Artists, on a recording or live on stage perform a script of lyrics and musical composition.

I was a member of a high school theatre troupe in Texas that made the State Finals of the UIL One Act Play contest for three consecutive years (1975-77) and earned the status of Honor Thespian in the International Thespian society as a character actor and as a stage manager and director. I had the great fortune to learn stagecraft from Bob Singleton, who moved on from my high school to take charge of the Theatre Arts Department of the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Houston, Texas.

I was accepted as a botany major at the University of Texas in 1979.

I took a number of entrance examinations that allowed me to place out of several classes, including Sophomore level English Literature courses, but I failed to place out of Freshman level English Grammar, a course in which students write weekly expository essays as training for the writing component of a university education. That failure turned out to be pivotal in the direction of my life.

During my first semester, I found that I did not inherit my father Palmer Evans’ mathematical prowess — he had a Master’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering — and the prospect of me becoming a scientist began to appear increasingly remote.

However, I started writing essays for my Freshman English class that were comical and quite satirical in content. I was a bit more cocky than my classmates who were two years younger and did not have the two years of life experience I had gained. I made a habit of intentionally breaking grammatical rules as well, and I never knew when I would turn an essay in whether I would get an A or an F on my paper. The graduate student who taught this class, Anne Graybiel, fell in love with my work. I made her roll on the floor laughing with my literary antics, and after about four essays, she came up to me after class and asked if I had about 30 minutes to go with her and meet someone.

That someone was her graduate supervisor, Dr. John Trimble, Professor (now Emeritus) of English, and the writing style “guru” at the University of Texas. They proceeded as a tag-team to recruit me into their cult — as an English Major. Their effort worked, and four years later my wanton breaking of grammatical rules had tricked the University of Texas into awarding me the degree of

Bachelor of Liberal Arts in English Language and Literature (1983).

Writing is a highly intuitive process for me. I did not place out of Freshman English since, although I knew the rules, I could not recall the names of the rules at the time of the exam. That ignorance — I failed the exam by a mere 3 points (a 67) — changed the direction of my life.

Before I learned how to read and write, another passion had taken hold of me.

I was a three-year old child growing up in suburban Philadelphia when my Mom, Millie Evans, would sit me down by the record player (before stereo) and listen to classical music while she did chores around the house. She was particularly fond of Stravinsky, and played “The Rite of Spring” ballet suite often — she loved its rhythmic intensity, but she had no idea what she was doing to her three-year old’s mind. She also had a kind lady — my second mom, Aunt Mary (Hargis) — come to the house several times per week. Mary would listen to the radio while working, to a station that broadcast what we now call urban music — Aunt Mary happened to be black. Four-year old me was listening to the Motown sound when it was new, along with a screaming artist whom I later determined was the Godfather of Soul himself, James Brown. My three older brothers started collecting music ranging from Peter, Paul and Mary through the Beatles and the Rolling Stones; my young exposure to all of this music created a lifelong passion for music that ultimately won out over Theatre, which by itself is an all-consuming passion, and over any prospect of me writing the Great American Novel — I needed more life experience. At 62, I am just about there.

I started an international music licensing service in 1985 that arranged for the release of American recordings and songs in 42 foreign countries, and it grew into an artist management, music publishing, and record production company in 1988.

As an artist manager and as a record producer, I advise artists on the best way to present their work as live performers and recording artists. As a publisher, I advise songwriters on how to put together lyrical and compositional phrases that get stuck in the listeners’ minds as earworms, those annoying parts of songs that get stuck in one’s head.

I offer you the benefit of my experience and education, along with an open heart, and I look forward to helping you create a remembrance for your loved one in which your audience might not remember exactly what you said, but they will remember how you made them feel in this moment, often for the rest of their lives.

I am a storyteller.