Angel Park Hosts Return of the Culprits

After a busy year of study and international travel, the Culprits are coming together for a free hometown concert today (Friday), Aug. 15, at Sewanee’s Angel Park. Blues Regimen will open at 7 p.m.; the Culprits will take the stage at 7:45 p.m. The back-to-school concert, a new tradition in Sewanee, coincides with the University of the South’s First Year Program and St. Andrew’s-Sewanee School’s opening weekend, but it is free and open to the public. 

Blues Regimen’s members include students from St. Andrew’s-Sewanee School, Franklin County High School and the Ensworth School. 

The Culprits include SAS alumni Nick Evans, ’10; Will Evans, ’12; and Zach Blount, ’12. 

There will also be live music in Angel Park on Saturday, Aug. 16. See story on page 6. These are great opportunities to enjoy an evening of family-friendly entertainment. For more information go to <www.sewanee.biz/>.

The Culprits Return to Perform in Sewanee Aug. 23

The Culprits are back from adventures around the globe and ready to play for a hometown audience at 7:30 p.m., Friday, Aug. 23, in Angel Park in downtown Sewanee.

“We are super excited to be back in our hometown of Sewanee!” said band member Zach Blount. “We hope to see everyone out, as this will be our first show in America in over a year.” University Avenue will be closed for the event, and local restaurants will have food and beverages for sale.

The Culprits offer a retro-indie-Brit-pop sound. The band’s members all grew up in Sewanee and graduated from St. Andrew’s-Sewanee School. Nick Evans is a rising senior at Davidson College and is just returning from a year abroad in Germany and a solo tour through several European capitals. Zach Blount is a rising sophomore at Davidson. Will Evans is a rising sophomore at the University of Virginia. 

In April 2013 the band released their first album, “Alive Enough,” produced by John Keane (who has worked with the bands R.E.M. and Widespread Panic). They had previously released two EPs. The Culprits have played concerts, parties and festivals in Tennessee, North Carolina and Pennsylvania.

The Culprits Release New Album

The Culprits have released their first full-length album, Alive Enough, now available on iTunes, Spotify and other Internet music sites.

Comprised of Sewanee natives Zach Blount, Nick Evans and Will Evans, The Culprits worked on this project with Grammy-nominated producer John Keane of Athens, Ga. Keane is best known for his work with Widespread Panic and R.E.M.

Keane brought his “years and years of experience working as a professional producer. His fluency with the recording programs and ability to get every particular sound we wanted on the record was incredible,” said Blount.

“He was also able to give us feedback and advice on the songs themselves,” he said. “Working with him, we were able to get a polished yet somewhat gritty sound comprised of much guitar and harmony layering that we are very proud of. He was inspiring to get to know and to work with throughout the process of recording and mixing.”

The new album contains eight songs: six new songs, as well as two reworked tracks (“She Loves the Beat” and “Around Around”). Artwork for the new recording was created by Quinn Evans, who is a cousin of Will and Nick.

Now that all the band members are attending different colleges (Blount and Nick Evans are at Davidson, and Will Evans is at University of Virginia), they work together via Skype and email to share material and offer feedback to one another. Nick has been in Germany this past semester, but the group has managed to keep working across the continents.

“We even recorded some of the tracks on the album by sending each other the project files for the songs and adding our specific parts in our dorm rooms via our personal recording equipment,” Blount said. 

“With the Internet we find it easy to keep The Culprits going, and we enjoy the challenge of promoting and recording while across the ocean from each other,” he said.

The group is gathering in Germany later this month to play a couple of shows in Berlin. It will be the first time they have played at a live venue together since July 2012.

The Culprits’ musical escapades began when they were students at St. Andrew’s-Sewanee School. Nick and Will, coming from a musical family, began to dabble with a borrowed drum set and a used electric guitar. Zach was invited over and after starting out on guitar, he eventually stole his dad’s bass, and The Culprits began. 

“We are very grateful for Sewanee,” Blount said. “We owe much of our inspiration to the town and all of our ‘Sewaneesian’ supporters.”

Zach is the son of Mary and Steve Blount. Nick and Will are sons of Amy and Jon Evans.

For more information about The Culprits, go to <www.theculprits​music.com>.

—Reported by Laura Willis