Today we’d like to introduce you to Evan Blankenship.
Hi Evan, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today.
Growing up, I played sports my entire life. My sister was more into theater and the arts, so I never gave singing or performing a thought until I got to college. I played football at Ohio State from 2007-2011 and, after my freshman year, represented the football team in the Student Athlete Talent Show. My first time ever singing in front of people, on an actual stage and not in some karaoke bar, was in 2008. From there I taught myself how to play guitar my senior year and started putting videos on YouTube.
I moved to Nashville after the 2011 season and was writing songs, began working at a few music studios, and started honing in my craft of becoming an artist. I did that for 5-6 year – playing solo, joining a band, going back to solo, then focusing more on songwriting, before I eventually hit a wall. My wife and I were wanting to settle down and start a family, so we moved back to Ohio in September of 2017.
I first met Ryan Tuhy, our bass guitarist, at a Blue Jackets game with a mutual friend shortly after moving back to Ohio. We both talked about playing in bands our love for music, and the possibility of starting a country band. Ryan played in his church band with Brian Turnbull, our guitar player, and from there we started North to Nashville. We played our first show in March of 2018 and have been gigging around Ohio and the Midwest ever since. We went through a couple drummers before Ben Anderson joined the band as our full-time drummer in March of 2020.
Our first big opportunity came in 2019 when we were asked to perform and provide entertainment on the Buckeye Cruise for Cancer. That week on the boat we gained a lot of new followers and fans, and kickstarted our journey at least locally in Central Ohio.
Everyone in the band comes from different musical backgrounds and genres, and that’s great for us because it brings a lot of different ideas and experiences to the band, which translates to our live shows. We all have our own strengths, and we use those to our advantage to be the best band we can possibly be. We want people to hear our songs, see our show, and say – “That’s the best damn (country) band in the land.”
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Of course not. Every road and journey have its challenges. Nobody saw 2020 coming and the pandemic – and when bars and nightlife shut down, we couldn’t play live music for months! We had a lot of momentum going for us from the previous year, having just opened for Luke Combs, Lee Brice, and Cole Swindell in 2019, and when Covid happened and the world shut down, that momentum came to a halt. I would go live and perform on Facebook and Instagram to our followers on our social media accounts, just to put out some kind of content to get us through. Even after venues started opening back up, people were still wary of going out and exposing themselves, so the crowd sizes took a year or so before they fully came back to normal – like we experienced in 2019.
On top of that, we were in the middle of working on our first record when Covid shut everything down. So, we had some songs recorded that got put on pause, then we had to go back and re-record everything, and then I needed to have vocal surgery, so I had to back AGAIN and re-record everything with my “new voice.” It took us much longer than we initially anticipated, but the end result was worth every dime and every minute spent on the project.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
We just put out our debut self-titled album in June of 2023, which was a big milestone for us. We’ve always wanted to be known for our original music, and getting these songs out to our fans was something we worked very hard on. We’ve been extremely fortunate to have been given the opportunity to open for some of the largest national acts in the country – Luke Combs, Eric Church, Lee Brice, Chris Young, Jake Owen, Cole Swindell, Darius Rucker, and Rascal Flatts.
While opportunities like that are extremely rewarding to us professionally, what I would say is our biggest accomplishment, is we have raised close to $100,000 for the Buckeye Cruise for Cancer and the James Cancer Hospital. We have been a part of the Buckeye Cruise since 2019, playing shows for the cruisers and being a part of fundraising events throughout the year, and we wouldn’t be where we are today without their love and support.
Have you learned any interesting or important lessons due to the COVID-19 crisis?
Covid, I think gave us a better appreciation for what we do. Not being able to perform for our fans for months on end was a struggle, and it put things into perspective for us, so every time we go on stage, we strive to give our audiences the best possible show we can give. You never know who is going to be at a show or who is going to stumble upon your social pages, so we make a conscience effort to give everything our all.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.northtonashville.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/northtonashville
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NorthtoNashville/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/nrthtonashville
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/northtonashville
- Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/7571jRab3HqbaMdh0Wr051?si=w8iWYhGJQiGeswFBgHdkSQ
Image Credits
Victoria Gordon
Kristen Nester
