Singer-songwriter Marvin Evatt celebrates his home state, Clemson football with ‘Something in Those Hills’

By DAN ARMONAITIS

Watch the lyric video for a new single by Greenville-based singer-songwriter Marvin Evatt, and it’s abundantly clear what he’ll be doing this Saturday night, Dec. 28.

“Something in Those Hills,” which Evatt recently recorded at Sit-N-Spin Studios with a star-studded lineup of Upstate musicians, is a bit of a love letter to the Palmetto State, and its accompanying video is loaded with imagery that specifically reveals his passion for Clemson football.

Evatt and his new bride, Lori, will have some family over to watch the Tigers’ Fiesta Bowl game against Ohio State on Dec. 28. And, if all goes as Evatt anticipates (he’s predicting a 42-17 Clemson win), the couple will get to make use of the tickets they’ve already secured to the College Football Playoff National Championship game on Jan. 13 in New Orleans.

Referring to the title of his new song, Evatt said, “that’s a phrase used by Clemson alumni, and I remember hearing it from the time I was little. They always say, ‘there’s something in these hills,’ and I think there’s a lot of old poems written about Clemson that mention that (phrase). So, I just wrote it as ‘Something in Those Hills,’ because, in the song, it’s something that you’re missing.”

Although the origin of the title can be traced to Clemson, “Something in Those Hills” makes no specific reference to the university or its football program; thus, it’s a breezy country-flavored song that can just as easily be enjoyed by non-Tiger fans. In fact, the single’s producer, Greenville-based musician Charles Hedgepath, is a Columbia native whose football loyalties reside with the rival South Carolina Gamecocks.

“When I first heard it, I just thought, ‘that’s a good song,'” Hedgepath said. “It wasn’t until we were in the studio that (Evatt) started talking about the Clemson angle, and then I was like, ‘OK, well, I wasn’t expecting that.’ … Being a Gamecock fan, I didn’t realize (the phrase) was connected to Clemson.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcUS7zMD6RI

Evatt said he decided to write the song a few months ago at the urging of his wife, who was then his fiancé.

“About once a week, she would say, ‘when are you going to write me a Clemson song?'” Evatt recalled. “And I would say the same thing every time. I would say, ‘honey, I love all those Clemson tunes but they’re corny to me.’ And she would always say, ‘well, don’t write a corny one.’

“So, this was the closest I could get to a Clemson song, and it’s not really a Clemson song.”

“Something in Those Hills” is mostly about Evatt’s memories of growing up in Central, and there’s a line that says, “backyard at granddad’s house, we can hear the roar of the crowd,” which is an obvious reference to the proximity of Memorial Stadium, aka Death Valley, in Clemson.

“There’s not many songs that I’ve ever written — or, for that matter, that anybody I really know has ever written — that are 100 percent true, but it is with this one,” said Evatt, whose late mother worked at the university for 30 years. “I mean, I can go line by line and tell you exactly the thought that I had when I wrote it, and, line by line, there’s 100 percent complete accuracy. Every single word is true.

“I mean, growing up, we’d literally go to the back of my grandfather’s house and we’d sit there and listen to the Clemson games (on the radio) and we would hear the actual roar of the crowd from the stadium.”

A stellar production, “Something in Those Hills” features Evatt, who plays guitar and sings lead vocals, being accompanied by Hedgepath on guitar, Tez Sherard on drums/backing vocals, Shannon Hoover on bass, Aaron Bowen on keyboards, Matt Morgan on guitar, Matt Purinton on mandolin, Charles Wood on banjo, Robert Gowan on violin and Sean O’Shields on pedal steel, along with Kelly Jo and Doug Jones on backing vocals. Engineered and mixed by Morgan at Sit-N-Spin, it was mastered by the legendary John Keane at John Keane Studios in Athens, Ga.

“It was a bit of a bigger effort because I felt that the song was so powerful that it warranted that,” Hedgepath said. “It just doesn’t happen every day in life where you hear a song and you’re like, ‘man, that’s got some legs.'”

Evatt said he first met Hedgepath through a mutual friend, Greenville musician Larry McNair, who asked him to come up and sing a song during his performance at Smiley’s Acoustic Cafe. They immediately hit it off, and Hedgepath soon learned about Evatt’s impressive musical background.

Evatt moved to the Upstate a few years ago after spending more than 15 years in Nashville, where he was part of a nationally-touring vocal trio, Carolina Rain, which scored a series of minor hits, including “Isn’t She,” “Get Outta My Way,” “I Ain’t Scared” and “American Radio,” in the mid-2000s. Carolina Rain was signed to Equity Music Group, which was owned by country star Clint Black, who produced the group’s only album, “Weather the Storm.”

“I literally lived with Clint for, like, six months while we recorded that album,” Evatt said. “He fixed me a cot in the back of his two-and-a-half million dollar studio, just to kind of live in while we recorded. … One of the coolest moments was one time right after lunch, me and a bandmate were throwing a football in Clint’s front yard and (his wife) Lisa Hartman just poked her head out and asked us if we wanted a cup of coffee.

“(Black) was just so nice and generous to us. It was amazing. And what a great person to learn under because he had been doing it for so long.”

Evatt, who made 52 appearances on the Grand Ole Opry as a member of Carolina Rain, said he’s happy to be back home. Just days after he finished recording “Something in Those Hills” with Hedgepath, he signed a contract with Solaris Entertainment, which released it as a single.

“It’s just a special place,” Evatt said of South Carolina. “You can drive 30 minutes from where we are and be in the most beautiful mountains or you can drive a couple of hours and be in the middle of Columbia. And, then, you can drive on down and there’s a beautiful coast. It’s just amazing. While (the song) says, ‘Something in Those Hills,’ what I’m really referring to is this entire state. There’s just something about this state and its people that I just love.”