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A Musical Life: Michael Evancho

Michael Evancho is a solo musician who has more than a decade of experience writing and recording music. He was one part of the band Darlin’ Maudie with his brother Nick. He lives in Wichita with his wife, Danielle.

“I finally decided a smart thing to do is to keep a three-ring binder and date things and songs. It’s a complete disaster. Don’t get me wrong. There’s cluster charts in there, little scribbles on notes that have been taped in, stuff I’ve done at work and said, ‘I’ve got to write this down now.’

I think we’ve all been that kid in a group where someone asks a question and you raise your hand just because you want to answer but you don’t have an answer. If you try to write a song with nothing to say, not even any music, you’re going to be standing there, going, ‘Uh. Uh.’

The notebook is like divided into three or four major sections of in work, setlists. Having setlists in chronological order is great. You know what you did last, you know what you did a month, a year ago, what went horribly. You can even write that in. Cover songs? If you print a song off, like, ‘I gotta learn this song! I gotta learn it!’ Then, I have what I call the retired song area, where songs go. It’s like, ‘Click. Done.’ But they’re still there just in case."

Jedd Beaudoin is host/producer of the nationally syndicated program Strange Currency. He has also served as an arts reporter, a producer of A Musical Life and a founding member of the KMUW Movie Club. As a music journalist, his work has appeared in Pop Matters, Vox, No Depression and Keyboard Magazine.