Evershine

July 17, 2011

It’s Time for Evershine
By Rick Coates
When Evershine lead singer Ida Reed learned that Anthony Steele passed away unexpectedly last month, a flood of emotions came over her.
“Anthony was a friend of mine, we went to school together. I was a troubled soul in those days and he befriended me and showed me random acts of kindness and it impacted my life,” said Reed. “He worked hard to get me into a club in Manistee where he was living; unfortunately he passed before we got to play the show on July 16 so we turned it into a fundraiser for his family.”
Now Reed and her bandmates are organizing “Rock Like Steele” this Friday, July 22, at Ground Zero Nightclub inside the Streeters Center in TC. All proceeds from the evening will benefit Anthony Steele’s family.
“Doug Street jumped on board right away. He also went to school with us,” said Reed. “We are real fortunate that several great bands agreed to play, from Alter Ego, Machine Gun Rodeo and the Jackson Swan Band. Plus we have DJ Dominate spinning dance music in the room next door.”

HELPING THE FAMILY
Steele, 39, died as a result of complications to a routine surgery and he left behind a wife and three kids.
“He didn’t have life insurance, so this concert is to help the family with expenses” said Reed. “There will be a silent auction and we have lots of great items, for example Doug Street is donating a year’s worth of passes to events at his place. We have hotel stays, restaurant certificates, and more. We are asking for $5 minimum donation at the door with 100% going to the family all the bands are making donations from the merch sales.”
Being charitable has been at “the core” of Ida Reed’s musical journey in Northern Michigan for the past 20 years. It is one of the reasons why the band changed their name.
“We used to go by the name Callous, but we realized that didn’t fit us. That name was negative, hardcore, and left us to be viewed as one-dimensional. We are extremely diverse musically from our originals to our covers,” said Reed. “Plus we have a positive message in our lyrics, we’re just not a band that is negative, so we wanted a positive name to reflect who we are and Evershine fit us.”
Reed adds that they have expanded their musical focus beyond their original power metal sound.
“Our music sets include Top 40, modern and classic rock, progressive, alternative, and of course plenty of metal,” said Reed. “We even do some easy listening stuff, so we are all over the board. We have something for everyone at our shows and we can play to the audience.”
Evershine released their debut CD last year titled “The Core” which was produced by Howie Beno of Red Hot Chili Peppers, Tom Jones and Dionne Warwick fame.
“Howie also co-manages us. We entered the first Rock Your Way To The Top (now Band Wars) at the Leelanau Sands Casino and did real well, and while we didn’t win, Howie took a liking to us,” said Reed. “We are currently writing our next CD that will be out later this year or early next spring. Howie is coming in soon to work with us on it.”

THEM CHANGES
Evershine is celebrating 10 years together, though the line-up has changed a bit recently.
“Over the past year we went through a personal change with a couple of bass players,” said Reed. “I had to play bass for awhile and just a few weeks ago we picked up Kyle Akers from Crazy Train and he is a perfect fit.”
In addition to Akers and Reed the other members include Dan Reed, on guitars and vocals and drummer Jim Gac.
Evershine has opened for Kittie, Jackyl, FireHouse and Saving Abel among others recently. They have been active in several non profit causes in the region and are now focusing on expanding their reach into the midwest.
“Having Howie Beno producing us and co-managing us has opened a lot of doors for us,” said Reed. “We are now in clubs all over Michigan and when our new CD is complete we are looking at a five state Midwest club tour so we will see what happens next.”

The “Rock Like Steele,” benefit concert takes place Friday, July 22, at Ground Zero Night Club inside the Streeters Center. For details check out www.groundzeroonline.com and for more information on Evershine go to www.evershinemusic.com.