Evan Bartels hails from the tiny town of Tobias, Nebraska—population just over 100—where he first found music’s power amidst the open prairies and gravel roads. Tinkering with piano as a child and teaching himself guitar by age 12, Bartels began writing songs in his teens and touring regionally before making the move to Nashville.
His independent debut, ‘The Devil, God & Me' (2017), earned attention on Billboard’s Heatseekers chart, and subsequent releases like the ‘Promised Land' EP and full‑length ‘Lonesome' (2021) showcased his cinematic Americana sound, earning him syncs on shows like The Ranch and a growing international fanbase in countries like the UK, where he played with Morgan Wallen in Hyde Park in 2024 and at the C2C festival in 2025.
Signed to Lost Highway Records and recently represented by WME, Bartels’ latest EP ‘To Make You Cry' marks a new, deeply personal phase in his music. Recorded in a self-built Nashville cabin, the six-track collection focuses on stories from life on the road, the emotional costs of chasing dreams, and the overlooked moments that define us. It’s a continuation of Bartels’ ethos—“to think, to feel… marry them with action, that’s when art is born” —making him one of today’s most authentic and resonant voices in roots music. We were thrilled to catch up with him to talk about his new EP and much more besides.
Thank you for speaking to me today – we appreciate how busy you are. It's lovely to touch base with you about your music and your career.
Thank you, man, thank you for hopping on to talk, I appreciate it.
We loved seeing you at C2C in London this year. Did you enjoy that trip and did we leave you with some good memories?
That was a good trip! I've been over to the UK a couple of times now and never had a bad time but that one was the best one so far. Getting over there and just being in the mix of things at the festival was great – I loved going to see other writers and artists' shows, that was a huge bonus to playing something like that.
It was great playing the Snakefarm records event a couple of days before the festival too. They had Kassi Ashton there and she's always fantastic to watch. You get to perform as an artist and a writer to these great crowds and rooms where people actually want to listen but you also have a front row or a backstage view of other artists too.
You played Morgan Wallen's show at Hyde Park in London in summer 2024 too. Do you notice a difference in the crowds over here compared to the USA or are they essentially the same?
You know, there's cultural differences I think and you see them across the sizes of the venues that I perform in. When I perform in smaller listening rooms I would say the crowds are the same in both countries, every body is on the same page because they have chosen to be in that kind of space to listen to music. When you start getting to the larger rooms, the rock clubs, the theatres and the festivals that's where you tend to see more of a difference. Over here in the States it's not uncommon for people to be chatty in those kind of spaces whereas I've noticed, for the most part in the UK that doesn't happen.
I'm curious to know whether this might have something to do with the theatre being more ingrained and prevalent in UK culture maybe? People seem much more reserved as audiences and they don't chat or shout out as much and are more respectful of the people around them who are listening – you don't necessarily see that in the US at the larger shows, specifically.
There were 50,000 people at the Morgan Wallen show. I played on a smaller stage and that crowd was right there with me. I saw Zandi Hollup play on the medium stage and she was playing to a couple of thousand people and as soon as she started playing people were like, ‘We're gonna watch this,' even though they were essentially just sat in a field. It is a more intentional crowd interaction.
I hope that people hear a song or a story and it is cathartic for them and it helps build a community for them at my shows. At its core for most people, live shows, whether they are music, comedy, theatre – you're trying to create a space where you are not telling people how to think or feel – you just get up there and are vulnerable through your craft and you invite people to join in that with you.
You released your fabulous new EP ‘To Make You Cry' recently. There's a lot of highway and expanse across the songs on that EP – was that your goal when you were putting the project together?
I mean, you kinda hit the nail on the head there. I wanted to achieve this sense of expansiveness in the recordings. I wanted every song to be a story but I also wanted the whole project to tell a larger story too. This collection is six songs that I started writing back in 2017. Most of the songs were written on the road or through the lens of someone travelling across the country.
I wanted it to be slightly allegorical for life. The protagonist in most of the songs isn't the main character – you notice other people in these songs and then the invite is there to turn the mirror back onto yourself and think about how that makes you feel. The songs focus in on humanity and are, in a way, intimidatingly intimate.
We recorded them in my cabin and we did multiple takes to get the one we wanted. There was no cutting or chopping – each song is a performance in and of itself. I hoped that would bring the grit and the intimacy needed for each song to feel like a little novel all of its own. I was aiming for a Cohen brothers style, ‘There Will be Blood,' gritty western feel.
Which song was the easiest to write and which song took the longest to wrangle it to where you wanted it to be?
That's a good question. Probably four out of the six were written whilst I was driving the tour van! An idea would come in and I would just start singing and playing with words and thoughts. ‘Lula' was born on July 2nd 2017 and I was in Denver and was out on my first ever full time tour. My wife was with me and was pregnant at the time with our first child. I had a dream at the Air BnB that we were staying in and I walked out on the porch the next morning and started singing this song from the dream I had – that came very easy – it was almost like transcribing a ghost story!
There's two collaborations on the album that I co-wrote with people. The title track, I wrote with two great writers, Bobby Tomberlin and Curt Gibbs. That one came together pretty quickly but the hard thing with it was to achieve a level of personal vulnerability that doesn't necessarily make you look good when you perform it, right? That's the real craft – to figure out how to get out of my own way but that leads to the most personal connections with an audience.
So ‘Death of a Good Man' might be one of those songs too? Is that song based on somebody in particular or is it an amalgam of ideas and people that you've met?
That song is based on one person in particular. It was born out of the first trip I ever took to Nashville. It was about 7 or 8 years ago. I had a show booked at a bar and I was convinced that I was going to play the show and be discovered, right! (laughing) In reality, I showed up to the venue and found out that the venue had cancelled my show because they had rented the whole bar out to someone else. I am not ashamed to say that I was devastated.
I knew Nashville was famous for fried chicken and I started looking around for a spot to go eat. Then my phone died! Then it started raining. I saw the glowing lights of a KFC and decided that it would have to do. I was the only one in there, it's late and I'm soaking wet eating this fried chicken – in a fit of anger I decided to go find a bar! I sat at the bar, drinking the cheapest whiskey I could get and at the far end of the bar was another man in his 70s who looked like I felt! We spent the rest of the night chatting – we talked about us being in Nashville, swapped life stories and ‘Death of a Good Man' is based on him.
The title track and your song ‘Waves' dip into the subject of mental health. Is that a topic that is close to your heart as a writer?
It is. Writing a song, in general, is a form of catharsis. I don't write songs because I really want something out of it. You hope people hear your songs or come to your shows but that's not the why. A lot of the time I am writing to try and understand myself and my own place in the world. For me, that's what puts the world into context. It can be very daunting to share emotions with people and I've found that it's easier to pair those words and feelings with people paired with a melody or a story – and I think a lot of people are like that.
Whatever you are feeling, whether it's very good or very bad, I think it's important to state it as clearly as possible and give it a face so you can recognise it. Then you can shape it into where you want to go and we can share those feelings in a way that speaks to us as individuals. Some people do that through song, through writing, through art, through poetry or dance – you need to find what it is that speaks to you in that way, I'm a big believer in that.
There's a heft and a weight to a lot of the songs you sing. An intensity. Does that weight sit heavy on you sometimes when you are performing them or can you remove yourself from the emotions of them when you are singing them?
Only if I am doing my best! When I'm performing these songs, my personal goal is to put them into context for other people. So, I don't want to disregard the audience but I do want to forget that they are there. I need to get into the emotional and spiritual headspace that I was in when I felt like I had to write the song, if that makes sense?
If I can get into that space, it makes for a good show because you are in a true state of vulnerability and that's the best place to be in to invite other people to join you. That's what I'm looking for when I play live. You have to let go of conscious thought and then you'll also have an audience who have been given the freedom to do the same thing too. I'm not trying to sing to tell stories for the sake of them or to sell T shirts – I'm trying to be a conduit for people to think, feel and share something together in a room. There's nothing more powerful and influential in my life than being in a room with other people from all over the world just feeling something.
We're looking forward to seeing you do exactly that at the Long Road festival here in the UK in August.
I'm looking forward to it, man. That's going to be a stellar time. The line up is incredible and the artists on the bill are all people who do an excellent job of writing songs that meet you where you are at. I'm excited to be a part of it.
I don't know whether you've seen any pictures but it's like playing a festival in the back garden of Downton Abbey!
I mean, hey, I'll wear a cummerbund then! I'll wear period costume! I not beyond dressing like an English country gent if I have to! (laughing) It'll be a great time.
Check out Evan Bartels fabulous new EP ‘To Make You Cry' right here and grab tickets to see him at the Long Road festival here.
