Evan Purcell’s new CD, Attachments, was scheduled to be released last month at Shakabrah Java, but alas, it was not meant to be. Tacoma’s longtime favorite acoustic music venue decided to be a little less shaka and a little more java and cancelled all of its music performances. But Sixth Avenue’s loss was Parkland’s gain because Friday Purcell’s dream child will be released at Northern Pacific Coffee Company, one of the coziest, well loved coffeehouses in the South Sound.



Last week I gushed about Purcell’s music and his songwriting. What I didn’t tell you is that one of his songs has special meaning for Tacoma’s music community. “Every Day You’re Gone” was written about a departed friend who rocked stages in Tacoma for nearly 20 years with his big blue bass guitar and his even bigger smile. It is not possible for anyone who ever met Pat Marshall to listen to this song with dry cheeks. Another well crafted song on Purcell’s CD is called “30,000 Feet,” which Purcell wrote specifically for Lynn Di Nino’s Tacoma community art project “Suitcase Sightings.” I caught up with Purcell before his CD release show Friday.



ANGELA JOSSY: Reflecting on this CD, what would you say it was about? 



EVAN PURCELL: That a lot of this CD has felt like my opinion about stuff.  That I’ve taken something that’s from my life and I’m now going to tell you what I think about it.



JOSSY: What are you in love with?



PURCELL: My wife, my kids, my dog, that Peggy’s Mush stuff that Charlie McManus at Primo Grill makes, a nice glass of red wine, Pacific Beach, I love that fact that there is Karma in this world and that what goes around comes around (yeah, I’m talking to you, asshole who wouldn’t let me merge into your lane today).  I love that feeling where your hair all stands on end when you hear something just right.  Peanut butter on toast with a cup of strong coffee to chase it down.  That truth and beauty are all around us, but are found in the most surprising places.  Driving down the road and seeing that a new Beautiful Angle poster has been put up.



JOSSY:  How did you meet your wife? 



PURCELL: We met our junior year in high school.  She had the lead in the play “Grease,” and I was some guy in the musicians’ pit playing guitar that came up and sang “Beauty School Drop Out” in a glittery silver vest.  Don’t believe anyone who tells you guitars don’t get chicks.  There is no way she would have given me a second glance without one.



JOSSY: Besides chicks, why the guitar?



PURCELL: I started playing guitar when I was 12 in the summer between 7th and 8th grades.  I have an older brother who was in a band playing bass at the time, and that summer we both started playing guitar.  My dad is a guitar player and singer so we always heard a lot of music around our house: Pete Seger, Woody Guthrie, Leadbelly — that kind of stuff.



JOSSY: When did you discover you could put words to music? 



PURCELL: Well, I’ve always written songs, but I wouldn’t say I thought I had any ability until about 10 years ago or so.  I’m not one of those people who have always been good at it. I sucked for a long, long time.  I still suck a lot, but sometimes I don’t, and that’s where the good songs come from.



JOSSY: What do you hope people will say or feel after listening to your music? 



PURCELL: That wasn’t as painful as I feared it would be.



JOSSY: If you could sit and play music anywhere in the world, where would I find you? 



PURCELL: Well, it’s an old cliché, but if I could play on stage anywhere, the Old Ryman Auditorium in Nashville would most likely be tops on my list.  A lot of musicians I admire have been on that stage, and according to them, there’s no other place that comes close.  But if I’m just playing music — not sitting, ’cause I never sit when I play — then I’d have to say in Doug Mackey’s whacked out old basement on 19th with a bunch of good friends and a short case of Oly stubbies.



JOSSY: Basement, huh?  Not on a Tacoma stage?



PURCELL: This town has so much talent, but at times it suffers from lack of participation.  It feels like the music scene is lagging behind the arts scene in that way, but I have great hopes of that changing in the near future.  If you had told me art and Tacoma would fit nicely in the same sentence just 10 years ago, I would have laughed.



JOSSY: What was your closest brush with fame? 



PURCELL: I once had Jeanine Turner recognize me, shout “Evan!”, give me a big hug and then introduce me to Demi Moore on an elevator at the Four Seasons Hotel.  That was pretty cool.  Also learned how to toss pizza dough with River Phoenix one afternoon.



JOSSY: What are you most looking forward to right now? 



PURCELL: Meat loaf — it’s in the oven, and it smells really good.



Evan Purcell will release his new CD, Attachments, Friday, Jan. 19, at the Northern Pacific Coffee Company.  Jeanlizabeth will set the mood accompanied by Danielle Griffin on backup vocals at 8 p.m.



[Northern Pacific Coffee Company, Jan. 19, 8 p.m., all ages, no cover, 401 Garfield St. S., Tacoma/Parkland, 253.537.8338]