Wishes come true for Everybodyfields fans

Photo by Tom Sherlin

Tom Sherlin/courtesy of The Daily Times A request to play the Bristol Rhythm and Roots Reunion festival brought the Everybodyfields back together for a series of shows. The group is, from left, Sam Quinn, Tom Pryor, Jill Andrews, Josh Oliver and Jamie Cook.

When the Everybodyfields broke up in 2009, nobody said, "We'll never do this again."

So when organizers of Bristol's Rhythm and Roots Reunion festival asked Jill Andrews and Sam Quinn if they'd consider reuniting the band to appear at the festival, Andrews says the answer was: "Well, we can do that. Might as well."

Andrews says no one has asked the group to perform since she and fellow lead singer-songwriter Quinn had ended the group to pursue individual projects.

Andrews says the Rhythm and Roots show felt like a homecoming.

"It seemed like the perfect place to do it. We originated in the Tri-Cities and played in Bristol. Then the Avett Brothers asked us to open for them in Sevierville and you can't really turn that down!"

The group decided to follow up with one show in Knoxville where everyone now lives.

"It's not hard to drive five minutes and we know all these songs, so there's no excuse not to," Andrews says.

Both Andrews and Quinn have released solo albums that earned good reviews. Everybodyfields members Tom Pryor and Jamie Cook are now in the Black Lillies, which is doing well, and Josh Oliver is establishing himself as a solo artist.

However, fans of the Everybodyfields went into collective mourning when the group disbanded. Andrews and Quinn had become renowned for their sad and beautiful ballads and the band's dreamy sound was finding its way on to college and Americana radio. The group's third and final album, "Nothing Is Okay," was praised by critics and fans all across the country.

Andrews and Quinn met in 1999 when both were counselors at Wesley Woods Camp in Walland, and became musical and romantic partners not too long afterward. By 1994, the duo had become a band named the Everybodyfields and the group released the debut album "Halfway There: Electricity and the South."

The romance ended before the music, but the breakup came out in some of the duo's most gorgeous songs on "Nothing Is Okay." And, the tension on stage between the two became obvious.

"It kind of got uncomfortable there at the end, even for audience members," says Andrews. "Now we're all just friends and we're out there to make music together."

Andrews says the group members practiced for months before the Bristol show and she was happy with the way it turned out.

"It felt natural in a way, but we've all been working on other things and progressing on other goals. I think we've changed. I think it's more about making music than making each other miserable! It's good to have that as the goal!"

For the Knoxville performance, the group will concentrate on Everybodyfields songs, but there will be a sprinkling of some newer post-Everybodyfields songs and some unexpected covers.

Andrews' newer songs are definitely more upbeat than her older material. She says it sometimes feels a little odd to play her older work.

"But once you write a song you're proud of it's always part of you. Sometimes I'll sing a song and say to myself, 'I really don't feel that way anymore' — and that's usually a good thing — but I can still remember when I did feel that way."

And, unlike the title of the Everybodyfields' last album, it seems like things are OK. And the options are open for the members of the Everybodyfields both individually and collectively.

"There's nothing final about it. It's not like we're going to be out there making music together for years and years. If we want to play more we can. But we don't have any plans to," Andrews says.

© 2011, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.
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