The Deep (band)

Rusty Evans was born Marcus Uzilevsky in 1937 in New York City and was the Deep's lead guitarist, primary songwriter, and vocalist. Evans initially recorded in 1958 as a rockabilly singer, before performing as a Greenwich Village folk musician in the late 1950s and early 1960s. He recorded three albums as Rusty Evans – Songs of Our Land, Railroad Songs (both 1964) and ''Live at Gerde's Folk City'' (1965) – and was later a member of the folk group The New Christy Minstrels. Musician David Bromberg is also known to have played on The Deep's one and only album, although it is unknown on which tracks he played. == History ==

In the early summer of 1966, Evans convinced producer Mark Barkan to help him record a psychedelic album. They secured arrangements with the Philadelphia-based Cameo-Parkway label, where they became labelmates to Question Mark and the Mysterians, for a meager budget of $1200. In August, Evans and Barkan assembled a group of New York musicians to record as the Deep, and they drove in a rundown car to Philadelphia to record what would become Psychedelic Moods, the band's sole album which was done in the short period of four days and would necessitate late-night sessions in order to be finished on time. The all-night sessions also provided the musicians, who were unable to afford a hotel, with a place to sleep. The album released in November 1966 was one of the earliest to include the word "psychedelic" in its title around the same time as the Blues Magoos' Psychedelic Lollipop, but predated by the 13th Floor Elevators' The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators in October 1966. Rusty Evans and the Freak Scene Evans left Cameo-Parkway to record a new album for the Columbia Records label in 1967. Abandoning the "Deep" name, this second album was credited to the band The Freak Scene and entitled Psychedelic Psoul. Despite the name change, the band continued to be the same studio-only lineup from the first album. However, the Freak Scene's album met the same results as Psychedelic Moods. The group disbanded in late 1967. The album was later re-released by Sony BMG through Columbia Records on vinyl. After this venture, Evans returned to performing as a solo musician. He recorded under his birthname, Marcus, for a self-titled album in 1969, which produced compositions conceived as psychedelic folk in nature. He did not record another album until 1979, when he released ''Life's Railway Heaven'', another folk effort. Evans recorded sporadically until his death, usually in the style of folk or rockabilly music, He also led a Johnny Cash tribute band. Under his real name of Marcus Uzilevsky, he was a respected visual artist best known for his landscape paintings, and was exhibited widely in California. On December 5, 2015, Rusty Evans passed away in Woodacre, California. ==References==