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hello! i'm evan greer. i am a touring radical genderqueer songwriter, parent, organizer, and workshop-facilitator based in boston, ma. i to use my upbeat acoustic music as a tool to support grassroots struggles for justice and liberation. thanks for visiting and for your support! please check out www.riotfolk.org for lots more free song downloads and information about the Riot-Folk! Collective, a group of 9 young musicians hellbent on MAKING FOLK A THREAT AGAIN.
Please keep in touch with me by I send out one e-mail a month with upcoming tour dates, news, and highlights of cool grassroots organizing around the world.
in addition to playing the music you're hearing, I facilitate a series of interactive workshops on social and environmental justice topics like Climate Justice, Community Organizing, Resisting Gentrification, LGBTQ Liberation, Youth Empowerment, and more. these are really engaging and fun and weave together music, discussion, visuals, and popular education games to help make the connections between different forms of oppression and exploitation as well as struggles and avenues towards liberation. I am most excited about offering these workshops in high schools, at conferences, colleges, and youth centers, but I am open to all ideas! Get in touch if you'd like to bring this to your school or community! Contact me:
evangreer@gmail.com
below is a more formal "bio" for booking purposes. be sure to check out everyone else in the Riot-Folk! Collective. They rock. We are a collective of radical songwriters and musicians hellbent on MAKING FOLK A THREAT AGAIN. I do all my own booking, so if you want to set up a show, just e-mail me:
evangreer@gmail.com
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Evan Greer is a radical genderqueer singer/songwriter, community organizer and workshop-facilitator based in Boston, MA. Evan writes and performs high energy acoustic songs that inspire hope, build community, and incite resistance! At 24 years old, this queerly punk folk artist tours internationally as a musician and facilitates interactive workshops that support movements for justice and liberation. Wielding an arsenal of fiercely radical acoustic songs that vary in style from pop-punk to foot-stompin bluegrass, Evan has shared stages with artists as musically diverse as Pete Seeger, Immortal Technique, Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine, Boots Riley of The Coup, Billy Bragg, Pamela Means, State Radio, The Mammals, and Chumbawamba.
Evan is on the road over 100 days a year performing and facilitating interactive workshops for all ages that connect many struggles for justice and liberation. The primary goal is to directly support grassroots movements with music and education, and also to generate funds for local struggles in the communities she visits. Evan tours frequently by greyhound bus, car, foot, subway train, airplane, and most recently bicycle, having returned from 1600+ pedal-powered miles around Florida during the Respect Yer Mama Bicycle Tour with riot-folk co-conspirator, Shannon Murray.
Greer is a member of the Riot-Folk! Collective, an innovative group of radical musicians who work together to use their music as a tool for social change. Evan has spent time as a relief worker in New Orleans, a street medic at the G8 protests in Scotland, and has been a youth and community organizer in the Boston-area since high school. A deep involvement in movements for social and ecological justice gives him a unique perspective on how to inspire other young people to take concrete action towards a more just and sustainable world.
Evan’s high-energy acoustic songs have been featured on NPR, recorded by well-known artists, and used in high school and college courses. An original blend of catchy melodies, punk rock energy, and shear musical charisma make her instantly at home on a stage or in a classroom, Evan's lyrics, stories, and analysis offer a challenging and empowering alternative to traditional discussions around social and environmental justice.
REVIEWS:
"Evan Greer is an eloquent and energetic writer. He reminds me of Phil Ochs."
--Howard Zinn, author of A People's History of the United States
"Evan Greer continues to write inspiring folk music in the tradition of the great protest singers. 'Never Surrender' contains an urgency and earnestness that is uniquely his.and he's a heck of a guitar player. I suspect that songs like 'Ya Basta!' and 'Picketline Song' will be heard at the barricades for years to come."
--Tom Morello, guitarist of Rage Against the Machine
"Evan feeds off the energy of the crowd, putting some of the punk back into the sound with a raw and passionate performance. Being in the crowd at an acoustic show where the kids genuinely care about the message and dance and sing along with fists in the air in a crowded basement or open performance space, is a whole different type of folk show from the typical coffee house style. It's refreshingly alive and a striking contrast to sitting down and listening to someone singing about their feelings."--Urban Folk, NYC
"Phenomenal activist folk!"
--Pacifica Radio KPFA-FM
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"Current folk is sometimes stereotyped as sappy, weak, and boring. Despite this contemporary betrayal, the Riot Folk collective champions the genre’s radical roots . Behind all the exclamation points and proclamations of anarchy, lies a genuine sense of revolution. The Riot Folk Collective may just re-establish folk music as a revolutionary staple." --VenusZine
"Evan's vocals are clear and definitive as he weaves a story around his concise guitar playing!"
--WERU-FM Radio, ME
"The only reason it's probably taken Evan Greer so long to make a full-length album, Never Surrender (on Riot-Folk! Records [sic]) is because he's never just a musician. He's always surrounded by activists working on one issue or another . you'll see him at anti-war meetings and community potlucks organized to stop housing forclosures. Yes, he sings while he's there. But Greer is never just the entertainment; it's impossible to keep him on the stage. His songwriting is never separate from his role as facilitator, organizer, activist, and storyteller. It seems Greer has called on his entire community of activist friends to produce Never Surrender. With songs inspired by local protests and loved ones, accompanied by veteran and fellow Boston musicians, Never Surrender is by far not a solo album. Complete with recycled cardboard case, Greer's 15-song CD is truly a radical group effort . Like a coming of age story, the tumultuous emotions of self-awareness in a fucked up world is at the center . But Greer proves more than a writer of catchy political pop--he makes the music functional . Greer's best songwriting isn't passive--it's calling for and directing action, and it's demanding us to do it together."--The Noise, Boston (cover story, June 2009.)
