Address: 3046 Jericho Cove, Millington, TN 38053, U.S.A. (home)

Contact: 901-872-6299 (home phone); dhevans@memphis.edu (e-mail)

Place and Date of Birth: Boston, Massachusetts; Jan. 22, 1944

Education: A.B., Harvard, 1965 (Classics); M.A., UCLA, 1967 (Folklore and Mythology); Ph.D., UCLA, 1976 (Folklore and Mythology)

Current Occupation: Professor of Music Emeritus, The University of Memphis

Awards and Honors: Commencement Latin Oration, Harvard University, 1965; Distinguished Service Medal for Academic Distinction, UCLA, 1976; Summer Stipend, National Endowment for the Humanities, 1976; Faculty Research Grants, Memphis State University, 1979, 1980, 1982, 1989, 1991; Grants from National Endowment for the Arts, 1979, 1982; Grant from Tennessee Arts/Humanities Support Program, 1980; Grammy Award Nomination for “Best Album Notes,” 1981; W.C. Handy Blues Award for Blues Research, 1981; Chicago Folklore Prize, 1981-82; Distinguished Research Award, Memphis State University, 1987; Humanities Center Fellowship, Memphis State University, 1989; Grants from Partners of the Americas for recording Venezuelan traditional music, 1979, 1980; Grant from Tennessee Humanities Council, 1998; Dean’s Creative Achievement Award, 1999; Grammy Awards for “Best Album Notes,” 2003, 2019; First Tennessee Professorship, The University of Memphis, 2006-2009; Willard R. Sparks Eminent Faculty Award, The University of Memphis, 2007; Fulbright Senior Specialist project, Bahir Dar University, Ethiopia, 2011; Blues Hall of Fame inductee, 2023.

Books: Tommy Johnson (London: Studio Vista, 1971).

Big Road Blues: Tradition and Creativity in the Folk Blues (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982; paperback ed., New York: Da Capo, 1987).

“The Coon in the Box”: A Global Folktale in African-American Tradition, by John Minton and David Evans (Helsinki: Academia Scientiarum Fennica, 2001).

The NPR Curious Listener’s Guide to Blues (New York: Perigee, 2005).

David Evans, ed., Ramblin’ on My Mind: New Perspectives on the Blues (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2008).

Getie Gelaye, David Evans, and Alula Pankhurst, eds., Culture and Development for Amhara Region (Bahir Dar, Ethiopia: Bahir Dar University Press, 2011).

Marina Bokelman and David Evans, Going up the Country: Adventures in Blues Fieldwork in the 1960s (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2022).

Select Journals, Articles and Books Chapters: Over 110 articles in scholarly journals (including Journal of American Folklore, Western Folklore, Jazzforschung, Southern Folklore Quarterly, The Chronicle of Higher Education, John Edwards Memorial Foundation Quarterly, History of Religions, Black Music Research Journal, and Popular Music) and chapters in books, anthologies, and encyclopedias. Most of the articles and chapters are concerned with African-American folk music and folklore. Other topics are Venezuelan music, Hopi Indian artistic symbolism, comparative Indo-European mythology, and music, culture, and tourism in Ethiopia.

Editions: Special editions of John Edwards Memorial Foundation Quarterly (1978), American Music (1996), and Black Music Research Journal (2000). Editor since 1996 of “American Made Music” book series for University Press of Mississippi. Editor of “Deep River of Song” CD series, Rounder Records.

Films: “Gravel Springs Fife and Drum” (sound): Center for Southern Folklore, 1973. Three films on African-American folk music, 1979. The latter have been shown at academic meetings, festivals, and universities, including showings in Belgium, Italy, France, Canada, Colombia, and Venezuela, and are published as part of Music from the South (Vestapol 13131, DVD, 2014).

Recordings: Recording and annotation of 17 albums of field and studio recordings of African-American folk music since 1968 for various companies in the U.S.A., Great Britain, Germany, and Austria. Production and annotation of 20 albums of studio recordings for High Water Records, a division of The University of Memphis, 1980 to present. Liner and booklet notes for over 80 albums for various American and foreign labels, 1967 to present.

Reviews: Over 90 book, record, and film reviews and review essays in various scholarly journals, 1968 to present.

Lectures: Papers presented at over 45 meetings of scholarly societies since 1966 (including American Folklore Society, Society for Ethnomusicology, American Anthropological Association, and Sonneck Society). Invited lectures at UCLA, Smithsonian Institution, Fisk University, Tuskegee Institute, University of South Carolina, University of North Carolina, University of Mississippi, University of Tennessee Center for the Health Sciences, Jackson State University, Cornell University, Phillips County Community College, Prince George’s Community College, University of Maryland, Arkansas State University, Natchez Literary Celebration, Pennsylvania State University, Telfair Museum of Art, King Biscuit Blues Festival, Vanderbilt University, Earlham College, Vassar College, and at universities, music schools, libraries, and festivals in Canada, Sweden, Belgium, Colombia, Venezuela, England, Austria, France, Germany, Poland, Slovenia, Italy, Latvia, and Ethiopia.

Creative Activity: Guitar and vocals at numerous blues and folk festivals and concerts in the U.S.A., France, Italy, Sweden, Germany, Spain, Belgium, Netherlands, Great Britain, Poland, Latvia, Slovenia, Austria, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Denmark, Finland, Switzerland, Peru, Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela, and Ethiopia. Guitar accompanist on blues albums released in the U.S.A., France and Australia. Personal CDs (5) on Inside Sounds and Blind Lemon labels and tracks on CDs released in the U.S.A., Germany and Venezuela.

Service: Consultant for publishers, museums, court cases, films, festivals (local, national, international), and government agencies (local, state, national).

For a look at his full CV, click here.