Evie Sands maintains her ‘rock ‘n’ roll ethic’

Evie Sands began her life in music as a 1960s rock ‘n’ roll bad girl, blossomed into a balladeer of profound depth and a prolific writer of striking grace and prowess. She has had her original songs recorded by Barbra Streisand, Dionne Warwick, Gladys Knight, Karen Carpenter, Tom Jones, Helen Reddy and Dusty Springfield — a stunning who’s who of superstar vocalists, all of whom are noted for their discriminating taste in choice of material.

The Brooklyn-born Sands, who appears at Burbank’s Viva Cantina on Saturday, Feb. 7, unquestionably rates as one of the most compelling yet bafflingly overlooked forces in American pop. Prized for a clutch of smoldering 1960s classics (“Take Me for a Little While,” “I Can’t Let Go,” “Any Way That You Want Me,” “Angel of the Morning”), Sands’ artistic drive was always formidable.

“I was obsessed with music, even when I was 2 years old,” Sands said. “My mom was a great singer, with a beautiful voice, but she let it go to raise our family. I started playing when I was 9 — I really wished for a piano but we couldn’t afford it, so I started on guitar. And my parents were very supportive, always told us ‘Follow your heart,’ so if there was a talent contest or something I wanted to go to, they made sure I got there.”

In her early teens, Sands caught the ear of producers Al Gorgoni and Chip Taylor and signed with New York City-based Blue Cat Records, sister label to famed songwriters Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller’s short-lived Red Bird imprint. There, she cut a wide variety of material, including the scorching “Run Home to Your Mama,” a classic, sneering blues rocker that anticipated Suzi Quatro and the Runaways. She also recorded a series of achingly gorgeous blue-eyed soul ballads, even as commercial success, due to the era’s typical cutthroat song-hijacking culture, initially eluded her.

“I definitely had my ‘Welcome to the record business, isn’t it wonderful? Well, no, it isn’t’ moment,” Sands said. “But there were others who had way worse things happen.”

Sands’ singular, supercharged mix of rock and soul, delivered with a high-impact, rich-toned voice laden with nuance and heat, was a smoky, bewitching, arousing approach and she easily won recognition among her peers. Navigating the shadowy artistic pathology common to Jackie DeShannon, Tammy Wynette and Dusty Springfield — who acknowledged Evie as her favorite singer — Sands quickly came into her own, artistically and commercially.

“I’d loved Dusty since I first heard her records,” Sands said. “She was amazing and it was great, during my little fledgling career, to know that she liked me — that was a giant thrill.”

After leaving the NYC pop music meat-grinder and moving to Los Angeles in the late 1960s, Sands was able to do whatever she liked, and her career steadily ascended. When she appeared on Johnny Cash’s ABC television show, his introduction really summed her up: “She’s got stardust in her eyes, she’s got silver bells in her voice and you’d think she’s got electricity in her fingers the way she plays that guitar.”

She went to release a series of acclaimed albums during the 1970s (the well-received “Anyway That You Want Me” and “Estate of Mind,” climaxing the decade with her 1979 masterpiece “Suspended Animation”), and worked extensively as a producer, studio musician and composer. She also took a long hiatus from live performance, which helps account for her status as one of rock ‘n’ roll’s secret weapons.

With plans for a pair of new releases, all of that will be coming to an end. “I’m really excited about all the new stuff I’m working on.” Sands said. “I write all kinds of things, I’m all over the map. Some it’s jazzy, some of it’s rock — I love it all and want to do as much as I can. And, in terms of my solo stuff, it is so long overdue.”

Asked to characterize her overall approach, Sands doesn’t hesitate: “It’s a rock ‘n’ roll ethic,” she said. “You have to be really passionate about music, the truth in the music and serving the song.
“Wherever a song comes from, it has feelings, it has its own little life. And if I write it, wherever it came from, performing it is what makes it come alive. Being in touch with the heart of it, that always what I strive for. And that’s what I love doing best.”
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JONNY WHITESIDE is a veteran music journalist based in Burbank and author of “Ramblin’ Rose: the Life & Career of Rose Maddox” and “Cry: the Johnnie Ray Story.”

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Who: Evie Sands performs as part of Ronnie Mack’s Salute to the Music of American Legend Linda Ronstadt featuring Rosie Flores, Carla Olson, Stephanie Urbina Jones, Candye Kane, Tonya Watts, Jann Browne, more.

Where: Viva Cantina, 900 W. Riverside Drive, Burbank

When: Saturday, Feb. 7, 7:30 p.m.

Admission: $15.

More info: (818) 845-2425, www.vivacantina.com.