Evan Rotella saves you a seat on the Last Train Home with his new single and video — showcasing today on TInnitist.
The train song is one of the most time-tested traditions in North American music. Yet when it’s done right, it feels just as fresh and affecting as the very first time an itinerant bluesman rode the rails. The proud tradition continues in Last Train Home, the exquisitely mournful title track to Niagara Falls singer-songwriter Rotella’s sophomore album.
Late-hour introspection of the kind only a vagabond lifestyle can induce, the song finds our hero heading back from another night on the eternal road, pondering what he’s learned and what’s been lost to him. Rotella’s voice crackles with self-recognition as he surveys the “thieves and cheats” that are sharing the ride with him, the “heroes and saints” who are his fellow passengers on a trip whose rituals are as routine as it is outcome is unknown.
“All ride together to find whatever awaits,” he observes, taking his place in the annals of great spokesmen for the anonymous and the disaffected.
Like the album that bears its name, Last Train Home relies on an appropriately spare arrangement: Just one man’s voice, his acoustic guitar and a harmonica. Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska period leaps immediately to mind — which is none too surprising, given that Rotella’s first public appearance had him singing Born In The U.S.A. at a school talent show when he was only six. But you can hear more than a hint of the great Bob Dylan himself in the way Rotella’s unadorned vocals echo across these new tracks, spinning tales of reckoning and contemplation that mark him as a true poet in his own right.
The seven-song album sets a new standard in Rotella’s decade-long evolution as a performer and writer. His vast creative talents were previously captured on the 2020 single (If I Was a) Rockstar (featuring Pittsburgh stalwarts Danny Gochnour on guitar and Joe Munroe on keyboards); on 2021’s The Demo Tapes, which brought together a bunch of acoustic numbers he had written between the ages of 12 and 14; and on his first album, Happy To Be Here (2023), a collection of 10 original songs produced by Mark Rogers (LMT Connection) and Myles Rogers (Jin The Band).
His bracingly mature output has earned Rotella a host of tributes from the public and the tastemakers alike. A good deal of that acclaim stems from his well-earned reputation as a live performer who’s spent years baring his musical soul at festivals, theatres, patios, bars and parties. In that time, Rotella has opened shows for Steven Page, Miss Emily, Honeymoon Suite, Wheatus, Willie Nile, Joe Grushecky, Southside Johnny, Steve Earle and more. And cementing the Springsteen connection, he’s likewise graced the stage at the iconic Stone Pony in Asbury Park.
Watch the video for Last Train Home above, listen to the whole record and check out Evan Rotella’s tour dates below, and go along for the ride at his website, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok:
Evan Rotella Tour Dates
Dec. 21 | Take 2 Restaurant & Bar, Fort Erie
Dec. 26 | Garden City Manor, St. Catharines
Dec. 28 | Utopia Lounge and Vintage Shoppe, Crystal Beach
Jan. 3 | StradaWest, Niagara Falls
Jan. 10 | Taps Brewhouse, Niagara Falls
Jan. 16 | Teddy’s Sports Bar, Grimsby
Jan. 17 | Stone Pony, Asbury Park, NJ
Jan. 19 | Watermark, Asbury Park, NJ
Jan. 24 | Strada West, Niagara Falls
