July of 2024 has turned out to be incredibly hot in Lancaster, PA. By mid-month we experienced our third heatwave of the summer, second so far this month. Temperatures are consistently in the mid to high 90s and the humidity is stifling. It reminds me of summers I spent in Nashville, TN in the 1990s. I remember the summer of 1997 being particularly hot, and as a result, I spent a lot of time in the air conditioning writing songs that would end up on Artichoke.
Ironically, one of those songs is called “Evening In July”. I’ve had an interesting relationship with this song over the years, as I’ve always loved it, but I also knew it would never be a standout. It’s a plodding mid-tempo track with a pretty neutral arrangement, but a lot of space for atmosphere. I considered it an “album track” that would show up somewhere in the middle of “side B”.
Even though I never thought of it as a hit, I’ve always loved playing it live. The vocal melody is right in my voice’s zone, and frankly, it feels good to sing. As a result, it’s been played in a variety of my bands over the years including a very short-lived rock band called (creatively) J Mundok Band back in 2002. Most recently, Here Inside recorded a version for the CoalescE album in 2017 that features the atmospheric potential more than any other recorded version.
Lyrically, it’s one of those songs that was based on a dreamed-up movie scene. I’ve done that frequently over the years. I imagine a scene playing out in my head without worrying about what would come before or after, and write the lyrics based on that one particular moment. The scene is a little blurry and out of focus in my mind, but it has stayed with me for decades and returns when I hear or play the song live.
Here are a few versions of “Evening in July” from over the years with a demo reel from when I first wrote the song during that really hot summer of 1997.