Eva Trout (band)

In 1993 bass guitarist, Grant Shanahan (ex-Slaybells, the Honeys, Catherine Wheel), was developing a new group in Sydney.[1] He placed an ad for a lead guitarist, and it was answered by Bek-Jean Stewart, who played acoustic guitar and sang.[2] She performed on a live radio broadcast, which he agreed to listen to and consequently hired her to form Eva Trout, ahead of another guitarist and vocalist.[2] The band released a five-track, self-titled extended play in 1994.[2][3]

In 1995 Steph Miller (ex-Roaring Jack) joined on mandolin and accordion ahead of their first studio album, Along Woodland Rides, Through Tunnels of Evergreen, for Phantom Records.[2] During recording sessions their original drummer and guitarist left.[2] Shanahan, Stewart and Miller continued with session musicians, Matt Galvin on lead guitar, and former bandmate, Bert Thomson (ex-the Honeys, Catherine Wheel) on drums.[1][2][3] Galvin and Thomson joined the line-up of Eva Trout.

The group were signed to United States label, Trauma Records/Interscope Records (home to No Doubt and Bush), in 1996 after Atlanta radio station, WNNX, had added their track, "Beautiful South", to heavy rotation.[4][5] The group undertook a US promotional tour including radio appearances.[4] In January 1997 their debut album was re-recorded for US release in the following month as a self-titled album.[2][3] While the band's exposure in the US seemed to poise it for success, label difficulties (Trauma/Interscope and No Doubt were involved in contractual and legal battles) prevented the band attaining a wider recognition.[4][5]

The band released their second studio album, Oberon in 1999 via Origin Records/Shock Records.[4] They recorded it over ten days in June on a farm, "Fernlee", near Oberon, New South Wales with Michael Carpenter as producer.[2][4] The line-up was Galvin on guitars (acoustic, electric), keyboards and vocals; Miller on keyboards, mandolin, banjo, vocals and acoustic guitar; Shanahan on bass guitar and vocals; Stewart on lead vocals, acoustic guitar, harp and percussion; Thomson on drums was replaced by Carpenter for a track, "Light Sleeper".[6] Thomson left the group and Carpenter joined.[2][4]

Jasper Lee of Oz Music Project reflected on the album, "[they] return with a well crafted release full of tight pop/rock sounds interspersed with the occasional country tinge rubbed off from the album's title... [Stewart's] vocals have a dry sweetness to them, add in new backup vocals, the odd pedal steel twang and the album is made."[7] They issued a four-track EP, Ruby's Gone, in the following year – its title track was the lead track on their second album.[7][8] Lee had mused, "From the storytelling opener 'Ruby's Gone' to the marvellous light rock of 'Bright Eyed Century', [the group] prove that they were worth all the hype they once got – it's just a shame it never materialised into anything great."[7] In 2001 the group's third studio album, The Birds Album, appeared. They disbanded late in 2002.

Bek-Jean Stewart joined Perry Keyes' backing band, Give My Love to Rose, and provided drums and vocals for his albums, Meter (2005) and The Last Ghost Train Home (2007).[9] Stewart's debut solo album, Junior Years, was issued in October 2007 and was declared Album of the Week by Radio National's Fran Kelly on her show, RN Breakfast.[10] Former bandmates Matt Galvin on guitar and Grant Shanahan on bass guitar and as co-producer also appear on her album.[11]

Stewart's second album, Winter, Summer Suburban Exile, appeared in November 2010.[12] Tess Morro of Soulshine noticed, "[her] voice is natural, soulful and throaty, with a sweeping range of emotional power... [and her] keen eye captures the friends and lovers who populate her songs from the inside as well as out, giving her work its dispassion and its humanity... [it] is a remarkable release from one of Australia’s most original singer-songwriters."[12] Shanahan also worked on Keyes' album, The Last Ghost Train Home, as co-producer.[13] By June 2014 Shanahan had joined Keyes' backing band on bass guitar alongside Galvin on lead guitar.[13]

• Official website archived from the original on 1 April 2003. Retrieved 17 February 2018.