Rusty Evans has enjoyed one of the most eclectic and long-lived careers in the annals of Rock and Roll cultdom, evolving from rockabilly to folk to psychedelia and all the way back again. In 1957, as a teenager, Evans made his recorded debut, releasing the rockabilly efforts “I Lived, I Loved and Lost” and “Midnight Special” on Brunswick. This was a regional hit and he performed at many record hops hosted by radio stations. A year later he re-surfaced with “Talkin’ From Your Heart.” By 1962 Evans was a staple of the Greenwich Village folk circuit, sharing stages with Bob Dylan, Fred Neil, and David Crosby. In 1963 he recorded his first LP, Songs of Our Land, followed later that year by Railroad Songs and Live at Gerde’s Folk City. The two groups he formed in 1964, The Hitchhikers and The All Night Scorgers recorded LPs for Reprise.

Evans discovered the nascent psychedelic scene and recorded the 1965 Musicor single “1983.” While in Philadelphia he formed his own psych band, the “Deep” with David Bromberg and others.

Signing to Cameo-Parkway, over just two days in August 1966 the Deep recorded their lone official album, Psychedelic Moods of the Deep, one of the more rare and fascinating byproducts of its time. Virtually the same lineup later reunited as the group Freak Scene, releasing 1967’s Psychedelic Psoul on CBS. (A series of related CDs culled from the sessions later appearing on Collectables). With songwriter/producer Teddy Randazzo, Evans then co-founded Eastern Productions, signing the band Third Bardo where Evans and Victoria Pike authorized the psych cult classic “I’m Five Years Ahead of My Time.” In 1997 the song found its way to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s top 100 songs for the 30 year anniversary of the summer of love. In 1967 Evans moved to Las Angeles, and after a stint with the New Christy Minstrels, he worked as a staff producer for the Take Six label. There he helmed sessions including the Nervous Breakdown’s “I Dig Your Mind,” which he also wrote. After a short stint working with producer Matthew Katz, in 1969 Evans reclaimed his birth name to release a self-titled LP on Kinetic as simply Marcus. This LP was a minor classic of richly orchestrated psych-folk. Like much of his work, it is a fascinating relic of a particular time and place, in this instance San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury district in the post-summer of love era.

Evans' other artistic pursuits include his fine art landscapes, in particular his very popular “Linear Landscapes.” He graduated from New York’s School of Art and Design and has been painting, drawing, printmaking, and making music ever since. Under his birth name, Marcus Uzilevsky, he’s enjoyed a considerable measure of frame for his landscape art. His artwork is in museums around the world.

He returned to his musical folk roots for his 1979 comeback effort on Folkways entitled Life’s Railway to Heaven. In 1988 the Arlington Symphony Orchestra performed his “Folk Symphony for Sara.” At the dawn of the new decade he later adopted another alias, Uzca, to explore world music and ambient on the LP’s Slice of Light and Gypsy Dreams. In 2000 Rusty truly traveled full circle, forming the rockabilly combo Ring of Fire with his son Danny Uzilevsky and releasing a self-titled tribute to Johnny Cash. They have performed at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, and at many festivals around the world. He and Ring of Fire play regularly in premier venues throughout Northern California, such as the Mystic Theatre in Petaluma, Sweetwater in Mill Valley, Ranch Nicasio in Nicasio, and Henfling’s in Ben Lomond. In 2002 he released the CD I’m Comin’ Home. In 2005 he released the CD Burning Man.