Cal Everett got his first chance at rock stardom decades ago — the D.C. area singer, songwriter, and musician’s just-released album, “Weight of Early Promise,” is a lifetime of melodic, catchy songs, that captures the arc of life, in just under an hour.
Cal Everett got his first chance at rock stardom decades ago. Now, the D.C. area-based singer/songwriter is releasing a new album — “Weight of Early Promise” — a lifetime of melodic, catchy songs, that captures the arc of life in just under an hour.
Everett was the former frontman and bassist in 4 Out of 5 Doctors, the critically-acclaimed D.C. band that spent the late 1970s and early ’80s touring and playing shows with Hall and Oates, The Cars, The Clash and Cyndi Lauper.
“We got together, in probably ’77, and had determined right away … that we weren’t going to be a club band,” Everett told WTOP in an interview. “We just wanted to write, we wanted to record. And our goal was we just wanted to get a record contract.”
When the phone rang, and the labels wanted to see 4 Out of 5 Doctors perform, “I lied and said, ‘Oh, yeah, we play all over the place.’”
Everett said they were able to book a few showcases at Childe Harold in Dupont Circle, which he described as one of the few clubs “that was really open to original bands, original music.”
“Eventually, we went to New York, played The Ritz, and got signed to CBS’ Nemperor Records,” Everett said.
The dream didn’t last long. The band released two albums — “4 Out of 5 Doctors” in 1980 and “Second Opinion” in 1982.
“A meteoric rise and crash and burn,” Everett said. “We got signed in 1980. By 1983 — stick a fork in us, we were done.”
Everett described the disappointment as “personal devastation — I was so excited about the possibility.”
Married and with a child on the way, Everett said he had to rethink his entire life.
“I’m going to get real square, real fast,” he recalled thinking. “I’m going to just sell all my gear and not do this for a while, going to get a job, raise a kid … with my wife, Wendy, and that worked out for a while — except for the whole time, I couldn’t stop writing songs.”
With a songbook of music in his head, Everett went into the studio to begin recording his first solo album, with the encouragement of producer Todd Wright.
“He said, ‘we’ll have it done in six months — 10 years later, we finally put it out,” Everett said with a laugh.
‘I like the structure of a well-written song’
As he was growing up, Everett said he was surrounded by music: “If something wasn’t on the turntable, then either my mom or my dad would be singing while they were doing their chores.”
The 23 tracks on “Weight of Early Promise” might remind the listener of songs crafted by Billy Joel, Paul McCartney, Brian Wilson or Hall & Oates — songwriters who Everett has listened to since his childhood and teenage years.
“I kind of latched onto this timeless thing, musically,” Everett said. “I like the structure of a well-written song.”
Some songs are ageless. He continues to perform the first song he ever wrote: “If I play it today, nobody will know I didn’t write it yesterday.”
The concept of the album took shape over the years since he began recording in 2016, he said.
“Many of the songs had not been written yet, that would end up being on it,” Everett said. “It became an epic thing, once I finally got my head wrapped around ‘this what I wanted to do, this is the thing that’s been eluding me for decades.’”
The songs encapsulate his journey from being a young power-popper, to a wistful almost star, to a husband working a day job, to the tenderness of fatherhood.
“‘Emily,’ that’s for my daughter. I literally wrote that humming in a rocking chair, after her bath when she was wrapped in a towel one night,” he said. “That’s when the melody came to me. I didn’t have anything to it (lyrically) yet.”
“Weight of Early Promise” is available on CD and in a digital album. He hopes to eventually release it on vinyl.
“I’m one of the guys — and I think there’s still a lot of people out there — I like the tactile experience,” of holding a record album, he said. “I like to see what’s in here, what it’s all about, who might of played on the record, and if there’s lyrics in there, that’s all the better.”
For Everett, the struggles, romance and love were all worth it: “I’ve been writing this album, in one way or another, for over four decades.”
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