Born in 2004, Evan James Rotella was pre-destined to have music and sports in his life. From the Cowboys, Red Sox and Sabres baby clothing & fan items to the Bruce Springsteen framed photo that hung over his unused crib, there was a road laid out for him prior to his grand entrance into the world. His musical roots dated back to early in 2004 when his Dad (Dave) would sing Born To Run and Thunder Road to him while he was still in Mommy's tummy (Anna). Funny how it all worked out!

Evan was on-line before he was on-land :) That's right, Dad had set up www.evanrotella.com long before his arrival which included a blog, photo gallery, family tree and more. There were even baby clothes made with the web site address, a guitar and the site catch-line "Kids like us, Daddy, we were born to run". 

At the age of two, Evan was sitting in front of the TV watching Barney when he decided to take the DVD out and replace it with Bruce Springsteen: The Complete Video Anthology, 1978-2000. For hours he sat and watched it over and over again. His new found love for The Boss would eventually prompt him to perform his favorite Bruce songs for Mom and Dad in the living room with his plastic microphone doing his best Springsteen imitation. From Rosalita to Hungry Heart (see the video section), Evan had Bruce's moves down pat and would have a lot of fun hamming it up for anyone who would watch! Who knew that several years later he would meet Bruce and actually be on stage with him!

At age 4 Mom and Dad took Evan to his first concert - Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band at the ACC in Toronto. Since then he's seen Bruce about 20 times and over 50 concerts. He's been on stage with Bruce Springsteen, Willie Nile, Steve Earle, Joe Grushecky, Joe D'Urso, Southside Johnny, Bobby Mahoney, and more! Not bad for the first 13 years of his life. 

Ev participated in all of his school Talent Shows over the years, beginning with a version of Born In The USA back in 2010. He started taking piano, guitar and drum lessons with Anthony DiCarlo and eventually stuck with the guitar and attends Anthony's Niagara Rock Academy every week. Ev started writing his own songs at age 11 and has a few he'll be showcasing here on his site!

Evan's first gig was in the winter of 2015, playing in the lobby at Cory Cruise's CD release party. Since then he has played the lobby of Light of Day Canada, opened for Willie Nile, twice for Joe Grushecky & The Houserockers, twice for Marty Stuart's "Man In Black" show and he played 2 acoustic songs with Anthony DiCarlo at Light of Day Canada's 10th Annivesary show! Shows keep coming in and, as long as Daddy remains the President of Light of Day Canada he'll always have a spot in the Niagara show line-up!

Enjoy the site, drop Evan a line, and don't forget to check him out his Social Media streams!
#niagarasrisingstar (lol)