‘Remembering Ean’ Evans Memorial Held at Riverside Park

by: Ron Williams
A couple of hundred locals showed up at The Columbus Riverwalk stage this past Tuesday evening, two years to the day of the 2009 Ean Evans ‘Mississippi Kid’ Festival held at the Columbus Fairgrounds April 19th, 2009. Ean was the bassist for Lynyrd Skynyrd and resided in Columbus. He passed away of cancer complications just a few days after the concert held for him at the Fairgrounds.

But this was a get together on ‘Ean Evans Day’ of his many friends, family and people whose lives he touched. Eva Evans spoke beautifully of her late husband. Dennis McKay did the same as did the many others. Several musicians close to Ean performed at the memorial, all wonderfully. Hoyt Allen started the performance off with a duet with his son. Leslie & Dennis McKay performed as did Tony Foster & Dawn Barham. Big Joe Shelton provided his special brand of the blues (and stories of Ean) and young Caledonia High School 17 year old Kelsey Collins provided a stunning performance of her own!

17 year old Caledonia student Kelsey Collins performs

Dennis McKay told of the volunteers that helped put on the concert for Ean in 2009 – in particular Mike and Alice Chain! McKay said it had rained early-on that day, which made the grounds quite muddy. “I looked around and saw Alice Chain with cords in her hand, and mud on her nose and face,” said McKay. “But she never let-up. She just kept on working,” he added.

Hoyt Allen and son Cameron perform at 'Remembering Ean'

Eva Evans told the gathering of plans to do this on an annual basis. From the looks of the crowd and how the gathering enjoyed remembering Ean and telling stories of him, the future of the memorial certainly looks bright. The event was held in honor of Ean Evans and for the Relay For Life!