Tag: southern gothic

Basic Folk – Adia Victoria

Posted on by Shelby Williamson

For Adia Victoria, the blues are not just a genre of music or a set of formal elements. She lives the blues. In her life and work the blues are a mode of creating, a river-tradition into which she steps with each performance, and a way back into self-acceptance. Adia has traveled the world and infused her unique songwriting with Paris and New York as much as with her home state of Tennessee.

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Adia has released three studio albums, working with producers like T Bone Burnett and The National’s Aaron Dessner. In her climb to indie stardom she has remained laser focused on interpreting the blues tradition for contemporary audiences.

My conversation with Adia came shortly after we finished a whirlwind North American tour this spring, and it felt like we were back in the tour van just shooting the shit. Transparent and hilarious, Adia challenged me to go as deep in conversation as she does in her songs.

Photo Credit: Huy Nguyen

WATCH: Tim Higgins, “I Blew It”

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Tim Higgins
Hometown: Greensboro, Alabama
Song: “I Blew It”
Album: BLIGHT
Release Date: February 28, 2020
Label: Folk Victorian Records

In Their Words: “‘I Blew It’ is about a disenchanted person who is trying to do his best, but knows he’s not going to succeed in the end. Whether it’s maintaining a relationship, battling addiction, or leading a cause downtown at some City Hall, for some people, it’s always futile odds. What I wanted to capture was the sense of duty someone could have to do what they believe is right even though the writing is already on the wall. To capture those kind of complex feelings and layers in one song, my producer Parker McAnnally and I let the verses stand alone with just my voice and acoustic guitar while the musical breaks sonically dip underwater, and undulate between Jack Thomason’s electric guitar and Alex Caress’ piano.

“For the music video, I worked again with Reagan Wells, who directed my last video, ‘Blight,’ and we returned to the ‘ruined finery’ theme that traverses this whole contemporary Southern Gothic album — where the line between memory and reality are blurred; I think the narrator in ‘I Blew It’ is always living between those worlds as well.” — Tim Higgins

Photo credit: Aaron Sanders Head