“I never bothered with please. I never bothered with ‘scuse me miss. Beg and pardon darlin’ that ain’t for me. I like to do things my way or I don’t do them at all.”
It’s punk rock attitude meets sultry delta blues. In debut album Beyond the Bloodhounds, singer-songwriter Adia Victoria turns traditional southern romanticism upside down. Her 2015 debut single “Stuck in the South” details a distaste for idealized views of southern life: “I don’t know nothing ’bout southern belles, but I can tell you something about southern hell.” Having grown up in the foothills of Spartanburg, South Carolina to a devout Seventh Day Adventist family, Victoria’s music observes southern life through both racial and religious lenses. Beyond the Bloodhounds displays a wealth of social awareness with lyrics evocative of the south’s troubled past, as well as ballads to her recently deceased cat (Mortimer’s Blues). RIP.
After building a steady fan base in her current home of Nashville, Victoria was quickly signed to Atlantic records last year. Produced by Roger Moutenot (Yo La Tengo, Sleater Kinney), Beyond the Bloodhounds was released Friday, May 13th, 2016 – a perfect occasion for such a haunting release.
Adia Victoria came by Austin this Memorial Day weekend as one of her first stops of tour. You can check out her Studio 1A performance down below.
– Roxanne Zech