Peter Bradley Adams

... Adams is fast developing as a songwriter who both inspires and questions.
Nic Harcourt
Jan. 2010 - Nic Harcourt

Nov 25, 2005
Breaking up is hard to do: The duo Eastmountainsouth, consisting of Southern gothic-folkies Peter Bradley Adams and Kat Maslich, has regrettably called it quits. But Adams is marching on solo and starts a Monday residency at the Paradise Lounge next week. ''The whole thing with Eastmountainsouth happened so fast," he says. ''It was a very difficult decision to go solo." He has landed on his feet with the ''Peter Bradley Adams EP," featuring collaborations with producer Kevin Killen, who has worked with U2 and Peter Gabriel. It's a beautiful set of original Americana music. It not only confirms that the dreamy-voiced Adams is still an artist to follow but also foreshadows a full-length solo CD coming next year. - Steve Morse

“…Gather Up is at its core a poignant coming to terms with the seemingly irreconcilable.” – Performing Songwriter
- New Releases

In 2003, Eastmountainsouth made a splash on the AAA circuit with their unique brand of modern roots music. Radio programmers, as well dozens of movie and TV music directors, warmly embraced the vocal blend and harmonies issued by Peter Bradley Adams and Kat Maslich. Fans of that band will find that Adams' debut doesn't stray too far afield from the Eastmountainsouth sound, but might find that it improves upon it.

Though the focus is clearly on Adams' voice, he enlists a variety of terrific female singers (Susie Suh, Brandi Emma, Sara Bareilles, Liz Constantine, Renee Stahl, and Carla Werner) to add harmonies and vocal excursions of their own. The moody atmospherics of his former band are present, expanded into lush, but never busy, orchestrations. Adams has a Masters in music but his "edjimication" (as Dr. John might say) never gets in the way of the almost rural purity of the music--think Gillian Welch produced by Daniel Lanois.

Adams' Alabama upbringing has clearly instilled a sense of simple honesty that makes great Americana so attractive. The pop harmonies and arrangements on "Unreconciled" and "Teresa," do not diminish the essential back-porch folksy quality that--as they say in the 'hood--keeps them real. Despite the spoken Langston Hughes poetry, sound design, and electronica of the title tune, it remains at heart a timeless folk tune, albeit in a Pink Floyd sort of way.

The single, "One Foot Down," manages to be bouncy and dark simultaneously, and this is only one of the difficult tricks that Peter Bradley Adams pulls off on Gather Up. He offers a continuity of sound and mood, while providing variety; he orchestrates the music without overpowering it: and best of all he writes great tunes that honor the past while looking to the future. Adams' understated, but soulful vocals allow him to write beautiful melodies, without ever sounding cloying. When I say that his romantic tune about watching a loved one sleep, "One Picture," is like an alt version of a Don Henley waltz, it is meant as the highest compliment.

Full disclosure: I just got off a mini-tour, playing guitar for Adams. It only made me appreciate the depth of the music more. Stripped of the production (it was just the two of us), the songs resonated even more strongly, with a combination of sophistication and simplicity that may only be possible from the pen of a Southern boy with a college "edjimication." - Michael Ross

“In fact, nearly everything about this recording, from Adams's hushed croon to the atmospheric weave of acoustic and electric instruments to the session's living room ambience, can be summed up in a word: subdued… but the low-key arrangements help sustain the intimate and sometimes haunting mood that allows this CD to quietly stand out.” – Washington Post
- Washington Post