With “A Southern Gothic“, Adia Victoria continues her journey through the conflicts of the American South and the troubling resonance of its past. Sonically, the album is full of frequent juxtaposition. It is equal parts historical montage and modern prophesy, dark and light, love and loathing.
When they asked what I wanted the first single to be off “A Southern Gothic” I knew “Magnolia Blues” was how I wanted this record introduced to y’all. It is high praise of black southern abundance, black like prayer meeting at the river, black like white fans on brown skin in church, black like my grand-mama’s watermelon patch, black like our hands patting atop our thighs and alway’s on beat, black like their eyes always watching god.it is a reclaiming of the magnolia tree from the hands of white supremacy. It is an ode to every black southern woman who remembers her girlhood spent in the shade of her magnolia tree. High praise to my brother Joshua Asante for shepherding my vision of our folk from my mind and into reality.
The 14 tracks are the musical embodiment of the relationship that so many people, especially Black women, have with the South. During the writing process, Adia listened to Alan Lomax’s old field recordings and the sounds became the heartbeat of her new music, upon which she and creative partner Mason Hickman later layered other parts. And in many ways, the story of working with Hickman to write and produce A Southern Gothic is as critical to the project as the stories Victoria tells across the album. “I would say that the philosophy behind this record is, ‘Necessity is the mother of invention,’” Victoria says. “It’s also, ‘When you don’t have excess, when that’s all stripped away, what you gon’ do with that?’ What art can you make from walking through your mother’s garden?”
Adia’s upcoming album “A Southern Gothic” available 17th September:
The Fat Angel Sings 