Fayetteville, West Virginia’s Andrew Adkins is renowned for his honest and heartfelt songwriting. His fourth solo album, “Who I Am,” was produced by Mountain Stage band leader Ron Sowell.
Adkins brought a band of West Virginia music luminaries with him to perform songs from “Who I Am” on Mountain Stage, which you can hear on this week’s encore broadcast.
Our Song of the Week is Adkins’ vulnerable, reflective ballad “Fragile Heart,” performed alongside vocalist Annie Neeley, guitarist Bud Carroll, mandolinist Johnny Staats, and Adkins’ longtime bassist Clint Lewis. We’ve placed a video for the song from our Live Sessions page at NPR Music.
Credit Brian Blauser/ Mountain Stage
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This week’s episode features performances from Greensky Bluegrass, Donna the Buffalo, Andrew Adkins and Robbie Fulks & Linda Gail Lewis.
This Sunday’s Mountain Stage show sold out back in November but we still want you to join in on the music! Thanks to our video production team at West Virginia Public Broadcasting and our partners at VuHaus, you’ll be able to tune in from the comfort of your home computer or mobile device.
You can watch along as Greensky Bluegrass, Donna The Buffalo, Robbie Fulks & Linda Gail Lewis, and Andrew Adkins help us record episode #937 of Mountain Stage.
With the freshness of 2019 comes Greensky Bluegrass who bring a new album titled All For Money. This band joined us for the first time back in 2011 and they’re currently touring the U.S. through mid-September.
Over the past 30 years, Donna The Buffalo has been able to claim quite the name for themselves along with a dedicated fanbase. Dance in the Street is their first album release in five years and was produced by Rob Fraboni, known for his work with artists such as Bob Dylan, The Band, Eric Clapton, and The Rolling Stones.
We also look forward to hosting Robbie Fulks & Linda Gail Lewis, who released a collaborative album titled “Wild! Wild! Wild!” just last year. The album undoubtedly pulls you back in time and we can’t wait to hear them perform on our stage.
From Fayetteville, W.Va., Andrew Adkins, is gearing up to release his album produced by Mountain Stage band leader, Ron Sowell, “Who I Am”. Adkins is well versed in the world of performance, as Tim O’Brien says, “His music and the stories he tells us are honest and real. Andrew reminds us that we’re all in this together.”
Since the show began almost two years ago, A Change of Tune has highlighted some of the best up-and-coming artists out of these West Virginia hills with podcast-y chats ranging from Heavy-Set Paw-Paws to Of the Dell, TeamMate’s Scott Simons to Qiet and beyond.
But those interviews have been a bit infrequent, and since West Virginia Day is coming up (not to mention A Change of Tune’s second birthday), we thought we’d do something special: 30 days, 30 brand new #WVmusic interviews that range from Morgantown alt-rockers and Parkersburg singer-songwriters to West Virginia music venues and regional artist management and beyond, all of which contribute to this state’s wild and wonderful music scene.
And today, we are chatting with Annie Neeley from up in Bridgeport, West Virginia. After living in D.C. and making music in Nashville, Annie recently returned to the Mountain State to start a new life for herself, not to mention a new musical life with the Annie Neeley Band. Which begs the question…
Credit Michael O’Connor
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Annie Neeley is a blues-icana musician out of Bridgeport, West Virginia.
How did you and the band start playing music (when, where, why, etc.)?
I’ve been singing for forever: church choir, school choir, county choir, state choir, etc. I spent an entire year of junior high listening to nothing but The Beatles until I learned every single harmony on every single song. In high school, I joined a rock band that did mostly Rolling Stones covers, and my buddy and I used to sing the Ike & Tina version of “Proud Mary.” Playing music was, and continues to be, the most fun I have ever had.
I joined a band in college in Washington, D.C., got an acoustic guitar when I was 19, and I’ve never stopped. Wherever I went, I was always singing and playing. If I wasn’t in a band, I’d play by myself or put one together.
After many years away from West Virginia, I returned for a short time in 1997, joined a band, and met my husband at band practice in Fairmont. He’s a great bass player, and we quickly realized that we had tons of common ground, musical and otherwise. We played in a few different bands around West Virginia including The Road Dawgs, The Davisson Brothers, Shotgun Annie and Liquored Up (an early incarnation of my country band), and then decided to head to Nashville to see what that was like. Our hope was to meet a community of people that was as crazy about playing as we were. We found it. And then some. We spent 16 years in Nashville and considered it our “flatland” home, where our son was born and where music continues to be the lifeblood of so many beautiful creative souls.
We’ve been back in West Virginia now for exactly one year. The transition has had its rough patches, but I am thrilled that we have been able to reconnect with so many of our musical friends. There are so many great players and singers in this state, and I am heartened by how much folks in West Virginia obviously love live music. We’re looking forward to keep the songs rolling through the hills for many years to come!
Where does your current band name come from?
I call the band the Annie Neeley Band, primarily because the band can have a rotating lineup depending on if we are in West Virginia or Nashville or wherever, but also because I am no damn good at coming up with band names. All my ideas end up being terribly silly.
Credit Carly Suplita
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The Annie Neeley Band’s releases.
How has the Annie Neeley Band’s sound changed over time (if at all)?
When we recorded our newest release Cold Heart Blues, we were playing primarily with bluegrass instrumentation, although I always called the band a “blues-grass” band because I am far from a traditional bluegrass singer. I was doing a regular Saturday shift down at Layla’s Bluegrass Inn on Lower Broadway, and the band line-up on the record was pretty much that band. Since then, we have added at different times drums, pedal steel, lap steel, and electric guitar. At the moment, we play with a banjo and an electric guitar, which is fairly uncommon. I like the band to have an acoustic/electric feel, kind of like Emmylou Harris’s The Hot Band or The Byrds or Ronnie Lane’s Slim Chance. That’s what we aspire to, anyway.
Where do you all play in and around West Virginia (venues, festivals, etc.)?
So it’s been a year, and I’m still learning the ropes (as it were), but I’ve played the Bridgeport Farmer’s Market, The Chestnut Ridge Concert Series (with The Wild Rumpus), some Harrison County Cultural Society events, and a couple of weddings and parties.
Credit Carly Suplita
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A snapshot of Annie Neeley at a recent band practice.
What’s been the highlight of your musical journey?
I have had so many wonderful musical experiences, but there was this one gig… It was with the same band that I had gotten together in Nashville that played down on Lower Broadway. We also had a regular monthly gig at the VFW on Charlotte’s Pike on the west side of the city. A bunch of really nice folks would come out to see us, and it was always on a Friday night. Anyway, my banjo player double-booked himself that night and couldn’t play with me, so I needed a sub. My dobro player, Gene Bush, himself a Nashville legend, says, “Well, I’ll call Alan and see if he’s available.” Alan, in this case, was Alan O’Bryant, the banjo player and lead singer of the Nashville Bluegrass Band, a multi-Grammy winner, an acclaimed songwriter, and so on. I said, “Sure, Gene, that’d be great,” thinking, of course, that there is no way that Alan O’Bryant is going to play a VFW gig with me. But, Nashville being Nashville, Alan said, “I’d love to!” Turns out, he grew up playing in VFW’s in North Carolina and really enjoyed those gigs.
So, there I am, standing on stage with Alan O’Bryant, not quite believing it but getting through the set, and then the next song on the set list is “Those Memories Of You,” which he wrote, which I learned from the Trio album by Emmylou Harris, Dolly Parton, and Linda Ronstadt, which is one of my favorite songs in the world. I took a deep breath and sang it the best I could, which I guess was pretty good because Alan smiled real big, and we played together several more times over the following few years.
Do you have any advice for folks who want to start making music?
Only you can sound like you, so do that. Do you. That’s not to say that your musical influences won’t shine through here and there. Of course they will! But it’s important to keep focused on your own sound.
Also, always thank everyone! Everyone who asks you to play. Everyone who compliments you. Everyone who passes your name along to someone else. You don’t have to play every gig that someone asks you to play or work on every project that comes along, but always thank the person who offers you the opportunity.
Lastly, if you are a singer, especially a girl singer, learn to play an instrument well enough to accompany yourself on a few songs. It will make you a better, more confident singer and musician.
What projects/announcements are you currently working on?
A duet record with Fayetteville singer-songwriter Andrew Adkins!
What’s it like making music in West Virginia?
In Nashville, there were 20-30 music venues in a 3-mile radius of my front door. All of those venues had a primary emphasis on original music. Obviously, in West Virginia, there is considerably more driving involved to get to venues, especially if you’re less interested in playing bar gigs from 10pm-2:00am. Not to say that that isn’t fun every once in a while, but with a 6-year-old kiddo at home, it’s not really a lifestyle I can maintain anymore.
People do love music here, and there are good groups of people in Bridgeport and Clarksburg who are working hard to bring music events to the community at-large and in all different venues, and I am happy to be working with them.
Credit Bobby Moore
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Annie Neeley at a 2015 Songwriter Stage in Charleston.
Do you feel held back by being in West Virginia? Or does it feel like a musically-supportive place?
I count among my West Virginia friends some really first-rate musicians and human beings. Within weeks of returning here, I got an invitation from Roger Rabelais to play the “Songwriter Stage” series in Charleston with Andrew Adkins and Allan Dale Sizemore. That one magical evening allowed me to connect with these super West Virginia musicians and songwriters, and we continue to work and play together.
I have also reconnected with the guys I played with before I moved to Nashville, and all of them are just tremendous musicians who love to play. I look forward to continuing to grow musically with all of these people and meeting new musical friends along the way. I feel incredibly supported here by musicians and fans here.
What, in your opinion, needs to happen in the West Virginia music scene for it to move forward?
I really think that the more “alternative” venues that support live music there are, the better the scene is for everyone. Have live music in your restaurant, in your city park, at your school fair! There doesn’t have to be a big stage and a PA system necessarily; we just need a place where it’s cool to hang and play. Let kids listen, hear real instruments, and watch the musicians interact. It’s all good for the soul.
Also, Andrew Adkins and I have discussed this West Virginia sound that exists among the people making music here. I think there is a unique voice to be heard among all of us mountain folk! A music sampler of all of the bands and acts featured on this series would be an awesome thing.
The Annie Neeley Band’s latest release is Cold Heart Blues. Keep an eye on their social media for summer tour dates and a fall release for the Annie Neeley-Andrew Adkins duets album. To hear more #WVmusic, tune in to A Change of Tune, airing Saturday nights at 10 on West Virginia Public Broadcasting. And for more #WVmusic chats, make sure to go to wvpublic.org/wvmusic.
But those interviews have been a bit infrequent, and since West Virginia Day is coming up (not to mention A Change of Tune’s second birthday), we thought we’d do something special: 30 days, 30 brand new #WVmusic interviews that range from Morgantown alt-rockers and Parkersburg singer-songwriters to West Virginia music venues and regional artist management and beyond, all of which contribute to this state’s wild and wonderful music scene.
And today, we are chatting with Fayetteville singer-songwriter and storyteller Andrew Adkins. And boy, does he have some stories to tell. So let’s get to our #WVmusic chat, shall we?
I was in a band called Public Enemy… [laughing] I was Chuck D’s first hype man until I was replaced by Flavor Flav [laughing]. No, I’ve always loved music. My parents loved music. My dad was a big Harry Chapin fan, and my mom was a huge Beatles fan. I got to go see Kenny Rodgers and Dolly Parton in concert. I was always exposed to music, and I always loved every part of it, whether it was a record, whether it was an 8-track, whether it was Joe Cocker or the “Snoopy vs. The Red Baron” story.
I was always obsessed with words and putting words together and making them rhyme. It’s like this brilliant puzzle. When you write a song, you literally create something out of nothing. It did not exist until you made it exist, and I was always obsessed by that. I didn’t really play the guitar; my parents bought me a guitar when I was 12, and it was really hard. It’s still under my bed. It’s not a good guitar [laughing], which is why I didn’t play it back then.
Credit Chuck Toussieng
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Andrew Adkins is a man about town (that town being, of course, Fayetteville).
On one of his first experiences performing live:
I used to come to this party in Fayetteville that was a big jam every year, and no one would ever play with me. I was offended by that, and it hurt my feelings, so that gave me a complex where I wouldn’t play out in front of people. Then years later, a gentleman by the name of Ben Criner who started The Wild Rumpus with me told me that no one would play with me because I didn’t know how to count to four. And I didn’t know what that meant, so he picked up a guitar and taught me. I didn’t realize that music had to have a time, rhythm and meter. Because I thought words were the most important part, so I would change chords where the words needed them to. So the first measure would have 29 beats in it, and the second measure would have seven beats in it. So when he sat down and taught me, that just changed my whole world. That’s when I really, really started writing songs.
We were a bunch of raft guides in Fayetteville. We played every Saturday night, and other raft guides would hang out and drink and dance and yell at us songs to play. We knew 20 songs, cover songs mostly, but that’s not I wanted to do. So I would write songs during that week just for that Saturday night. I would simplify my songwriting so other musicians could jump right in.
We did that, then people started offering to pay us money to play. And I was like, “What? You can get paid doing this?” So when we decided to start playing gigs, I didn’t want to be a cover. I’m not bashing cover bands, but it’s just not my thing. I started writing songs like crazy, and we would do a three-hour show with all original songs. Some were better than others, but at least we weren’t playing cover tunes.
On cover bands versus original material:
I can’t tell you how many times we’ve been on tour and not very many people show up at our show. “Oh sorry, there’s a real popular cover band playing down the street. They’re playing “Wagon Wheel” seven times tonight, so everybody’s down there.” We were in New London, Connecticut, and we had to compete with a Def Leppard tribute band, and we drove by that club on the way to our club, and there was a line going down the street. And no one showed up at our show because of that. I think cover bands are an issue everywhere, not just in West Virginia. Even though here, it seems like a lot.
Credit Amos Perrine
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Andrew Adkins is 100% original.
It’s very difficult to make a living playing music when you’re out there banging out original songs. I understand that people want to go out to a bar and have fun and hear songs that they know. But guess what? If you go out and see an original band, eventually their songs will be that way as well. I think that’s a huge issue: people don’t give bands a chance. There are so many great bands right now in West Virginia, and the reason why those great bands might not stay together is because it’s hard to compete with Joe Q “Ride Sally Ride” down the street playing your favorite hits from the ‘70s and ‘80s. Those songs from the ‘70s and ‘80s are classics because you’ve heard them a million times. But if you go see this other great band who has wonderful songs, those are going to be classics and you’ll know those.
I used to tell people on stage that I wrote songs. And then I stopped saying that. I stopped telling people I wrote the song. And it changed my whole career. Because when you tell someone that you wrote the song, they immediately click into hyper-judgment. They’re going to judge your words, your melody, just everything about it. But when you don’t tell them, they’re more open about it. Then after the show, they’ll come up to you and say, “Oh man, that one song you were singing was so great. Who wrote that?” And you’ll say, “Well I wrote it. I wrote all these songs.” To which they’ll respond, “Wow, you’re a good songwriter! I like your songs.”
But the reason I don’t tell people about that is because a songwriter told me one time, “Who are you to dictate their listening experience? Don’t tell me what I should be thinking when I’m listening to this song because I want to have my own emotions and my own reaction and interrupt it for me.”
On labels (especially in country music):
When people ask what kind of music I write, it pains me to say country music. But guess what? I’m from the mountains of West Virginia; that’s what I write. But I write country music in the sense that I’m from the country, and I sing about the truth of being from the country. None of my songs have a tailgate or Budweiser or misogynistic treatment of women, but none of my songs are on the radio, either.
On the rise of Appalachian music:
We have this authenticity about our music that it is the Appalachian sound. In “Americana” music, that’s what they’re after: that Appalachian sound. So what you have is a lot of young kids with beards, flannels shirts and tight pants, and they sing these songs about Appalachia (or try to), but it’s all fabricated.
The authenticity of music coming out of West Virginia right now can be heard and felt to where you just know they mean what they say and they say what they mean. Sure, we can listen to Britney Spears, but you don’t have an emotional connection to her songs other than a love of that time in your life.
Credit Chuck Toussieng
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Beyond singing and writing songs, Andrew Adkins also builds guitars, mandolins and instruments for regional artists.
On working in Fayetteville as a guitar maker:
My brain works all the time, so my hands have to work all the time or else I’ll get into trouble. I build guitars, banjos and mandolins, but mainly acoustic guitars. Which goes back to Appalachia and how wonderful it is, because I use a lot of wood from Appalachia that no one else will use. I try to use the wood from here in Appalachia because I personally think it sounds amazing.
It’s hard to convince people to play them over a Gibson. But I don’t even try to convince them anymore. I just hand it to them and let them play it. You can’t deny sound. When you try a guitar and hit it, you know when it sounds good. When people are asking about it, I just say, “Come to my shop and play one.”
On advice to folks wanting to get into music:
Take it serious. There’s nothing worse than showing up to a gig unprepared. So have a set list! Don’t stand on stage and say, “Well, what do you want to play next?” Don’t show up to a gig and ask the sound guy if they have an extra cable. Be professional. Dress like a professional. Act like a professional, especially if you’re an opening act for a band because they’re paying attention. If you show up to open for a band that’s on a much higher level than you, and you’re asking for a cable or dressed in flip-flops and shorts or you’re talking with your band instead of your audience, they’re not going to hire you again.
And to be honest with you, I didn’t know those things, and I’m not blaming you if you don’t know those things, but you should find them out. So ask me! I’ll tell you. I learned that stuff the hard way.
So my advice? Be prepared. Be professional. Be respectful. And don’t wear shorts or flip-flops.
On the name of his record Wooden Heart:
When I build guitars, I have scrap wood and it’s so beautiful, I can’t throw it away or burn them. So I have a woodshop filled with tiny pieces of wood that I save. Years ago, when my musical career wasn’t going as well as it is now, a friend of mine had a baby, and I wanted to get them a gift but couldn’t afford one. So I carved a heart out of cherry wood and gave it to them as a gift, and everybody loved it. Everybody started asking me for it, and I started making and selling them.
And then I got sick a couple years back, and I couldn’t tour with my band or work on making guitars. I just didn’t have the energy. So to keep sane and to keep some income coming, I kept carving wooden hearts. And that’s the thing about Fayetteville and how supportive they are: people were buying wooden hearts like crazy just because they knew I was in a tough spot.
A girl texted me one day and asked if I had any wooden hearts left, so I dumped them out on a table and took a picture of them, and she said, “That would make a great album cover!” Ever since then, Wooden Heart has been in my head for being an album. When I put out my first solo album, Wooden Heart just didn’t fit it. I don’t even know if Wooden Heart fits this album, but it’s just been hanging around for so long, I decided to use it.
I love writing songs, and I love creating stuff with wood.
On releasing Wooden Heart during the Brian Jennings Family Reunion in Fayetteville:
Brian Jennings was a dear friend of mine and everyone’s. He was a well-loved person and a great human being. He passed away two years ago from complications of cancer. I’m not very Facebook savvy, but there was a Facebook thing that was like “List 20 Things People Don’t Know About You.” Brian was a raft guide, he was a river manager, he was on the Olympic kayaking team, he was a ski teacher out in New Mexico, and just a well-loved person. And on that list on Facebook, he said that he knew so many people from so many different places, he wished he could get them all together once a year so they could meet each other. After he passed away, I promised his parents I would make that happen.
We called it the “friend reunion,” but really Brian made people feel like family. So that’s why I called it the Brian Jennings Family Reunion. People come from all over the world for this event. I wrote two songs for him to sing with us, and I finished them and sent them to him. He said, “Next time you play at the Rivermen (a rafting company in Fayetteville), we’ll do those songs.” Unfortunately, he passed away before he got to do those songs. Since I’m putting those songs on the album, I thought it would be great to put it out at the Brian Jennings Family Reunion.
Credit Courtesy of Andrew Adkins
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Find “Growing Older,” as well as 11 other original tunes, on Andrew Adkins’ newest release.
One of the songs is called “Growing Older,” and it’s literally a conversation that Brian and I had. It’s his words; I just made them rhyme and put a melody to it. So that song’s taken a life of its own of being the anthem of that event.
Brian represented Fayetteville and West Virginia as good if not better than anyone I know. He was a good liaison to the people that live outside of Appalachia.
On the current state of #WVmusic:
West Virginia has some negativity floating around, just like any state, but we have brilliant people here, beautiful people here, and people who want to move forward. It doesn’t always get recognized because it’s always easier to recognize the lowest common denominator.
I think the Appalachian sound is as identifiable as Delta Blues or New York jazz. I really think that the Appalachian sound is that recognizable. We don’t have a machine pushing that. When somebody starts that machine, they’re met with a couple issues: they’re met with a lack of money, and they’re met with some hostility from folks who are a bit stand-offish. Sometimes people have great ideas that fail, so we’re a little skeptical.
But if we continue on the path that we’re on right now, I think West Virginia will become a music destination. I mean… why not West Virginia?
If you’re reading this right now, chances are you made it out to last Thursday’s #WhyListen First Listen Music Party at The Grove @ Secret Sandwich Society. If you did, we have a new music playlist waiting for you.
But first things first: Thanks so much for coming out and talking music with me, Mountain Stage‘s Larry Groce and Fayetteville’s Andrew Adkins! Your support makes cool #wvpublic events like this happen.
If you walked away with a new favorite song and want to see more of these #WhyListen events around the state, become a member of West Virginia Public Broadcasting during our Spring Friend-Raising campaign. A gift of $10 or more helps us keep these events free and helps promote new #WVmusic from bands like The Parachute Brigade, The Kind Thieves and more. If you become a member by 9pm Monday, April 11, you’ll even be entered in a drawing for a $500 Amazon Gift Card. (That’s a lot of new music!)
And considering we’re still in the infant stages of our NPR Generation Listen collaboration, we want to hear from you about how Thursday’s shindig went. What did we absolutely nail? What could we have done better? Click here to give us your feedback.
Now, on to music: here is last week’s #WhyListen new music playlist, including a handy-dandy Spotify playlist with most of the night’s music (where available). Happy listening!
