Todd Adelman’s forthcoming 2024 release Western Soul is a fourteen-song prescription for what ails The American Dream. It’s as if Adelman has checked the vitals, extracted a little blood and scrutinized our diet of political chaos, rampant illness and overwhelming violence and recommended something honest ad straight from the gut. Western Soul is a batch of songs borne right out of the American Songwriting Tradition — an homage to all those great records we know and love and feel like have been with us from the start. Like the mythical country singer Bad Blake says, “that’s the way it is with the good ones, you’re sure you’ve heard ‘em before,” and like his predecessors, Petty and Kristofferson and Prine, Adelman is a Keeper of the Keys. An honest Rock ‘n’ Roller. A Country Gentleman. A Storyteller. Straight to the heart. Without pretension or meanness, just an interest in writing a song — a good one — that’s what Adelman does over and over again.
With seven albums under his belt as singer, songwriter, producer and engineer, Todd Adelman arrived in the Catskills via Colorado and built a studio in the woods simply called: The Woods. A place reminiscent of where all your favorite records were made. Tape machines and vintage gear and, if you listen closely, the voices of those that came before. It was here in this new, old space, Adelman recorded Western Soul, straight to tape with the help of some choice friends. The record was produced by Woodstock Producer/Musician Danny Blume with production assistance given to bassist Taras Prodaniuk and guitarist Doug Pettibone. Veteran Jim Christie joins them on the drums.
Spend some time with Todd Adelman. Listen to one of his records. Visit him in his studio, or catch him live, solo or with his phenomenal band. It’s all the same thing. He will make you a true believer. You will know you’ve met him somewhere before and you’ve heard his tunes, maybe in another place or another bar or another life?