The Bands at Bauska Castle: Peter Bradley Adams

While he is not a band, he is certainly good enough to count as several musicians. Here is a little profile on a musician who deserves a lot more credit than he receives.

Beauty is rarely found in musicians today. Musical beauty, the type that has you staring at your wall while you listen to the album in absolute awe of the pure emotion that is being displayed. The kind that you feel after you listen to a classical piece that a composer has slaved over for many days perfecting the string sections ending crescendo. The type of beauty that allows you to nod your head and exclaim, “This is why I listen to music!.” Peter Bradley Adams displays these immaculate brush strokes with his brand of americana melodic folk. He is a master of his craft and it shows.

Adams combines his delicate melodies that are both sweet and smooth with his extraordinary lyric capabilities. His personal lyric is well displayed in “Los Angeles” on his recent release “Leavetaking.” Adams sings his tribute to the city of Los Angeles and finishes the song softly singing, “Well they say the Big One’s gonna come, And you’ll fall into the sea, We will know that then your work is done, And your angels will go free.” While the song remains a constant lull throughout, as the song ends, and the piano holds its last note and the guitar plays its fading echoing riff, the listener is given the impression that they are too hovering over the clouds like the freed angels in the song.

Yet, the song that may leave the largest mark is the song with no words. Adams, having studied classical piano, combines his excellent organizational skill and composer ideas, to form “Song For Viola” a short instrumental piece that ends the album. A quiet piano plays slow notes as a viola inserts an emotional reverberation of strings. The piece gradually grows to its climax where the two instruments blend with each other in a tasty musical concoction and then the viola fades and the piano is left alone again playing it’s initial notes until it drops off leaving a lingering echo that ends the album. This may be considered risky, to end an album with a short instrumental piece, but Adams vanquishes any doubts. In a way this is the perfect ending. He lets his smooth melody entrap listeners and makes a lasting impact, leaving the listener with the gentle sound of a viola instead of his voice. Since, no voice can replace the emotion and ambiguity of a single instrument.

Check Out: Entire “Leavetaking” album

Only $8.00: http://www.amazon.com/Leavetaking-Peter-Bradley-Adams/dp/B001AZ8BHI