KEXP Live at Iceland Airwaves 2016, Day 3: Adia Victoria

Next on the KEXP broadcast live from Kex Hostel at Iceland Airwaves 2016 was incredibly talented American singer Adia Victoria. Hailing from South Carolina, Adia was raised by a devout seventh-day-adventist family, and was isolated from much of popular culture for most of her childhood. In high school, once she was enrolled in public school instead of church shcools, she began to explore the music she hadn’t been exposed to before. She found her own voice in writing songs and poetry to cope with her parents’ divorce. Now Nashville-based, her debut album Beyond the Bloodhounds was released in May of this year. Floating between jazz, spoken word, blues, and soul, the music is dark and tempestuous, but makes for a rip-roarin’ good time. 

Adia opened with the mournful ballad "Mortimer's Blues," her voice with a gentle hint of a rasp, with passionate, bright keys contrasting the somber tale of loneliness. With passionate playing from her exceptional backing band, and expressive, engaging performing from Adia, the audience was hooked for the entire show. "You're so pretty, why don't you smile?" she sneered, mocking the question incessantly asked of women, "I got some things on my mind I don't feel much like smiling about," she responds as she drops into "Dead Eyes," a raucous bluesy number. Her performance was short, but sweet, finishing with "Horrible Weather," soulful, compelling, and beautiful, she's showed her proclivity not only as a musician, but as a great storyteller.