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Art of the Song
Art of the Song is a one-hour, independently-produced radio show with music and interviews exploring inspiration and creativity through songwriting and other art forms. The program is heard on over 160 stations worldwide. Learn why songwriters and artists create, how they become inspired, and how you can tap into that creative source in every aspect of your life.
How many ways are there for a performing songwriter to “make it?”
You could hit the Top 40, as Ed Sheeran did.
A big-name recording artist could cover one of your songs, like when country superstar Dierks Bentley made Travis Meadows’ song “Riser” the title track of his last album.
For Americana singer-songwriter Lauren Adams, it was when she met a fan who had tattoo’ed a line from one of her songs onto her foot.
“I’ve shared the stage with some pretty big names and even had my song in a major motion picture but this girl’s foot is easily the most satisfying milestone of my career,” she said with a chuckle.
That kind of audience appreciation is what keeps an artist going in the absence of big-time success. From her first guitar lesson as a Florida teenager to her arrival in Los Angeles to her new CD (her fourth, titled Somewhere Else, due out this summer), Adam’s has always kept going.
Adams’ musical journey began on the stage of the world-famous Troubadour in West Los Angeles with a performance that was so tentative, she was completely caught off guard by the waves of applause.
“The response was so positive,” she said, “that I realized, ‘Hey, I could actually do this.’” That was summer of 1978, when the club still hosted its open-mic “Hoot Night,” where songwriters could get up and play a few.
Since that time, she actually has done it:
- Opened shows for Leon Russell in Fort Lauderdale and for Rita Coolidge in Southern California.
- Gigged regularly (some would say “relentlessly”) at clubs and festivals across California, Texas, Colorado, and in Nashville, TN.
- Released three CDs of her own songs
- Had her song “Thirsty” featured in the Lion’s Gate film Peaceful Warrior (starring Nick Nolte)
- Hosted LA’s longest-running Americana music event, the Americana Song Circle for 10 years.
“You don’t have to be perfect,” Adams sang in “Perfect Right Now,” from her 2001 Thirsty CD. (That’s the lyric the fan tattoo’ed onto her foot.) With her newest album Somewhere Else, Adams again brings us stories from her viewpoint of this imperfect world. She’s mature enough to embrace the imperfections and she’s artist enough to know how to turn them into great songs and engaging performances.
