Woodyfest 2019: Andy Adams

Back to Square One

Although Andy Adams is no stranger to music, [Sidenote: This is the third post in our cov­er­age of the twenty-sec­ond annual Woody Guthrie Folk Festival. We’ll be alter­nat­ing our report­ing with essays and photo gal­leries from the six­teenth fes­ti­val in 2013, so check in often for a mix of old and new Woodyfest good­ness.] [Sidenote: Adams was a fre­quent musi­cal per­former in the Oklahoma City metro before the spread of COVID-19 shut down most music venues. He also for­merly hosted a weekly song­writer night at the Blue Door. He released the full-length Done Crossed That Line in 2013 and the fol­lowup EP I’ll Try Harder Next Time in 2015. ] the Tahlequah native admits the title of his lat­est release, Back to Square One, could be taken lit­er­ally. As described in an arti­cle The Daily Oklahoman, Back to Square One is aptly titled and [is] the result of […] a prac­ti­cal com­mit­ment to the craft, of car­ry­ing out a cohe­sive vision in the stu­dio and of what it really means to make a liv­ing from songs. [Sidenote: Carman, Becky, “OKC song­writer Andy Adams moves for­ward by going Back to Square One,” okla​homan​.com (10 May 2017).] Or as Adams puts it, The whole point with the record was to do every­thing the way they say you’re sup­posed to. I wasn’t shy about ask­ing for help and being recep­tive. I asked peo­ple I’ve worked with before, How did you do this? and Can I pick your brain? [Sidenote: Adams, quoted in Ibid.]

The album fea­tures sev­eral Adams orig­i­nals as well as songs he co-wrote with pro­ducer Kyle Reid and song­writ­ers Levi Parham and Derek Paul. Multi-instru­men­tal­ist Reid, his sis­ter and vio­lin­ist Sarah, key­boardist John Calvin Abney, drum­mer Steve Boaz, drum­mer James Purdy, and vocal­ist Carter Sampson all appear on the album.

Adams has per­formed at every Woodyfest since 2015. He per­formed a set on the new Bound for Glory stage on fes­ti­val Thursday. Adams also served as the emcee for that stage through­out Woodyfest 2019.

Gallery