Ik kies ervoor deze b-side van A Southern Gotic, geen nieuw nummer dus, te highlighten, simpelweg omdat het zo'n fantastisch nummer is én omdat niemand hier in de EU de moeite neemt deze dame te proten. Haar nieuwste song (zie hieronder) ging dus helemaal aan me voorbij. In The Pines is een ingetogen, droevig klinkend nummer dat gedragen wordt door piano, zacht gitaargetokkel en die aparte, zo herkenbare stem van Victoria. Ook al klinkt het mede door de lap steel die later inzet volledig americana, mogen we niet vergeten dat het bij deze dame helemaal om de blues (als mindset en kader, niet als genre op zich) draait. Breekbare schoonheid.
Het contrast met de nieuwe single Ain't Killed Me Yet kan niet groter zijn. Hier laat ze zich vol gaan en horen we een sterke, krachtige vrouw. Live een potige beuker!
Luister ook naar: Ain't Killed Me Yet
Lees
The track is available exclusively via Bandcamp and all proceeds will go to the Carolina Abortion Fund. She notes:
"In 2019, I spent an afternoon poring over the journal I kept during my junior year of high school in Mauldin, SC. Revisiting the frustrations and observations of my 16-year-old self would lead to the creation of ‘In The Pines’—a song that tells the story of a teenage girl from a small conservative town whose slow slide towards self-destruction is recounted by her best friend. It is the all-too-familiar story of how young women desperate search in vain for escape from totalizing ideologies that define their lives and the lives around them. It is a young girl’s quest for autonomy via rebellion over her life. Failing that, she will ultimately have autonomy over her own death. The song centers the stories of those who fall victim to the ideologies of emotionally stunted men. I dedicate ‘In the Pines’ to every teenage girl who is desperately scratching at the walls of ideological imprisonment. It is a song that I hope reminds them that they are not alone in their hunt for freedom."
The track follows “Ain’t Killed Me Yet” which was Adia’s first new music since the release of her critically acclaimed album A Southern Gothic (Canvasback).
Adia Victoria is a daughter of the South, a born and bred South Carolinian who now makes her home in Nashville, Tennessee. It is no surprise, then, that stories of the South find their way into her music, into the lyrics she pens and the chords she plays. It has been the case through her first two albums, and it remains so for third full-length effort, A Southern Gothic.
