I have been chatting to Andrew Adkins for a few weeks ahead of his new album release in September, Superior Vena Cava. If you're not up to date on details of the human anatomy, this is a vein that takes deoxygenated blood back to the atrium in your heart. Fitting, then, that this week's first single off the album is A Mouthful of Blood.
The song is getting a worldwide premiere play in the UK (of all places!) on BBC Radio 1 on 15th July, so there is plenty of time to set your alarms. Black Sabbath were a major influence on Adkins, who currently nestles himself at his home studio in East Nashville, across the Cumberland River from Music City.
Preferring the studio to the road, he has won a number of song placements on just about every drama streaming service you have ever heard of: Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, CBS, MTV, TLC, Paramount+, History Channel, Oxygen Network, and Lionsgate Films. Write in if you know of one not on that list! In addition to that impressive list, he has also shared stages with artists such as Sturgill Simpson, Lainey Wilson, Cage the Elephant, Little Big Town, and Billy Joe Shaver.
A Mouthful of Blood is the opening song on the new album, and the first single to be released. He seems to be smoking marijuana from an old beer can, however that works. [I believe you use a straw. Ed.] I love the reference to a Tennessee Stud but I have to admit, being slightly squeamish myself, I find the image of singing love songs with a mouthful of blood quite disturbing. Perhaps the image represents the extremes of emotion in love and relationships: even when they're going well, there is usually trouble of one sort around the next corner.
One of the things I love about these songs is that they challenge the listener. They can be a little uncomfortable to listen to, but I love that. Nobody will ever say that Andrew Adkins sounds like anyone else, I don't think, although they might try. He sings a lot about drugs, about scrambled heads, about anatomy and blood.
Adkins has an early connection with Ohio but has been in Tennessee most of his life. He plays all the instruments on the album himself. I can imagine that such a process can be tortuous and possibly lonely. Perhaps that shows up in the material, which has a dark vibe. I can't quite imagine him eating the head off a live bat, or even a dove, but there is something of the night about this music, a vibe which I am always drawn to.
On the bat issue I decided to ask Gemini's Deep Research tool to dig deep for me. A very long report on the topic began: "This report definitively concludes that the musician Andrew Adkins has never bitten the head off a live animal, such as a bat or a dove."
You can easily imagine Adkins on the Sinners soundtrack, or any David Lynch soundtrack, Lynch being another inspiration of his. I also found Eraserhead deeply affecting. If you first encounter that film at a certain time of life, on a certain evening, it can be the most frightening film you ever see. It is very deep and very dark, and the background music just ratchets up the tension.
Unlike most of the artists I write about, Adkins is not terribly verbose on Instagram. Apart from one post last month about the new material, he wrote a post in January about the death of Lynch and then nothing since August 2023 about his previous set of songs, an EP. He is more active on Facebook if you would like to follow him there.
The phrase "genre-bending" springs to mind when trying to account for Adkins' output. In his own words he creates "a unique blend of roots-influenced, neo-psychedelic rock" which is difficult to argue against. The music is addictive and different, of that there is no doubt.
Every song feels fresh, and I will be writing about more of the songs as we meander our way through summer towards the sunlit uplands of a more temperate September, easily my second favourite month after June. The others are all too hot or too cold or too wet. This music is great for dark, cold stormy nights, but strangely also for electrical, hot summer nights too. The one thing this is not is daytime music!
Andrew Adkins' official website is here, his Facebook is here and you can also follow him on Instagram. He has a YouTube channel too.
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I think Andrew would prefer you to hear the music first, but this video is absolutely brilliant too!
