Adia Victoria @ Miracle Theatre [DC] - 4/21/2022
Adia Victoria at Miracle Theatre in DC (Photo ©2022 Mauricio Castro)
While working in an Amazon warehouse during the pandemic, Nashville-based artist Adia Victoria authored a poem that reflected her psyche during those early days - anxiety-filled fears of potentially killing her mom by spreading a then-mysterious disease, but also faint optimism, knowing that as long as she had breath in her chest, she would continue to celebrate the life still living around her. Resiliency, as many of us can attest to, is one of the traits we all held to the closest through the pandemic, and the same rings true for Victoria. Her tour is called the “Ain’t Killed Me Yet Tour,” after all.
Victoria and her four-piece live band continues the musical lineage of the legendary Ma Rainey and “Empress of the Blues” Bessie Smith in their own loud and raucous way, turning the guitar fuzz up on “Ain’t Killed Me Yet” and “Head Rot.” She performed covers of Bobbie Gentry’s “Parchman Farm” and Blind Willie McTell’s blues classic “You Was Born to Die,” the latter of which she recorded for her latest album. The songs she closed out with, “South Gotta Change” and “Heathen,” exemplify Victoria's musical mission statement of exposing the South’s power structures for what they are: hollow, hypocritical, and ripe for overthrowing, one song at a time.
Opening for Adia Victoria was NYC-based folk guitarist/harpist Lizzie No. Her latest release is the December 2020 EP Holidays, with new music on the way.
Photos by Mauricio Castro
SETLIST
Far From Dixie
Magnolia Blues
Dead Eyes
Whole World Knows
My Oh My
Mean-Hearted Woman
Head Rot
Parchman Farm (Bobbie Gentry cover)
Sea of Sand
Troubled Mind
Different Kind of Love
You Was Born to Die (with Lizzie No)
Ain't Killed Me Yet
South Gotta Change
Encore
Heathen