Adia Victoria

Top of 2018: I holed up in a studio in Hudson, NY and recorded my second album ‘Silences’. The year ended with my boys and I diving deep in the blues at Third Man Records. The months in between were filled with hustle, hard work, and plotting for 2019. Was it hard? Hell yeah. But wild women don’t get the blues, y’all. ✌🏽💙💃🏽

my grandma Elizabeth Sims made her first visit to @thirdmanrecords on Thursday for our show. her first words when she walked into the blue room: “Well. That’s a lot of blue.” 💙😷🌹 💃🏽 Photo: @nolanknight_ follow me on instagram at @adiavictoria my grandma’s been known to make an appearance or two on there as well 😎

in nashville you’re only as good as the community that’s got your back. a few months ago, @caroranwill, @cionar began meeting up to write poetry together. we couldn’t help but notice the lack of black women’s voices in the local writing community, so we decided to fill that void. our writing quickly found as its heart, the Deep South, the blues and Black womanhood. from there the Blair House Collective was formed. we are proud to announce the BHC will be making its debut this Thursday at @thirdmanrecords as part of “A Delta Christmas”. Please prepare yourselves to be fully gathered. ✨✨ Tickets: adiavictoria.com photo: @nolanknight_ #blairhousecollective #dopequeens #thirdmanrecords #blackgirlgenius #blackgirlmagic #deltablues

i remember the moment @patricesharonjackson took this photo 7 years ago. im on my mom’s front porch in north nashville, still a college student and waitress and i had just finished writing a song with the working title: C O C A I N E S U M M E R and it would eventually become what yall know as Dope Queen Blues. Fast forward to 2018 and @nprmusic just named Dope Queen Blues as one of the “10 Songs Public Radio Can’t Stop Playing”. So much ❤️❤️ to @nprmusic and @thecolosound for the support, everyone spinning this record and to everyone requesting it, to my band for performing brilliantly on it and @aarondessner for turning this song into a real moment! ✨✨ How’s that for a little Nashville Cinderella story? 🎈

cry wolf. inspired by the life of sylvia plath. dedicated to every woman who feels the stress of always having to be happy all the time. #silences filmed by: Nolan Knight

been up since 4 reading ocean vuong poems and practicing hard time killing floor blues by skip james. and this is what hustling looks like, learning new shit is a humbling affair, but i wanna keep it 💯 with y’all. i think we spend too much time on here trying to perfect this glazed over version of ourselves that, while entertaining, is deceptive and corrosive over time. so here’s to gladly strutting down struggle street, nappy hair without a care. paying my dues to play my blues. nashville, i can’t wait to see y’all at Third Man Records on 12/6 for ‘A Delta Blue Christmas’ 🎄🎄 😗 cc: The Blues Foundation

Thank you 💕 Cheryl Waters and KEXP for featuring Dope Queen Blues on this week’s Music That Matters podcast!! Listen here: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/kexp-presents-music-that-matters/id76069540?mt=2

slay me, cause im in my sin🔪💋 📷: Mulography - Anthony Mulcahy

so much love 💕 to KEXP for naming my latest single ‘dope queen blues’ as their song of the day. can’t wait to bring the Dope Queen Tour to Barboza on March 12th 😘 https://www.kexp.org/podcasts/song-of-the-day/2018/11/14/adia-victoria-dope-queen-blues/ photo: Joshua Asante

YALL! I am so very pleased to invite you and yours to “A Very Delta Christmas” a full day of celebrating the legacy of the blues to take place at The Blue Room at Third Man Records on December 6th!!!☃️🎄 Thank you to Jack and my fam at Third Man for holding this space for us! 🖤💛🖤💛 THIS WILL SELL OUT. So don’t play, y’all. Tickets go sale today at 11 CST at adiavictoria.com Photo: Shervin Lainez

hey nashville! if i were to curate an event of scholarship around the delta blues—including a panel discussing the politics and appropriation of the blues, a poetry reading and a full band performing classic blues numbers and original music —would this be something yall would dig?

just a friendly reminder that black women invented rock n roll. 💅🏽 #blackgirlmagic photo: @amyellisphotography

the thing they don’t tell u about living in an ‘it city’ is way it can change and reshape itself in the blink of an eye right out from under u. i wrote a song memorializing the nashville i once knew, where my friends could actually afford to live to make the art that makes this town music city. and this is being taken from us. my song “the city” is a eulogy for those of us who can’t afford to keep up. who are being replaced in #newnashville and cities everywhere but even in the wake of mourning, there is still art to be made. i can’t wait to share this song with y’all. #silences #itcityblues #nashville shot by: Nolan Knight

working on a skip james cover this morning with my mind on the deep south and the legacy of suppressing black folk from the ballot. please, if you are able, VOTE. vote for those who came before us and fought and died for the right to be counted as citizens.

The boys and I had such an amazing time performing for our @worldcafe session yesterday. Played our blues and had a chance to speak about New Nashville, the new record, Mad Men and so much more with the one and only @annkpowers So much love to @wxpnfm and @nprmusic for your continued support! ❤️🎈

Silences. A Southern Gothic. 2.22.19 shot by Nolan Knight

Kansas City, here I come. We added a show at recordBar on March 16. Might take a boat, might take a train. I’ll probably just take a van, can’t wait to see y’all there! Tickets on sale Friday, November 2 at 10 am CT at http://adiavictoria.com/silences?ref= Photo credit: Nolan Knight

there ain’t much to coax this nashvillian into enduring the traffic on hillsboro, but going to the green hills library to vote early and put a check on the lunatic in the Oval Office was definitely worth it. #VoteForOurLives

a series of photos taken in clarksdale, mississipi. band was in town to headline @deepbluesfestival and any American understands the space mississippi occupies in our national psyche. i have kept her at bay, afraid to get too close for fear she would swell up like the river named after her and snatch my life alway. i think of the delta air that swole up and ate #emmitttill and #medgarevers The was a real life monster for many black americans. mississippi has stood at an unhealed stand still in my mind. so to take my band, a majority of us black, down into the delta to play our blues and find healing there, to hear my boys laugh out in the night unafraid, the very portrait of #blackboyjoy shifted something inside of me. it made me less afraid, more able and empowered to smile inside my blackness in the Mississippi night. #reclaimingtheblues #dopequeentour #dopequeenblues #blackgirlmagic #deltablues photos: @nolanknight_ Find out when the Dope Queen Tour is headed to you: adiavictoria.com

trying to spin songs from all my dizzying thoughts. #terminallyshy 📷: @nolanknight_ Find me on IG: @adiavictoria

reclaiming the blues one city at a time. 2/19 - Washington, D.C. - DC9 Nightclub 2/20 - Philadelphia, PA - Johnny Brenda's 2/22 - Brooklyn, NY - Rough Trade NYC 2/23 - Pittsburgh, PA - Club Cafe 2/25 - Chicago, IL - Schubas 2/26 - St Louis, MO - OFF BROADWAY 2/28 - Houston, TX - White Oak Music Hall 3/1 - Austin, TX - Mohawk Austin 3/2 - Dallas, TX - Three Links 3/4 - Phoenix, AZ - Valley Bar 3/5 - San Diego - Casbah 3/7 - Los Angeles, CA - Moroccan Lounge 3/9 - San Francisco, CA - Cafe Du Nord 3/11 - Portland, OR - Doug Fir Lounge 3/12 - Seattle, WA - Barboza 3/14 - Salt Lake City, UT - The State Room 3/15 - Denver, CO - Larimer Lounge 3/23 - Paris, France - Le Pop-Up du Label 3/24 - Amsterdam, Netherlands - Cinetol 3/26 - Berlin, Germany - Auster Club 3/27 - Hamburg, Germany - Nochtspeicher 3/28 - Cologne, Germany - Artheater 3/29 - Antwerp, Belgium - De Roma 4/1 - London, UK - Electrowerkz The Dope Queen Tour is on sale NOW! Visit AdiaVictoria.com for tickets. photo: Shervin Lainez

Today is National Black Poetry day. In this spirit, a poem I wrote called ‘liner notes blues’ which flings far the lid of systemic silencing of women and lets the language pour forth in undulating heaps of madness. #blackpoetryday #silences #reclaimingtheblues filmed by Nolan Knight in mississippi.

it’s a been a minute. no. it’s been hours, days, weeks, compounded (and confounding) to the point that i could not speak. i've made circles in silence inside my own mind. in this time i had to grow as a woman, whole and old enough to release a guttural scream of fevered dreams of a sinner redeemed who still can’t admit the existence of god. last time we spoke, i was stuck in the south. well, i got out. and a new chapter begins. i'm ready to let y’all in on the mind of a rambling blues woman. “silences” was written in blood and bone, in the onliest, loneliest of alone. produced by Aaron Dessner and featuring the baddest band straight out of nashville, tennessee. i'm reclaiming the blues. y’all ready? ------ New album "Silences" out February 22. Pre-order now: adiavictoria.lnk.to/Silences Or listen to the first single "Dope Queen Blues": adiavictoria.lnk.to/DQBLS And announcing the Dope Queen Tour in the U.S. and Europe kicking off February 19!

Shout out to my AFROPUNK fam for showing love to my new single Dope Queen Blues. Thanks y’all for continuing to shine a light on my art! http://afropunk.com/2018/09/adia-victoria-revels-in-the-dope-queen-blues/

it’s #worldmentalhealthday and i just wanted to take a moment to tell anyone who reads this you are not alone. i have struggled with anxiety and depression since i was a child, and often the only recourse for black women is to “be strong” or to pray it all away. sometimes prayer isn’t enough. if you are struggling, know that there are people who will listen. who understand you. i have found that the times my thoughts become darkest is when i try to silence them or will them all away. making music has been a life changer and a life saver for me. so, today, i want to thank y’all for allowing me to channel my struggle into art and for supporting me. thank you for giving me a voice and letting me know i am not alone. i can not wait to share more music with y’all. all the ❤️ xo AV photo: @nolanknight_