Having completed the Circle Of One and undergone an Evolution to become one of the world's finest singer-songwriters, OLETA ADAMS is now ready for Moving On' to the next level.
Moving On', OLETA's third Mercury album, announces the enlargement of her artist-composer-musician's role now to include that of producer. A pair of ADAMS' originals, "New Star" and "You Need To Be Loved", overseen by OLETA along with saxman and longtime band member and friend, Scott Mayo, signals the public fulfillment of a talent still as ambitious as it is broad. Says OLETA:
"This album is a real attempt to step outside myself and try some new things. The encouragement I've received to take more responsibility on myself has led to an album that not only sees me take control over complete songs for the first time, but one which, I think, re-emphasizes my R&B heritage."
In the past an advocate of one producer per album, OLETA has this time invited a number of outside specialists to help stir the brew. Vassel Benford of Jade/Mariah Carey/Toni Braxton fame contributes to three songs - including the set's first 45, "Never Knew Love" - while Michael J Powell (Anita Baker/James Ingram) and Alan Rich & Judd Friedman (Whitney Houston) sprinkle some real soulful flavor of their own.
Moving On' became an album that grew organically as it was being recorded, a process which, agrees OLETA, gave it a new edge: "OK, I admit it, I am a complete control freak! In the past I've meticulously prepared everything I 've recorded before going into the studio. But this time we worked a lot of it out there and then. Sometimes I'd arrive at a session familiar with only the bare bones of the music, and we'd work the lyrics and arrangements on the spot. It was an exciting way to record, because I had no real idea of how the whole album would sound until we'd finished it."It was an exacting process too, and one to which the musician in Ms. Adams rose magnificently.
"The important thing," she adds, "is to only work with people you can trust. And when, for example, Michael Powell brings in someone like Paul Riser to do the string arrangements, you know you can rely on the man's judgement."
We already know that we can rely on OLETA.
Though she was famously discovered by Tears For Fears star Roland Orzabal at the beginning of the decade, the truth is that she'd been earning herself a living and an enviable reputation as a live performer in-and-around the USA's mid-west through years of solid gigging. At one stage she was nominated as on of the '20 Most Influential People In Kansas' (where, incidentally, she still lives with her new husband, John Cushon), and she was well used to being listed widely as one of the city's 'Must See' attractions.
On the back of worldwide hits, like "Get Here", her definitive recording of the Brenda Russell song which became something of a people's anthem during the Gulf War, and "Window of Hope", a big success on the Continent, Moving On' will surely set in stone OLETA ADAMS' love affair with one of the broadest public followings in popular music.
Return to: Soul Music Home Page