Adia Victoria - Dope Queen Blues

WRITTEN BY JASMINE ALBERTSON
PHOTO BY Jim Bennett

Nashville’s Adia Victoria is releasing her sophomore album, Silences, on February 22, 2019. The record follows 2016’s Beyond the Bloodhounds and was produced by The National’s Aaron Dessner. Our Song of the Day is the lead single from Silences, “Dope Queen Blues.” The confident bluesy song dates back to a different time and place for Victoria.

“I wrote it about when I was down in Atlanta with friends talking about my early 20’s when I lived there,” she explains. “It was a hazy, wild, debaucherous time. I was putting myself back in the shoes of that 20 year old that had just absolute freedom. We were making money and blowing it. It was a carefree time when we revelled in all of our vices. When I first wrote it it was just me and my guitar but when I went in with Aaron, I said, I don’t think this is bad enough or hitting hard enough so Aaron sat down on the piano and did that. I remember after that initial session, Aaron dropped me off at the train and I was sitting on the train and it was then that I knew we were on to something really special.”

Adia Victoria will play Barboza on Tuesday, March 12. Below, watch her 2016 performance for KEXP at Iceland Airwaves.