Adey Bell’s Powerful, Mesmerizing Music

— a review by Margie Doyle–

Adey Bell, dressed in a flowing red “steampunk” dress, fingerless lace gloves and a black top hat, came to Orcas Island on Saturday night and romanced the audience with the songs of her generation. With a true and fullsome voice she gave her heart and soul to the audience.

Backed up by a subtle “echo machine,” her lyrical voice was at turns breathy, wailing, smooth, sophisticated and wild. She told us stories of “the long road to get here,” from her native Montana where as a teenager she would play in small venues with only a handful in the audience.

The loneliness and struggles of her generation (Bell is in her early thirties) was channeled as she sang of “the exiled part of your inner soul,” and “swimming with snakes.”

Her lithe voice was matched by her command of the piano, as she orchestrated strong chords to rich arpeggios, often facing the audience, trusting her arms and fingers to accompany her voice.

Songs varied from a folk sensibility — “Never fear the night” recalling the high lonesome feel of “Wayfaring Stranger” — to a tango-esque tribute “to the ladies” where she riffed on the subtleties of the term “lady-like.” (She also sang a paen to the masculine, “Peace of the Man.”)

Adey claims she was “born to sing about taboos,” yet there was a heart-tugging vulnerability about much of her performance and her lifestyle: “I find myself alone.” From love’s longing to primitive, animal snarls, she invokes the “medicine of music” in her lyrics: “calling for help on a sinful night,” and “everybody needs a little forgiveness.”

Piano-players have been my idols, since I was a girl,and I always thrilled at the true seducers of the piano, who could dream and triumph and bring it all to those listening, especially when I encountered them live and in-person: Ray Charles, Carole King, Elton John, Billy Joel, Diana Krall and yes, our own Jackie Parker, who as Jon Kimura Parker, is internationally renowned.

Time moves on, and great pianists — concert and otherwise — have left their audiences. And thank God, new ones come along. Such is Adey Bell. Her presence at the piano is a unique, magical performance as she weaves her stories and passions with this magnificent “axe.” So it is with sincerity and gratitude that I thank Jesse Boleyn and Orcas Center for bringing Adey Bell to island audiences. My love affair with piano songstresses continues.

Following three successful concerts presented this summer at Orcas Center for the Performing Arts, singer-songwriter Jesse Boleyn announced his plans to produce five more shows at Orcas Center next summer.

For more information about Adey Bell, visit her website at oracle88.com.