Listening to Adia Victoria’s latest record, A Southern Gothic, is mesmerizing. It is my favorite album of the year. It is poetic and gritty, ethereal and earthy all at once. Of course, if one thinks deeply about the blues, as Adia does, you know that paradox is all around. Joy and sorrow, pleasure and pain, life and death, are all cousins. It is the tension in these spaces where art, beauty, and freedom thrive. The first couple of times I got to chat with Adia (for her albums Baby Blues and Silences), I still lived in the north. But now I live in Durham, NC, and I hear the songs differently. I’m still sorting that out and one of the things helping me sort it out is Adia’s amazing podcast, Call and Response. I hope you enjoy this conversation with Adia, and then you immediately spin A Southern Gothic and go listen to all the episodes of Call and Response (and especially the one with Kiese Laymon).

Photo Credit: Huy Nguyen