Adam Douglas – Better Angels
Compro Music – 5 March 2021
With Better Angels title quoting Abraham Lincoln’s First Inaugural Address, one would expect Adam Douglas to be red, white and blue, through and through. But instead of saluting the stars and stripes, Douglas lives in Norway under a different red, white and blue flag. Raised in Oklahoma, with stops in Chicago and Minneapolis, Douglas has lived in Norway for close to fifteen years now. Yet the music in his veins is based on the soul, rock ’n roll, country, rhythm and blues and jazz that were a part of life on the mythical Route 66 during his formative years.
The plan was to record Better Angels in the United States, but Covid 19 put the kibosh on that notion. Instead, using Norwegian musicians, he coaxes out some of the most soulful sounds ever recorded by players from Scandinavia. The sonic barrage begins with “Joyous We’ll Be” which sounds like it could have been born in the studios at Stax, organs and horns playing with an almost religious fervor and an unmistakable message, “Well Dr. King had a dream/ And so do I.” That gives you a clear message of the unmistakable context.
Douglas has American roots, rock and soul blood running through his veins. “Growing up in Oklahoma I learned to appreciate a range of genres and musical cultures – from Howlin’ Wolf and Ray Charles to Tom Petty and Bonnie Raitt.” There’s a funky flare to “Build A Fire.” Saxes ooze blues and there’s more than a bit of Cropper in the guitar. And sexual, oh my lord! Shifting gears, “So Naïve” is a song where Douglas holds up a mirror and sees a man that in many ways he doesn’t recognize. “I’m expressing how painful it is to observe what’s going on in the world today. There are troubles everywhere and I feel the doors closing in on me, and it feels like I’m sleepwalking.” In the song he goes even further, “How could I be so naïve/ In believing the things I believed before?”
For a tender country weeper, you can’t do better than “Lucky Charm.” Framed with rough cut hardwood and electric guitar it starts off simply “Every word I say is true/ I’ll be damned if I deserve to be with you.” Yet the song builds with bits of steel guitar and electric piano. “Dying Breed” has more than a bit of Nathaniel Rateliff’s “S.O.B.” in its DNA, which is no bad thing.
How you transfer all the grit and grin and r & B, along with a hefty helping of Southern soul to the fjords of Norway is anybody’s guess. Adam Douglas has successfully transformed his Norwegian wood into something imbued with the aural forces that emanate from the heart of Memphis. He has conjured the rudiments of American music and given them a new home. And we can all find our Better Angels – wherever they may be – if we look hard enough.
Photo Credit: Torgrim Halvari