Adia Victoria will release a new album on Sept. 17, she announced on Wednesday (Aug. 4). A Southern Gothic is the singer-songwriter’s third full-length album.
Victoria’s latest album is a work of contrast, per a press release, exploring the relationships that people — more specifically, Black women — have with the South. “It is equal parts historical montage and modern prophesy, dark and light, love and loathing,” the release explains.
“I wanted the album to be a time stamp of where I was in 2020,” says Victoria, who adds that she “was so anchored in the past and the Black brilliance that came before me that it was kind of a road map.”
“I wanted to pay homage and be honest to what I had to work with,” Victoria continues. “I didn’t feel the need to go back and change it and pretty it up. It was honest and it was true.”
Victoria wrote and produced A Southern Gothic — as many artists have recently — during the COVID-19 pandemic. Physically stuck inside with their minds wandering elsewhere, Victoria and her creative partner, Mason Hickman, taught themselves to play instruments and layered the sounds to create the album. Though Victoria could have replaced the production once it was safer to wander outside, she made an intentional choice not to.
“I would say that the philosophy behind this record is ‘necessity is the mother of invention,” the artist says. “It’s also, ‘When you don’t have excess, when that’s all stripped away, what you gon’ do with that?’ What art can you make from walking through your mother’s garden?”
“Magnolia Blues” is the first single from A Southern Gothic. Victoria shared the song on Wednesday, describing it as “an ode to southern Black folk — too often hemmed out of what we mean when we say ‘southerner.'”
T Bone Burnett received executive producer credits on A Southern Gothic, and the album also features, among others, Jason Isbell and Margo Price. She and Victoria recently spent time together at the Newport Folk Festival, and their relationship appears to be blossoming into as much a friendship as it is a working relationship:
A Southern Gothic is available for pre-order and to pre-save now. Full details are below.
Adia Victoria, A Southern Gothic Tracklist:
1. “Magnolia Blues”
2. “Mean-Hearted Woman”
3. “You Was Born to Die” (feat. Kyshona Armstrong, Margo Price and Jason Isbell)
4. “Whole World Knows”
5. “Troubled Mind”
6. “Far From Dixie”
7. “Please Come Down”
8. “My oh My” (feat. Stone Jack Jones)
9. “Deep Water Blues”
10. “Carolina Bound”
11. “South for the Winter” (feat. Matt Berninger)
The (Still) Most-Anticipated Country + Americana Albums of 2021:
The year is more than half over, but there’s still plenty of great music coming — and even more we’re hoping to see announced soon.