Ade Adu - Whistling While He Works

“First impressions are often the truest… A man's look is the work of years; it is stamped on his countenance by the events of his whole life… and it is not to be got rid of easily” – William Hazlett.

When I first met singer/songwriter Ade Adu, I found him alone, struggling to carry his equipment from his vehicle into the cramped, small door of The Hickey, Allegany’s favorite hole in the wall. It’s the kind of place where you get the feeling that you could read the entire history of its patrons on the walls of its bathrooms, and not really the sort of place you’d think you’d hear a performer who’s lived in three different countries and has three college degrees. With a polo shirt, jeans, and no jacket in the middle of January, Adu carried his large speakers and six-string with the sort of reassured, content smile that you could only hope to find on the countenance of a man who truly loves what he does. And to say that Ade Adu loves what he does would be a considerable understatement.

What Adu does, nearly everyday of his life, is bring music to the masses. However, on any one of those given days, you might be in for an entirely unique listening experience. Depending on his undertaking, it’s difficult what to expect with Adu and nearly impossible to pin down with any genre classification. It’s not that Ade doesn’t play recognizable material; it’s that he plays it all.

“I just don’t want to be stuck in one box. I call it multidimensional, because you can’t really just say that this is all I am,” Adu says of his musical undertakings. “I can do anything from gospel, I can do rock songs, some dance, some reggae…”

In a live setting, Adu can give the audience the listening experience they’re looking for with just an acoustic guitar, or maybe an acoustic with a band. On this frigid winter evening, he’ll play an all acoustic set that will end up moving the crowd for over four hours; in several weeks, he’ll be playing a rock set with a full band. In the midst of all of this, Adu continues to work in the studio, bringing his pop-sensibilities to fruition with his beat-heavy, rock, folk, hip hop, dance, and reggae inspired original tracks.

“It’s a whole different ballgame with the CD. The CD, it’s like pop music… Pop music will work better on a CD, because people want to turn up their car stereos and they want to hear the loud bass and the beat,” Adu said.

After a quick tune of his guitar and brief introduction of himself and his guest djembe player, Richard Allen Braithwaite, the warm and sultry sounds of Adu’s rendition of “Anytime She Goes Away” filled the dank and vacant recesses of The Hickey. Smooth and comforting yet dense and virile, Adu’s voice immediately defrosted the hearts of the few patrons that had, as of yet, braved the cold to come out for the evening. One by one, they all abandoned their drinks and turned on their stools to devote their attention to his melodious musings. Though the night was still young and there were only a handful of people in the small bar, shouts of applause rang and couples danced within only the opening moments of his set. He continued the night with other hits, including, “Only Want to Be With You,” “I Shot the Sheriff,” and “Ants Marching.”

He said that he prefers to play upbeat songs, songs that get people out of their seats and moving. The world is a sad enough place, and people have enough troubles, Adu said. People don’t come out to a club to hear depressing, loathsome music; they come to have a good time.

“What I really want music to be is a tool for people to get away from their stress, to make them happy,” he said.

And make people happy he did. Adu had obviously done this more than a few times before, because like a pied piper, he lured in more and more fans from the wide selection of other bars in Allegany to come and see what all the fuss was about. Before long, one would have thought it was a different bar altogether; tables were pushed aside and college students started getting down and dirty to acoustic versions of “Electric Avenue,” “ABC,” and an especially imaginative mash-up of “Heartless” and “Wonderwall.”

After several hours of playing, Adu still hadn’t taken a single break except to wipe the sweat from his brow and take a quick sip of water. For the past year and a half, he’s typically played 16 to 20 hours per week, and he’s been known to sing for up to nine hours at a time. Adu said he’s been referred to as ‘the guy who never takes a break.’ A true working musician, he fills his evenings with performances and his days traveling to the next gig.

“I pretty much keep myself busy week in and week out. It’s fun, and that’s all I do. This is all I do for now, because I realize if you ever want to make it, you have to pay the price. This is the price you have to pay. It’s like paying your dues,” Adu said of his lifestyle. But paying his dues isn’t without its benefits.

“I think it’s rewarding; the other day, I played Cojones. And all these people kept showing up. After the show, the coolest thing was all these people walking up to me and going, ‘I heard you played at the youth summit,’ ‘I heard you at this party,’ ‘[at] the hospital…’ I play all these different venues possible, because that’s all I do. I pretty much play everywhere; anywhere that needs music,” Adu said.

All of the hard work and time on the road pays off for Adu, because his satisfaction comes from giving people what they want. It shines through during his performances. As a lover of music, playing one particular kind of music or another isn’t what’s important to him. He finds his own happiness by whistling while he works, and what’s more, he gets others to whistle with him. As he said in an interview with Taylor Brooks of Mix 101.5:

“In today's world, most music lovers like a little bit of everything and that's what I try to represent with my music. With a variety of styles I can reach a wider spectrum of listeners. It's ultimately about making people happy or feel better about themselves rather being pigeonholed as a folk artist, rapper, rocker, etc. It's not just about the music anymore, it's about giving people what they want.”

To find out more about Ade Adu, his upcoming live video and perfomances, and his album, check back at Odeum entertainment and visit Ade Adu’s website at www.adeadu.com.