Adam Burrows
Maybe the best songwriter in the world…
Ok before you go crazy and start sending me links to your favorite and “best” songwriters, let me emphasize that I did say “maybe”. But please do send me links to your favorite songwriters. I’d love to check them out. This one is short and sweet and to the point. The point being, I’ve got a New Year’s resolution to write something every week that I’m trying to keep to and…No wait, the point is Adam Burrows. Adam Burrows is the point.
Music is kind of an essential non-essential, isn’t it? It surrounds us, comforts us, gets us hyped, calms us, gets our minds churning, our blood flowing, makes us dance, makes us happy, and a bunch of other stuff we never, ever think about. It is ubiquitous. It’s everywhere we go. It’s one of those things that is so common and so easy to access these days that we don’t realize the major impact it has on our lives.
Someone who’s music has had a noticeable impact on me personally is my friend and fellow songwriter, Adam Burrows. We first met at an open mic at the Commodore in Nashville, about 11 years ago. We both played that night and I remember being captivated by his songs, “San Diego Sally” and “Coffee in The Morning”. I introduced myself to Adam that night and told him I loved his songs. I later sent him a Facebook message and awkwardly told him that he somehow managed to write the “perfect lyrics”. What I’m saying is that I gushed over him a bit. Embarrassing for me but I guess he overlooked it because we became buds.
I started inviting Adam to play at all the shows I booked around town. We met up and had beers a few times. Later we did a couple of short tours together. I remember walking around Johnson City with him in search of IPAs after a show one night. We came back to the car to find it booted and had to call the towing service. A couple of hundred bucks later (all the money from the show and then some) we got the car back and went on our way. We smoked cigars on porches, sipped some whiskey, dipped some skoal, played a bunch of shows and generally got to know each other better.
In spite of getting to know Adam as a no-nonsense, matter of fact, down to earth, super nice guy, over the years I’ve still retained a little bit of awe when it comes to his songwriting and guitar playing ability. The man can write!!
So what makes Adam so good in my book? Well, being a songwriter myself, I understand a little of what goes into the writing of songs and I often have moments, when I hear something really good, and think, “well I guess I should just throw in the towel now.” When a lyric is so straightforward and simple and yet, somehow deep and unexpected I have those moments. When the writer is saying something I’ve felt, something we’ve all felt, but says it in a way that makes me wish I’d said it, I have those moments. When it all seems really flowy and effortless, I have those moments. There’s only a handful of writers I can think of that give me those moments on a regular basis and Adam Burrows is one of them.
Digging a little deeper into what makes a song seem flowy and effortless, Adam’s writing has it in spades. What it is exactly, I’m not sure. I’ve gotten it right a time or two but I’ve watched Adam play a bunch of shows and I’ve listened to his records and every time I leave thinking, “Dang it! He’s good!” There’s just something about a song that doesn’t seem forced. It’s as natural as breathing for the writer. It just works. You start listening and you get carried away in the story and at no point do you ever stop and wonder, “Well what is this person actually saying?” Instead, you just accept the offering for what it is and when it’s done you think, “yeah!” That, my friends, is great songwriting.
On the guitar, Adam is a beast. He would tell you something like, “I play ok.” As an observer, however, I can tell you that his playing is full of finger-picked melodic intricacies and rhythmic detail that most players, myself included, are scurrying to keep up with. Put together with his afore-mentioned gift for lyrics and syncopation, it’s a top-shelf combo. If Adam were a whiskey, he’d be up there with Johnny Walker Platinum, Yamazaki and Laphroaig, looking down at the other whiskeys with disdain. Except that Adam, being Adam, would be looking at the sky and wondering what all the fuss was about and possibly lending a hand to the bottles scrambling below for a space on the top shelf.
I’ve always aspired to write the kind of songs that make people stop what they’re doing, if only for a minute, and listen. Growing up with recorded music, that was always the litmus test for me. The thing I like about Adam Burrows is that he does that to me every single time.
I guess the real take away from this article is that there are songwriters out there, really good ones, that you’ve never heard of. Adam Burrows is one of them. You ought to check him out for yourself. To help you on your journey, here’s his website: www.adamburrows.com
