First Listen: Oleta Adams "Moves" us on new song

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    (February 12, 2017) Oleta Adams seemed to come from nowhere when her song “Get Here” shot up the charts in the early 1990s. That’s not the case, however. Adams had been grinding it out the old fashioned way – in clubs in Kansas City until she came to the attention of Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith from Tears For Fears. She appeared on the group’s “The Seeds of Love” album, participated in the tour and returned stateside with a record deal all her own. “Get Here,” a ballad about anxiously waiting for a loved one to return, dropped around the time that America involved in the first Gulf War, and the tune became the musical backdrop for many joyful reunions.

    (February 12, 2017) Oleta Adams seemed to come from nowhere when her song “Get Here” shot up the charts in the early 1990s. That’s not the case, however. Adams had been grinding it out the old fashioned way – in clubs in Kansas City until she came to the attention of Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith from Tears For Fears. She appeared on the group’s “The Seeds of Love” album, participated in the tour and returned stateside with a record deal all her own. “Get Here,” a ballad about anxiously waiting for a loved one to return, dropped around the time that America involved in the first Gulf War, and the tune became the musical backdrop for many joyful reunions.

    The songs from Adams latest record, Third Set, have been the musical backdrop for another kind of connection. These tracks hail back to Adams’ days singing in night clubs. The title honors those hours well after midnight when last call is approaching, the band’s set list is expanding and the remaining patrons are perhaps looking for something else to do – and someone to do it with – after the club closes. This is the point when Adams and her band turned the volume down to allow room for intimate and earnest conversations. “Do I Move You,” her track selected for this First Listen, is a bluesy number that is ideal who needs to a little bit more convincing in that between last call and last dance. If you can’t close the sale while slow dragging to this one, then it just ain’t your night. Check it out. 

    By Howard Dukes

    Oleta Adams - "Do I Move You"