Living Blues Magazine
Breaking Out: Adam Falcon
Frank Matheis
Adam Falcon is not your typical bluesman. In fact, there is nothing typical about the New York singer-songwriter. For starters, not many blues musicians can read and write music at his level of expertise. Falcon is a formally trained songwriter, who transcribes his songs, as well as a session guitarist. He does not copy typical blues riffs and licks, especially not the standard 12-bar blues. There is virtually no emulation of others, although he can play in the style of George Benson or Jimmy Johnson, depending on what is needed. His guitar technique is closer to a jazz/soul musician than typical blues players, but the blues element is omnipresent and profound. He prefers understated chords and phrasing to overt solos and snazzy showmanship. Yet, one listening to his song Woke Up Cryin’, and many of the very typical blues players would wish that they could write a deeply emotive, soulful blues song like that. It’s the blues if ever there was one. Lyrically, poetically, and emotionally, he sings the blues his own way. Even when covering others, like Robert Johnson’s Come on in My Kitchen, his arrangement leans more on jazzy chord changes than copying the song note for note. Falcon is independent, idiosyncratic, and self-assured in his direction and in his essentially organic style. He is deeply passionate and grounded in emotive feeling—essential for the blues. If that all seems unusual today, there was a time when the musical prowess to shift from jazz to blues was standard and even expected. Lonnie Johnson, Jay McShann, Amos Milburn, T-Bone Walker, and Robert Lockwood Jr. come to mind.
The dreadlocked Falcon is from the Bronx, New York, and now makes his home in Suffern, New York, not far from New Jersey. His mother was from Harlem and his father from New Orleans and the blues style of both places is integral in Falcon’s style. He heard Louis Jordan, Fats Domino, T-Bone Walker, Snooks Eaglin, and Louis Armstrong records around the house as a kid, as well as a broad selection of African American music. As a teenager of the baby-boomer generation he had his ears open to it all: the Beatles, R&B, Motown, B.B. King, Dylan, and all that music that formed sounds of the generation of the late ’60s and ’70s. He graduated from high school in the Bronx and studied music at Bronx Community College and right afterwards went on tour with the singing group Revelation. In 1975 they even opened for the Bee Gees. For years he worked as a session guitarist and road dog, backing the likes of Stephanie Mills and Phyllis Hyman. He even opened for Whitney Houston once. If you are from New York and want to make a living as a musician you need to have your skills honed, to be versatile and ready for every opportunity, no matter what style, the same way the original blues players had to adjust diverse repertoires for playing to different audiences.
No wonder his blues reflects all that. Soul, with jazz chords, call it a “blues infused” amalgam. In any given set he’ll play Bob Marley, Jimmy Cliff, Jimi Hendrix, Robert Johnson, and Taj Mahal songs, along with his own strong blues compositions, on his mahogany Martin and National resonator guitars. He says of his music: “The mood . . . will take you on a ride from New Orleans to the Caribbean and drop you off somewhere in the Delta, with stops along the way.”
As he told LB, “I play blues with a different beat and I like everything from reggae to Brazilian music. During my Brazilian phase I played a nylon string guitar. I switched to steel string guitar and went to a period of loving Richie Havens, Bill Withers, and Ben Harper. I also love the deep blues of Robert Johnson and Taj Mahal. Blues to me is folk music from a particular group of people; whereas, old country music is folk music for another group of people. It’s all music for people having a good time. I don’t label myself as a blues musician but I am rooted in the blues with different influences. That’s why they call it “roots music” after all. I just want to spread a good message. When people hear me play, I want them to feel good at that moment, to feel like someone else understands what they are going through. You can feel alienated in this world. Music should be uplifting.”
His own compositions pack a punch and he has written some fierce blues songs that will grab anyone’s heart. His powerful song Woke Up Cryin’ made Falcon a semi-finalist in the International Songwriting Competition and landed him a nomination in the blues category of the Independent Music Awards. The song True Blue that he wrote for the multi-Grammy winner George Benson, whose style is distinctly similar to Falcon’s when he is in a jazz mood, was noticed by the Songwriters Hall of Fame. They bestowed him the Abe Olman Scholarship in 2007. Another composition, Like a Soldier, was used in the national television series The Injustice Files.
Falcon plays mostly around the New York region, with occasional trips to New Orleans. He’s a regular at top local Hudson Valley venues: the Falcon, Daryl’s House in Pawling, the Turning Point, and the Towne Crier Café in Beacon, New York. He frequently opens at big venues and he has opened shows for the James Cotton Blues Band, Matt “Guitar” Murphy, the Wailers, Jim Lauderdale, Tower of Power, Ruthie Foster, and many more.
Recently, his song Colored Man Singin’ the Blues, with a distinct socio-critical view about injustice and inequality, was included in Black Lives—From Generation to Generation, an album on the European label Jammin’colorS. The record features a collective of artists who are continuing to fight for equality and social justice through music, for the cause of fighting racism worldwide. The collective is engaging in a 2022 European tour, and Falcon will join the troupe of 12 musicians as guitarist.
While he has made a living with more popular genres, his current direction has transcended toward a more roots blues style. His distinctly blues-oriented 2015 EP The Light Shines includes a phenomenal version of Corinna, as ethereal and deep as any. The title cut features the artist playing funky slide on this original blues, which features Keith Fluitt (Quincy Jones, Michael Jackson) and Martha Redbone on backing vocals. Falcon is currently recording a new album in Philadelphia. “It’s a blues-oriented album based on my personal life experiences, my kids, New Orleans, etc.” His past albums have been a stylistic mixed bag. Bohemian 959, a record with a distinct, slick, uptown vibe, issued in 2009, is rooted in soul/ funk. The album features Nona Hendryx on vocals. I, too, Am Colored in Black and White, from 2000, is a mix of urban and roots blues. The album includes a compelling cover of Jimi Hendrix’s Up from the Skies, slow, jazzy, and sophisticated. His song Love Moves On straddles the pop folk realm with a blues bent.
He reminisces about a quarter of a century as a professional musician with an existentialist, pandemic-era recognition: “I was in Europe, working with the artist Jonathan Butler and we opened for Eric Clapton. The occasion was an anniversary celebration, at the Royal Albert Hall, commemorating Clapton’s 25 years in the music business. I remember thinking about how that must feel, doing something you love, for a lengthy amount of time. It’s been over 25 years since that Clapton anniversary and now the feeling of doing what I love has become a reality. I’m not sure how long I’ve been making music, but it’s well past 25 years with no sign of slowing down. I know I’ve been blessed to do what I’ve always wanted to do, but there comes a time when I take it for granted. Recently, there have been memorable people and friends in my life who’ve passed on. Each one becomes a wakeup call. While attending a memorial for a musician friend and seeing familiar faces, I realized the importance of every moment . . . Lately, it’s been something I’ve tried to pay more attention to. If there’s something you love doing, do it, until it can no longer be done. Try reconnecting with friends.”
It’s definitely time to tip the hat to the New York bluesman after 25 years of playing professionally. If you are unfamiliar with this stellar artist, take some time to get to know Adam Falcon as his career continues to ascend.