Adeem the Artist at the Raccoon Motel -- December 9.
Saturday, December 9, 8 p.m.
Raccoon Motel, 315 East Second Street, Davenport IA
With their 2022 album White Trash Revelry lauded by Glide magazine as "a deeply satisfying mix of songs," country singer/songwriter and North Carolina native Adeem the Artist headlines a December 9 concert event at Davenport's Raccoon Motel, their most recent recording also hailed by PopMatters for the "authentic empathy that permeates this album and lends genuine gravity to the songs held within."
Born in Locust, North Carolina in 1988 and a resident of Syracuse, New York, at age 12, Adeem the Artist, who also performs under the name Adeem Maria, began performing on cruise ships in their 20s. They eventually moved to Knoxville, Tennessee, with the intent of being a pastor, but later abandoned the plan and began recording music. In 2016, they performed tribute shows for John Prine and Joni Mitchell in Knoxville, and in 2021, after releasing several independent albums on Bandcamp, Adeem released the album Cast-Iron Pansexual. Adeem largely funded the album through Patreon and wrote most of its songs in 2020, and they premiered its tracks on the Web site Audio Femme that March.
Rolling Stone editors Jon Freeman and Joseph Hudak selected the title track of Cast-Iron Pansexual as a "pick of the week" after the album's release, stating that the song "stakes out their place as a born Southerner armed with a radical outlook and a brain that won't just ease up." American Songwriter described Adeem as having a "scruffy timbre," while the editors of this site also praised "I Wish You Would've Been a Cowboy," a response to Toby Keith's 1993 hit "Should've Been a Cowboy." Adeem co-wrote the song, which is critical of Keith's patriotism, with Palestinian-American poet Summer Awad. Steve Wildsmith of The Daily Times wrote that the album had a "rich currency of exploration, past-life condemnation and present-day illumination."
Following the success of this album, the artist began touring with American Aquarium in 2021, while the following April, Adeem signed with Thirty Tigers after contacting the label's owner on Twitter. They announced plans to release their first album for the label later in the year, with "Middle of a Heart" also released from the album in October of 2022, followed by "Run This Town" a month later. Their first Thirty Tigers album White Trash Revelry was released last December, and earlier this year, Adeem the Artist was nominated for Emerging Act of the Year at the Americana Music Honors & Awards.
Adeem the Artist plays their Davenport engagement with additional sets by Disco Doom and Scott Stowe, admission to the 8 p.m. concert is $15, and tickets are available by visiting TheRaccoonMotel.com.
