Stumbling across Oleta Adams' music is akin to discovering words like "fecund" and "segue." Once you're in on the secret, you find words like that everywhere.
Fans of Oleta Adams are everywhere, too.Adams recorded "Circle of One," her debut album, in London last year. The singer says she knew it wouldn't make a quick splash. "I knew my album wouldn't hit quickly because it isn't like anything else out there today. It's the kind of record that has to be discovered."
And this is a collection is worth discovering.
Even amidst the fickleness of the pop world, some albums forge bridges across musical genres. They're the kind of albums you start discovering in the music collections of just about everybody you know, the kind of songs you want to own, not just borrow. The kind of songs you'd adopt for the soundtrack of your own life.
In the big-voiced female singer category, Bonnie Raitt's "Nick of Time" was an album claiming that kind of power last year, while in 1988 it was Anita Baker's "Rapture." Now, there's Oleta Adams. Her offerings are are jazzy, soul-filled songs you want to hear again and again. Music you talk about. Or cut hair to, if my hairdresser is any indication.
Even if you haven't heard of Oleta Adams, you've probably heard her. Her single "Get Here," a stunning love song-cum-transportation commercial, soared into pop's top 10 earlier this year. A Los Angeles Times writer dubbed her version of the Brenda Russell song as one of the year's most satisfying hit singles.
The lyrics are creative and witty and plaintively passionate, a difficult triple combination to score. But the words are great because they're underlined by the rich power of Adams' big voice. "You can reach me by caravan, cross the desert like an errand man. I don't care how you get here. Just get here if you can."
Anyone who has ever been apart from a lover will feel these words. And the gulf war helped the popularity of this song about longing.
"You can reach me by sail boat, climb a tree and swing rope to rope, take a sled and slide down the slope, into these arms of mine."
And later: "You can wind surf into my life. Just get here when you can."
The rest of Adams' ballad-laced debut album "Circle of One" is just as satisfying. Varied, but constant. You can hear the gospel influence, the soul, the blues; Adams masterfully wraps it all together.
And if Oleta Adams' music isn't enough, you can love her for her discovery story. They make movies out of tales like this.
Adams, now in her 30s, grew up in Seattle and Yakima, Wash., the daughter of a Baptist minister. After classical training as a singer and pianist, in the 1970s, Adams struck out for Los Angeles to forge a pop career. That didn't happen, so she settled for local celebrity status singing in a Kansas City hotel lounge. She borrowed $5,000 to cut a demo record, but it took years for her to pay off the loan.
Over the years, stars ranging from George Benson to the rock group Yes discovered her voice while passing through Kansas City and offered to help her career. But in more than 20 years of broken career promises, nothing came through. Then in the early 1980s, the English group Tears for Fears heard Adams sing. Two years later they telephoned and asked her to sing background vocals on their album "Seeds of Love."
And it was the British group that persuaded PolyGram Records to give her a solo recording contract. That's what developed into "Circle of One."
Adams belts songs like "Everything Must Change" and "I've Got to Sing My Song" like she means them. She earned that singing her heart out for all those years out there in that heartland lounge.