Angel’s Farewell Letter

March 10th, 2011 Angel 1 comment

The FIRST Eric and the Adams poster BEFORE we were            Eric and the Adams

 

At the news of us finally deciding to end Eric and the Adams, I was quite hearbroken.  I completely understood why and the necessity of it but I was flooded with so many happy thoughts that I knew would never be manifested again except only in my mind.

We have had so many amazing moments together, the boys and me.  Four years of playing music together, three of which were as Eric and the Adams.  Something of which I will always be proud.

There are countless stories that I’m so glad we documented on video (http://www.youtube.com/user/ThumbcrownRecords) so many laughs…and tears.  We shared SO much of our lives together.  BUT, that wasn’t the first thing I thought when the words “it’s over” were spoken.  I immediately thought of all the people who got us to where we are today.  The letters, the messages, the gifts, the encouragement, the screams and cheers from the crowds.  I will never forget this time of my life.  I cherish the friendships that I made on the road and along the way.  I am better because of your genorosity, your hospitality and your spirits.  I wish that I had the room to name all the people who made a difference in me…from all across the United States.  Howard, Kyla, KP, Deke, Emily, Adam, Michael, Peter, Kristi, Tim, Lionel, Levi, Courtney, Casey, Cas, the boys, Heather…oh my gosh…this list could go on forever.  I am so very grateful to you all.

With the change, other budding projects will be springing to life.  I know that the boys and I will always be writing music…I will be working diligently to get my songs out there.  I started my design and marketing company…you can find me at www.messenger-media.com (and keep following on twitter and Facebook) AND of course, some of the best news is that I have a baby on the way.  I will be sharing my new addition with the world at the end of July…it’s unbelievable how things work out.

SO, with all that, I want more than anything for the friends of Eric and the Adams to know, Thank You for some of the best years of my life.

Thank You so much for everything!

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My EATA Farewell letter:)

March 10th, 2011 Eric 2 comments

Hey there:) Eric here.

Just wanted to put my thoughts out to everyone who has been awesome and has followed Eric and the Adams since the beginning when we started playing. You may have noticed recently on our FB pages that we announced tonight, Thursday the 10th of March at The Hunt Club 9pm, will be our last show together as Eric and the Adams. That is correct. With life moving us in different directions, I just want to thank everyone who has followed/helped/booked/ took care of/designed a website for/took pics of this fun band of ours as EATA sails into the sunset. Angel and Jimmy have made our time together as Eric and the Adams a super fun time playing live for me and I will miss those moments. I am really lucky to have made long standing friendships with them and those who have listened/ kept up with us. I will continue to support them in whatever they put their time and energy into because I know they have great things to offer the world:).

I will be going back to releasing solo CD’s as I have the past 10 years. I am working on it right now, but will be releasing my 7th studio CD, Supposed Unknown around May of this year. I took some time to spend with my friend/singer/songwriter, Namoli Brennet, (an amazing songwriter) in Tucson, AZ these past few months writing and recording new songs and figuring out the next step for me in music. This time together produced 12 new songs for this new CD that was later mastered by an awesome mastering guy, Chris Bellman who mastered some of my most influential discs (Ani DiFranco’s Dilate, Alanis Morrisette’s Jagged Little Pill, and more).

I hope you will stick by all three of us as we find our new paths and again, thank you for being a part of this journey with us:).

~Eric

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ERIC AND THE ADAMS – 2010

December 30th, 2010 Angel No comments

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Hey everyone…and I do mean EVERYONE! This is Angel and I’ve been sitting here at my desk (my day job) just going over all the amazing experiences we’ve had together this year. I have been blessed beyond measure.

As much as we love to rock, the boys and I have had our faces rocked off by all the love and support that you all have shown us this past year. And for that, I have immeasurable gratitude. As many of us do, we are settling in for a time of introspect and reflection. I know that our dream is to touch and change the lives of people through our experiences and music…so, we are diving in head first to bring you the best of what we hold deep down inside.
But before our next step, I didn’t want to make another move without sharing our gratitude and at the least, say thank you. SO, THANK YOU!! THANK YOU!! THANK YOU!! for making Eric and the Adams the band it is today!
WE LOVE YOU!

Now, for a trip down memory lane….hahahahaha…some of these STILL make me crack up. :)

It Gets Better.

The most recent – Eric’s segment on Explore Tulsa

Tulsa Pride

Fun on the streets. :)

A little GaGa

Every Move

Keeper of Your Secret

THANK YOU!
Thank You.

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IT GETS BETTER!!

October 6th, 2010 Angel No comments

I have to say that I am SO encouraged by my friends and those around me who are standing up and speaking out. We HAVE to do something to let every kid in America know that no matter what they are going through that, “This too shall pass”. Things get better. I wanted to make sure this video of Eric and some of our friends make it into your house. Share it with EVERYONE you know. We love you. All of you. Trust this and know that things can change and we can make a difference.


It Gets Better

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IT’S HERE! Eric and the Adams official music video for “Keeper of the Secret”!

September 12th, 2010 Eric No comments

Check out this brand new music video for Eric and the Adams song, “Keeper of the Secret” off our 5 song EP!
It is directed by Tulsa videographer, Kelly Kerr with the help of Steve Nance from Integrity Lighting and Sound on staging and lights!! These guys did an awesome job and psyched for you to check it out above! Let us know what you think through Twitter (@EricandtheAdams, Facebook (www.facebook.com/ericandtheadams), or direct email: ericandtheadams@gmail.com!

~Eric

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We were on the CBS Sunday Morning Show for our SXSW gig!!!

September 6th, 2010 Eric No comments

Thanks to our lovely organizer/travel agent (for our Frozen In The Sun Cruise in Jan 11′!!), Debbi Sturch, for catching us in this segment from the CBS Sunday Morning show yesterday!! She said she did a double take and even took a pic to verify it was us playing live. Apparently, CBS was taping for this segment about the Austin music industry event, South By Southwest, and since Eric and the Adams were there performing this past March for it, we ended up in the segment performing here and there. VERY COOL!!!!! Check it out above:).

~Eric

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Oklahoma Center for Community and Justice Musician’s Campaign vid!

August 5th, 2010 Eric No comments

Hey there!

Just got back from an awesome press conference at Dilly Deli in Tulsa, OK! This group, OCCJ (stands for Oklahoma Center for Community and Justice) asked me and a bunch of other Oklahoma based musicians to take part in a video campaign to reach more folks about their mission to stand up against bigotry, racism, and hate. Such an amazing cause and group, that I had to be a part!!! I even performed my song, “We Are The Same” that you can see in this video ad done by Eric and the Adams videographer (he did our music video for “Every Move” with photographer, Jeremy Charles). Check it out and thanks for watching!:

Oklahoma Center for Community and Justice from Kelly Kerr on Vimeo.

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TWO EXCITING THINGS: ERIC CD and CRUISE UPDATE!

August 3rd, 2010 Eric No comments

Happy August to everyone!! Hope everyone is staying indoors to get some air conditioning under these high temps.

I just wanted to jump on here with two updates!

ONE: I have been taking piano lessons and learning by playing my guitar songs from my solo CD’s. It has been a lot of fun and a reason to revisit some of these older tunes. I have decided to put out a new CD this fall of my older songs performed soley by myself with just piano and vocals. The cover of the new disc is above and called, “Out With The Old”. It will be released late Fall right before the holidays. The cover pic was taken by Kelly Kerr, graphic design by Angel Adams, and thanks to Brad G. for selling me his old piano for cheap,ha. To help raise funds for this, I am selling RESONATE and my older available CDs for $5 (plus tax and shipping)!!! I will sign them and send them to you. Pick them up on the merch page of this website now:).

TWO:

Our big Eric and the Adams Frozen in the Sun Carnival Cruise to Mexico is now just six months away! We are filling up and still have great rates that are lower than others! Give Debbi Sturch at First World Travel a buzz to book it before it sold out!:) Check out the info above in the poster that Angel made (she rocks, doesn’t she?!).

That is all I got for now! Hope to catch our Chicago-ans this Saturday for Market Days at 6:15pm (Brompton Stage).

PEACE!
~Eric

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My Thoughts about the Right and the Left.

July 15th, 2010 Angel 11 comments

I wanted to share with you all a brief journal entry from this past Spring.  My heart was heavy and I wrote some things down that I have carried with me for years.  I thought I would share with you all…in the hope that if any of you have experienced familiar things you would know that you’re not alone:

 I have to trust that as every year recycles, spring brings new life to us.  This spring, however, has been a puzzling one.  Within its early presence, loss of life has come to pass.  The idea of losing those dear to me and those around me is contrary to what has characteristically been a time of new growth and regeneration.  For me, winter is my usual time for reflection and writing but unexpectedly, I have been consumed with introspection.  As my Mom would say, “a quiet hush” has come over me.

For the families that lost loved ones these past few weeks, their loss is insurmountable.  For the rest of us, we die a little each day.  We lose little pieces of ourselves.  Sometimes, we give those pieces up.  Sometimes, they are taken from us.  As for now, my attention has been focused on those who are living. I try to grasp the perspective and the mindset of the ones who take.

I don’t typically step into the arena of politics.  I am amused by most people who fervently “discuss” their belief systems.  It has been my determination that the “far right” and the “far left” could in fact be the very same people.  Sometimes, I think that they have gone so extreme that they have gone full circle and bumped into each other, standing side by side with their fists in the air.

In my experience, people who vehemently profess “open-mindedness” are usually the most close-minded.  My eyes were widely opened to the “left” during a trip to NYC.  I was in a room full of liberal, lesbian, feminists…surely THEY would be open-minded…or at least appreciate diversity enough to allow for multiple belief systems and opinions.  This however was not the case.  I was told to “step out of my little Oklahoma box and look around to see the real world”.  Now, I got quiet in this situation because I quickly resolved the fact that despite their preaching of open arms and individuality, I was not safe to share my thoughts or opinions.  I also resolved that this person who quickly shut me down, did not deserve to know the “whys” of what brought me to my place of thinking.  Nor did she deserve to know me.  More importantly, I don’t deserve to be mistreated based on who I am.  Unbeknownst to this girl, I had stepped out of my “little Oklahoma box”.  At the time, I had lived out of the country longer than I had lived in the country.  I had served communities of the diseased and downtrodden.  I fed the hungry, clothed the poor, treated the sick, built shelters for the homeless, comforted the orphaned, consoled the lonely and befriended the elderly.  I’ve seen humanity at its worst.  I saw with my own eyes what politics can do and for that matter, what it can’t do. 

As far as the extreme right goes, my experience had been unsurprisingly the same.  Instant judgment without knowing me or where I’ve come from.  Love is what most of the extreme right, conservative preach.  Love.  I learned my lesson in love years ago.  I was seventeen. I had dated boys…but I had developed close relationships with girls and at 17 was involved in my first same sex relationship.  After being castigated and sent through my first gay to straight program, the lesson I learned was that something was wrong with me and I was incapable of love.  By the standards of the modern church, “Homosexuals can’t have loving relationships”.  I am gay = I can’t have a loving relationship. Because I am incapable of loving, I can’t be loved.  I have had preachers call me an animal, tell me that I’m going to hell, tell me that my life will lead to nothing if it hasn’t already.  To them, there is no such thing as a Christian who is also Gay.  I have spent MANY years studying and deliberating the Bible and my life and where I’m at in my relationship with God.  “Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15).  What has been my discovery?  History holds the key and sometimes the answer to so many of humanity’s questions.  I have studied and I have my answer.  Does this mean that I have stopped seeking?  No.  I continue to press on and draw from the Solomons of our day, scholars, my God and my Savior.  Quite honestly, my struggle has never been with God.  He seemed to be the only one to constantly surround me.  My struggle has always been with other people…the church.  After going through 3 different gay to straight programs, being humiliated in front of my peers and asked to quit my “calling” of helping others I have come to learn that there has been a chasm created to separate God’s children.  God didn’t create it.  His children did.  God never intended this for us.  Love is love is love is love.   

I’m not saying that ALL liberals nor ALL Christians are this way but the people I described here are what I call the “takers”.  They have taken little pieces of me.  They take pieces of others.  They steal our humanity, our joy and our life experiences. I don’t have the capacity to understand why they do what they do.  I don’t understand how they have lost sight of compassion.

I am learning. I am learning to speak up for myself.  I am learning to speak out for myself.  I am learning to speak up for others.  I am learning to speak out for others.  I am learning.

Thanks for reading and allowing me to share some of my deeper self.  I so much appreciate all of you and your strength and bravery for living out loud. 

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This is a younger version of myself from 1993. I had traveled to Belarus and spent a few months with children who had been left ill and orphaned by the Chernobyl disaster.

~Angel

 

 

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THIS WEEKEND SHOWS in the NORTHEAST!

July 7th, 2010 Eric No comments

Well, here I am working from my desk like a mad person getting ready to pack up my things for tomorrow’s BIG HAUL to COLUMBUS, OHIO (for Thursday), PITTSBURGH, PA (For Friday), and PENN STATE-STATE COLLEGE, PA (for Saturday 8pm Allen St. Stage)!

Here are the two posters for the show!

Should be a fun time!!! SEE YOU ALL SOON!

~Eric

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