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Terry Adams has a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Tennessee and a Doctorate of Jurisprudence from the University of Memphis School of Law. Terry has worked as a consultant to candidates for United States Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives, as an actor, and as an artist.
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I was born in Music City USA, Nashville, Tennessee. My Mom met my Dad while singing at the Driftwood lounge. My Dad was part owner in the honky tonk that was home to Charlie Daniels, Bobby Williams, and my Mom, Shirley (Woods) Adams. My Mom instilled in me a passion for live, original music. A singer songwriter herself, (she had hits with Connie Smith and Jean Shepard) she would sit in the kitchen playing original tunes with her pickin’ buddies, occasionally kicking a little Jim Croce or Emmylou Harris. My Dad liked Elvis and the Beatles, but he LOVED Johnny Cash. I was taught to do the same. As a child my father took me to see Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, and the Highwaymen. Yes, I was surely baptized into great American music. As a teen I found a common thread between the music I was born into and the music that haunted the radio waves of the 80's. Springsteen, John Cougar, and Tom Petty were the staples of my musical diet that included nearly every genre of music. I listed to rap, pop, soul, funk, rock, heavy metal, country, and jazz, but I was always drawn to intensely personal, lyric driven music. In college at the University of Tennessee I used to see Tall Paul at the Library on the Cumberland Avenue strip. It was those Monday nights that ignited a passion to learn to play, and that I did. My Mom loaned my an old Gibson J-50 and I sat down with the Dwight Yoakum CD, If There Was a Way, and songbook and learned to play and sing every song. Throughout every adventure I have undertaken, this musical past has always been with me. This past, these influences, permeate my creative process and are prevalent in my music. My Mom and Dad were working class folks, and I was a working class kid. This music is a testament to them, my Mom, my Dad, and that kid. |
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