Jody Adams

b. 26 March 1958, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA. Adams’ father, Elmer, was a square-dance fiddler and introduced his son to the instrument at the early age of two. By the time he was six, he was playing fiddle, banjo and mandolin and singing with his father at local venues. After completing high school, where he played in two bluegrass bands, he joined the Arbuckle Mountain Boys, whose leader Don Thomas proved a great inspiration to him. In 1975, he was voted Best Bluegrass Mandolin Player by the Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass Music. With little idea of exactly what he wanted from life, he served his apprenticeship with various groups before spending five years as a musician with the US Air Force. He relocated to the Air Force Academy at Colorado Springs, where he played with Wild Blue Country, the Air Force’s leading band. Here, he met his future wife, Sandra, and with her encouragement and advice, realized that his future lay in country music. After his discharge, guest appearances on the Grand Ole Opry andNashville Network’s shows, led to regular work with Opryland and Alabama. Finally, deciding that the songs of his youth and the heritage of the past were more important to him, he returned to Colorado, where, performing his own songs in a fairly traditional country rather than bluegrass style, he pursued a solo career. He defined Heartache Hangover as a musical time capsule relating his travails during what he described as his ‘aimless’ years.