A New Year, A New Album For The Adults

By Kendra Bobowick

Local musicians The Adults are starting 2012 with Karmic Relief, a new CD of original songs. It is their seventh recording.

Describing the sound as “running the gamut” from surf-rock instrumental to moody to straight-ahead rock, Newtown resident Jim Sheridan explained in a press release this month, “This new CD is further proof of what the grown-ups have to offer.”

In a recent interview, Mr Sheridan, one of the band’s founding members, said listeners “can expect an eclectic set of rock songs that have the earthy vibe of The Band, Wilco, the Grateful Dead, and the Rolling Stones, put in a blender in Newtown and set on full power.”

In addition to Mr Sheridan on vocals and guitar, The Adults are Mark Iannucci on bass, Chris Grennan on drums, and Gene Tiernan on drums.

Thinking about the all-original play list on Karmic Relief, Mr Sheridan noted an underlying theme: “An idea that bubbled up throughout the songs quite unconsciously is feeling the squeeze of all of the conflicts of modern day life and middle age, but then laughing at it all,” he said.  “Despite getting older, we don’t necessarily get wiser, and all you can do is laugh at that.” With thinking that he borrowed from author Kurt Vonnegut, Mr Sheridan agreed, “It beats crying about it.”

Extending that concept to the CD, he said, “So, the title song “Karmic Relief” is a play on comic relief – we need a break from all of the woes around us, preferably a humorous break.”

What’s In A Song?

Mr “With this CD, I think we learned to keep songs tight and not too self-indulgent, even though I personally prefer long, self-indulgent jams,” said Mr Sheridan.

Describing several songs, he said “This Town,” the new album’s second track, is a “catalog of blues clichés set in a town that has no Mississippi-style blues culture but still offers the chance to feel blue.”

One of his favorite songs is “Hiding in the Light,” which he wrote about his wife Lisa.

“I am often too stupid to realize that I have someone there to help me with my concerns, and she’s right there hiding in the light,” he explained.

Another favorite, “Free Yourself From The Madness,” is derived from a longstanding graffiti phrase scrawled on the train bridge over Botsford Hill Road. The instrumental track closes the CD out, he said. “And it fits.”

He said, “Some wise fool spray-painted ‘Free Yourselves from this Madness’ years ago. It always intrigued me,” said the musician. “It fits with the idea that a bit of humor and some friendship and love can help anyone out of whatever madness is there. Of course, sometimes friendship, love, and humor are the madness!”

Offering a taste of his lyrics, Mr Sheridan said, “Ain’t no levee, ain’t no red house in this town. No mojo, no John the Conquerer root. But we’ve got seven bars, lovers sleeping in their cars. Damn right you know we’ve got the blues.”

Mr Sheridan wrote all of the lyrics and basic chord progressions on the CD, “but the band really makes each song something different as each person adds his own parts.”

Guitarist Pete Grennan plays three fourths of the lead guitar. Mr Iannucci and Mr Sheridan started playing together as an acoustic duo around 1997, and went electric three years later. The two built up a repertoire and began performing as an acoustic duo called The Screaming Adults. But the name was misleading.

“Reading the name in the paper frightened some potential listeners off, so we shortened it to The Adults.”

Proud Mary’s, the lounge at The Inn at Newtown, was one of the first venues where they performed. The Adults remained an acoustic duo until 1999.

The Iannucci-Sheridan duo first put together four CDs that were “pretty much just the two of us, overdubbing drums etc,” Mr Sheridan said. The full band has since completed three additional CDs: Adult Swim (2006), Smells Like Glue (2009), and now Karmic Relief.

The Adults now perform regularly in local venues both as a full band and acoustic duo. Upcoming shows are planned for Saturday, January 21, at 9 pm, at The Redding Roadhouse; Thursday, February 2, at 8 pm, when they host an open mic night at The One-Eyed Pig, 71 South Main Street in Newtown; and Friday, February 3, at 9 pm, at the Old Post Tavern in Fairfield.

Karmic Relief is available at CDBaby.com/cd/theadults, on Amazon.com, and at shows. Learn more about The Adults at MySpace.com/TheAdultsRock or on Facebook.