Album Review: Beyond the Bloodhounds by Adia Victoria

A vivid crossroads of punk, blues, garage, and folk mark the arresting debut from Nashville's Adia Victoria. A native of South Carolina raised in a strict Seventh Day Adventist household, her relationship with the Deep South is as complicated as the place itself. The album's title, Beyond the Bloodhounds, is taken from Harriet Jacobs' compelling 1861 autobiographical novel Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, and Victoria's defiant songs whip up a bitter wind howling with themes of race, religion, and her own personal narrative of escaping and then returning to the South.

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As any woman will readily tell you, our emotions are constantly subjected to public scrutiny. We’re told to “Smile, baby!” We’re reprimanded for being crazy if we seem too angry or too excited. We talk about “ugly crying,” as if we must apologize for our grief not being romantic or beautiful enough. If we talk about our frustrations or feelings too much, we’re dismissed as fretful, overemotional, or just plain bitchy.

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