Artist Guide

Adrian Bagher (The New Generation Southern Soul)

#24 ranked Southern Soul Artist

"Let Me Take Care Of You"

Adrian Bagher (The New Generation Southern Soul)

(Originally published in Daddy B. Nice's CD Reviews).

October 1, 2023:

ADRIAN BAGHER: ISM (Shoebox Money Entertainment) Five Stars ***** Can't Miss. Pure Southern Soul Heaven.

The Louisiana Blues Brothas' Love On The Bayou was published in 2014, almost a decade ago. The Brothas were Big Pokey Bear, Tyree Neal and Adrian Bagher. The album spawned "My Sidepiece," one of the most extraordinary singles in the genre's history, and Pokey Bear took it to the bank as a single artist. (The group broke up after their only album.)

Meanwhile, "Around The Corner," Adrian Bagher's first single, debuted in 2013, and Grown Folks Business, his first album, was released in 2015. Since then Bagher has done nothing but steadily hone his craft, releasing quality singles---"Around The Corner," "Don't Blame It On Jody," "Willing And Able," "Dirty," "Let Me Take Care Of You," "If You Want To Leave," "Ride With Me"---routinely amassing millions of views on YouTube and making Bagher a southern soul touring star, albeit with far less fanfare than his more famous Brotha Pokey Bear. His burgeoning catalog has also made Adrian the 24th-ranked artist on Daddy B. Nice's latest top one-hundred artist chart, The New Generation of Southern Soul.

All of the effort has paid off. Adrian's third full-length release, ISM (an acronym for "I'm soul music" as Bagher explains in the disc's intro) is splendid. This is a collection that's extremely easy to listen to, with an astonishing lack of filler for what amounts to a double album (17 tracks).

Melodies abound. Production is sure-handed---never repetitive or boring---and the variety is impressive. One minute you're enthralled with a tune like "Fallin' For You," a mid-tempo gem given extra "edge" with a bounce-style, voice-over. The next minute you're in the celestial ether with a tune like "If Heaven Had A Phone" (shortened to "Heaven Phone" in the credits), a tribute to Bagher's deceased mother done with eyebrow-raising sensitivity and universality. "Out Of Space" is so melodious one can't resist singing along.

The set showcases a contemplative and romantic---also parental---Bagher, arguably reaching its apex in the uplifting "If This World Were Mine," an anthem to the family complete with Lenny Williams-style "Oh-oh-oh-oh-ohhhs". But there are also sexual romps like "Hittin' It Right" and club-style fare like "Woman And My Whiskey". The thread uniting all of the music, whether upbeat or down-low, is the attention to musical detail. Whether the head-turning balladS "Privacy" or "You're Mine" or the bounce-inflected mid-tempo excursion "Falling For You," the mix of outstanding production and personable, guy-next-door vocalizing offers a scintillating primer in a new-and-better, "clean" and "fresh" southern soul sound.

--Daddy B. Nice

Listen to all the tracks from ISM on YouTube.

Buy Adrian Bagher's new ISM album at Apple.

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P.O. Box 19574
Boulder, Colorado 80308
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September 23, 2023:

NEW ALBUM ALERT!:

Buy Adrian Bagher's new ISM album at Apple.

ISM TRACK LIST:

1. Radio Intro

2. You're Mine

3. It's Good

4. Say My Name (feat. Quisy G)

5. Woman And My Whiskey

6. Tell On Yourself

7. Understanding Love

8. Man Cry (feat. B. Berry)

9. If This World Were Mine

10. Hittin' It Right

11. Heaven Phone

12. The Pull Up (Skit)

13. Privacy

14. Fallin' For You

15. Out Of Space

16. My Place

17. 9 O'Clock

Daddy B. Nice notes:

ISM stands for "I'm Soul Music," according to Adrian Bagher in the opening track of his generous (17 tracks) new album comprised of entirely fresh music. The set showcases a contemplative and romantic Bagher, arguably reaching its apex in the uplifting "If This World Were Mine," complete with Lenny Williams-style "Oh-oh-oh-oh-ohhhs". But there are also sexual odes like "Hittin' It Right" and club-style fare like "Woman And My Whiskey".

This is a collection that's extremely easy to listen to. Melodies abound. Production is sure-handed---never repetitive or boring--and the variety is impressive. One minute you're enthralled with a tune like "Fallin' For You," a mid-tempo gem given extra "edge" with a bounce-style, voice-over accompaniment. The next minute you've cast if off like an old boy or girlfriend for a tune like "If Heaven Had A Phone" (shortened to "Heaven Phone" in the credits), a tribute to a deceased mother. "Out Of Space" is so melodious one can't resist singing along. For what amounts to a double album there is an astonishing lack of filler.

Listen to all the tracks from Adrian Bagher's new ISM album on YouTube.

Listen to the official video of "If Heaven Had A Phone" on YouTube.

Buy Adrian Bagher's new ISM album at Apple.

See the chart.

Listen to Adrian Bagher and Coldrank singing "Let Me Take Care Of You" on YouTube.

October 22, 2022: Daddy B Nice's Profile

There are conflicting accounts of Adrian Bagher's name (Bagher or Williams?) and origins, but they generally put his birth date in the late seventies to early eighties in the southern Mississippi village of Magnolia along the I-55 corridor half-way between Jackson MS and Baton Rouge. Adrian's father Willie was a blues music-loving gospel singer and his mother Sarah a soul music-loving housewife.

Originally posted in Daddy B. Nice's May 2013 Top Ten Southern Soul Singles as "Come Around This Corner (99 Problems I Can Help You Solve)" by Adrian (the information given Daddy B. Nice via phone after first hearing the debut single on local Jackson, Mississippi radio station WMPR) "Around The Corner" went on to become an enthusiastic #16-ranked song of the year 2013 and the first of many multi-million-viewed Adrian Bagher tunes on YouTube.

Over the next five years, from about 2013-18, Adrian Bagher became one of the most oft-recorded and oft-accoladed artists on the southern soul circuit, dropping not only his popular, hit-laden, southern soul album "Grown Folks Business" but joining Wardell Brown (Big Pokey Bear) and the late, legendary Jackie Neal's cousin Tyree Neal in the Beat Flippa-produced albums The Louisiana Blues Brothas: Love On The Bayou and I Got The Blues: Volumes 1 and 2. At a time when southern soul music, primarily produced in Memphis and Jackson, had "plateaued" with the passing of stars like Johnnie Taylor, Tyrone Davis and Marvin Sease, this Baton Rouge-based resurgence raised the marketing expectations of southern soul music beyond anything previously dreamed of, and Adrian Bagher was in the very eye of its tornado-like creativity.

Listen to Adrian Bagher singing "Let's Do It" from Beat Flippa's "I Love The Blues Vol. 1" with new star Veronica Ra'elle and Queen of Gulf Coast southern soul Big Cynthia shortly before her passing.

In 2018 Bagher took his skills to an even higher level, reuniting with Baton Rouge's other great southern soul producer, Charles Lewis (Highway Heavy), with whom he'd worked on "My Sidepiece" as a Blues Brotha. One of their first collaborations was the YouTube sensation (14 million views and counting) "Let Me Take Care Of You" (feat Coldrank). This fan-embraced single became the heart of 2019's Willing And Able, Bagher's second full-length southern soul album. Even more successful than "Grown Folks Business," the new album spawned hit singles in "Don't Blame It On Jody," "Willing And Able," "Take Care Of You" and "Dirty".

Bagher's specialty is real-life, documentary-like, highly-emotional messages. In song after song he tackles subject matter that even the most intrepid singer/songwriters tend to avoid: discussing a wife's infidelity with a son ("If You Want To Leave"), making a move on a female neighbor abused by her partner ("Around The Corner"), discovering a wife's secret affair is lesbian in nature ("Don't Blame It On Jody") and scolding a lazy wife ("Willing And Able"). His vocal style is at once effortless and dramatically convincing, delivered in street-wise, homeboy patois in an almost whiny but never grating tenor. His passionate opus "Let Me Take Care Of You," is the unapologetic boasting of a taking-care-of-the-bills, feet-on-the-ground man doing his best to woo his sweetheart. It's a voice that commands attention and holds up with anyone in the business, as can be witnessed when Bagher comes in for the final verse of "Thank God It's Friday," following (among others) the great Pokey Bear. The jam not only doesn't falter; it picks up and soars.

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For discography, album alerts and reviews, YouTube selections and contemporaneous reports on Adrian Bagher, scroll down this page. To automatically link to his charted radio singles, awards, CD's and other citations on the website, go to "Adrian Bagher" in Daddy B. Nice's Comprehensive Index.
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--Daddy B. Nice

About Adrian Bagher (The New Generation Southern Soul)

Adrian Bagher's Chart History at Daddy B. Nice's Southern Soul RnB:

Daddy B. Nice's Top 10 "BREAKING" Southern Soul Singles Review For. . .

MAY 2013

7. "Come Around This Corner"-------------Adrian

This is one of those raw young artists I just love to discover--the continuing lifeblood of the genre. The rather startling lyrics include:

"Heard him fussing in the back room
While I was trying to sleep.
Heard you crying in the bathroom
Like you just got beat.

I ain't no nosy neighbor,
But...."

Heard it--where else?--at WMPR, where you'll have to request it for the near future. No release yet.

Listen to Adrian singing "Come Around This Corner on YouTube.

Daddy B. Nice notes:

Adrian was a nominee for:

Daddy B. Nice's Best Out Of Left-Field Songs 2013
Daddy B. Nice’s Top 25 Southern Soul Songs Of 2013
Daddy B. Nice's Best Male Vocalists 2013
Daddy B. Nice's Best Debuts 2013

Daddy B. Nice's Top 10 "BREAKING" Southern Soul Singles Review For. . .

-------NOVEMBER 2014--------

5. "Pickin' These Blues Away"-------The Louisiana Blues Brothas featuring Tyree Neal

Tyree may be "pickin'" these blues, but what makes this song special is the beautiful harmony of the live horns. The Louisiana Blues Brothas are Tyree Neal, Pokey and Adrian Bagher.

Listen to The Louisiana Blues Brothas featuring Tyree Neal singing "Pickin' These Blues Away" (preceding the song "Who You With") on YouTube.

Buy "Pickin' These Blues Away" mp3 on the LOVE ON THE BAYOU compilation CD from the Louisiana Blues Brothas.

Daddy B. Nice's Top 10 "BREAKING" Southern Soul Singles Review For. . .

-------DECEMBER 2014--------

8. "Who You With"-------Louisiana Blues Brothers

How about a little southern soul super-group action? Tyree Neal, Adrian Bagher and Pokey are the Louisiana Blues Brothers, with their second charting in two months. I especially like Pokey--he's got a lot of Reggie P. in him.

Listen to the Louisiana Blues Brothers singing "Who You With" on YouTube.

Sample/Buy the Louisiana Blues Brothers' "Who You With" mp3 or LOVE ON THE BAYOU CD.

Daddy B. Nice's Top 10 "BREAKING" Southern Soul Singles Preview For. . .

-------JULY 2015---------

2. "T.G.I.F. (Thank God It's Friday)"-----Pokey featuring Vince Hutchinson & Adrian Bagher

Put on your marching shoes, dancers, and put those arms and hands high in the air. Reach for your inner mojo and prance to the finest club anthem to come down the pike since Big Yayo's "Cowgirl" in January.

Listen to Pokey & Friends singing "T.G.I.F." on YouTube.

Buy Pokey's "T.G.I.F." on the BEAT FLIPPA I GOT THE BLUES, VOL. 1 CD.

Daddy B. Nice's Top 10 "BREAKING" Southern Soul Singles Preview For. . .

----------AUGUST 2015------------

2. "Let's Do It"-----Adrian Bagher, Veronica Ra'elle & Big Cynthia

T.K. Soul always liked to be known as the "boy boy". "Bad boy" is evident in the vivid story-telling of Adrian Bagher's very first, Jackson, Mississippi-based hit, "Around The Corner (99 Problems I Can Help You Solve)." Here in "Let's Do It"--from the highly entertaining BEAT FLIPPA: I GOT THE BLUES album--Adrian comes off like the ghost of Little Richard, blazing a new rock and roll frontier.

Listen to Adrian Badger and friends singing "Let's Do It" on YouTube.

Buy Adrian Badger's "Let's Do It" mp3 on the BEAT FLIPPA: I GOT THE BLUES album.

January 12, 2017:

Adrian Bagher Begins 2017 w/ #1 Single "Dirty"!

Daddy B. Nice's Top 10 "BREAKING" Southern Soul Singles Preview For. . .

-------JANUARY 2017-------

1. "Dirty"------Adrian Bagher

Great dance jam. In just the first few bars, with its hiphop sheen and rhythm-track "fullness," you know it's either Beat Flippa or--as it turns out--Heavy (aka Highway Heavy), Charles Lewis of "Sidepiece" and "Three" fame on the production. And doing the singing is the kid your Daddy B. Nice has been waiting to break out--a guy who's intent on expressing emotions most people won't touch--the deserving Adrian Bagher.

Listen to Adrian Bagher singing "Dirty" on YouTube.

See Daddy B. Nice's Top 10 "BREAKING" Southern Soul Singles Preview For. . .

-------JANUARY 2017-------

....TO BE CONTINUED.....UNDER CONSTUCTION......

Tidbits

October 16, 2022