INDY'S WEEKLY ALTERNATIVE NEWSPAPER HIGHLIGHTING ARTS, ENTERTAINMENT AND SOCIAL JUSTICE

Art Adams: 1959 rockabilly

Born in Carollton, Ky., into a family of musicians, rockabilly legend Art Adams moved to Bean Blossom, Ind., when he was 6 years old. In the summers, he would ride his bike and watch the old-time pickers like Bill Monroe, who influenced early rock ’n’ roll. After his family moved to Indianapolis in 1949, Adams formed the Rhythm Knights, a rockabilly band now famous for blistering twin guitar leads.
“Rockabilly was a lifestyle,” Adams says. “We wore jeans rolled up and duck-tail haircuts. Some of the guys even used Vaseline on our hair. T-shirts were rolled up with cigarettes. They do the same dances now that we did back then.”

Inspired by Elvis and a trip to Memphis, Tenn., Adams started to write his own songs. He was introduced to the owner of Cherry Records by a friend and wound up cutting two 45-rpm records for the label — Indian Joe/Rock Crazy Baby (Cherry #1004) in 1959 and Dancing Doll/She Don't Live Here No More (Cherry #1018/1019) in 1960.

“The songs have good words and the band was really cookin’. I’ve met a lot of young bands and some of them have a tough time figuring that out,” he says. “Some of them say that’s the best guitar breaks they’ve ever heard.”

Despite the success of these two singles, Adams quit the music business in 1968. Little did he know that during the next 30 years, copies of Rock Crazy Baby would circulate around the world, making him an underground legend.

Local music aficionado Larry Goshen was the first one to show Adams his records were selling for hundreds of dollars. But Adams didn’t start playing again until he got a call from a Las Vegas promoter.

“I was kind of nervous and I was thinking, ‘What am I doing?!’ I called a couple of my buddies and asked them if they wanted to go to Vegas,” Adams says. “In the meantime, I started to receive a lot of calls from Europe. That’s kind of how I got back into it.”

Since 2003, Adams has been going strong. He has released three CDs: Rock Crazy Baby, Rockin’ My Way Around and, most recently, Dancing Doll (Flying Saucer Records). Since his return to the rockabilly scene, Adams has played to packed crowds in England, France and Spain.

As one of the few original rockabilly artists still playing today, Adams has become an in-demand performer in today’s new rockabilly scene. The rolled-up jeans and the ducktail haircuts may be the same, but a few things have changed.

“Back then, they thought we played the devil’s music and we were going to corrupt people,” he says. “But you don’t hear that much anymore. Back then, they wouldn’t show Elvis from the waist down!”

Today, Adams is backed by Mark Cutsinger (drums), Danny Thompson (lead guitar) and Mike Strauss (bass).