Our Artist To Watch for July is a wonderful new musician named Adia Victoria. We recently began to play the song “Dead Eyes” from her debut album, Beyond The Bloodhounds.

I went to see her perform on Monday at Johnny Brendas and was blown away by her show, from her charismatic performance and confident stage presence, to the interaction she had with the audience, and the way she weaves her love of the blues and her Southern upbringing into a unique mix of electric blues, garage and punk flavored rock, and dark roots and R&B. There’s a spooky ambience to her music, and she’s been influenced by Fiona Apple and blues singer and songwriter Victoria Spivey. Born in South Carolina and raised in the Seventh Day Adventist church, (her mom is from Philly and her dad is from Trinidad), the now-based-in-Nashville singer-songwriter is onto something very musically unique.