"My Grandpa, Bill Lava, wrote music for movies and TV shows, so I sang my first demo for him at the age of 5. It was a tune he wrote for the Bugs Bunny show and I hear it every now and then on the Cartoon Network; he paid me off with a Martin ukulele that I still use sometimes in the studio. Grandpa Bill was the inspiration for my song "Grandpa's Advice" that's been featured on the CarTalk radio program and on their anthology CD. I've always been interested in a real variety of musical styles and, being born and raised in Los Angeles, I had the chance to try my hand at most of them. I think being adaptable like that has been really helpful to me. I've had the chance to sing in a country band with Albert Lee, with blues and R&B acts like Albert King & Hank Ballard, in Reverend James Cleveland's choir and I even got to work with the great jazz singer Diane Shur. L.A. is a music industry town, so I got my "chops" together doing commercials and sound-alikes for radio and TV; I even worked on a project with my friend Vonda Shepard as part of a girl background group that included Bonnie Raitt and Chaka Khan. Maybe it's because I started so early, but, instead of being intimidated by working with all those great people, I found it really inspiring, especially when I started writing my own songs."
Adie moved to Nashville in 1989 to pursue songwriting full time."This town is very supportive of people working on their own music, whatever the style, and a lot of the music that inspires me like blues and gospel, bluegrass and folk, comes from the south originally, so it only made sense to move here.
It's been a lot of fun so far; I've been on recording projects with Pam Tillis and Martina McBride and I've been able to get great people like Jo-El Sonnier, John Hartford and Wynonna Judd to come play on my records. Nashville is a town that's also full of people most folks have never heard of, but who are really as good as any musicians in the world, so you can't help but get better at playing music if you live here."
Since 1994, Adie has released 2 critically acclaimed albums; Brand New Old Time Music, which Sing Out said, "...sounds like few (if any) other singer-songwriter recordings, with it's refreshing old-fashioned approach, entertaining songs, and high quality musicianship" and Grandpa's Advice (which spent a summer on the Gavin Americana top 40 charts and was issued in the UK on Demon Records) were both co-produced with husband Dave MacKenzie for Hey Baby! Records.
Dave MacKenzie
Dave MacKenzie was born in St. Louis and went to school in Iowa, Colorado, Germany & Mississippi before graduating high school back in St. Louis. Inspired both by Elvis and the folk boom of the 50's, he got his first guitar at age 10, first heard the blues (a Lightnin' Hopkins record from the local public library) at age 11, and played his first professional gig at age 13 at an NCO club in Germany.
Dave moved to Chicago in 1972 and began working in local clubs, eventually ending up in larger concert venues as the warm up act for Muddy Waters, B.B. King, John Lee Hooker and dozens of other blues and rock 'n roll headliners.
In addition to his songwriting activities in L.A. (his tunes were cut by Soul, David Bromberg, gospel greats Edwin & Tremaine Hawkins and the rock band Jackal. Dave continued to do club and concert appearances and began to work as a studio musician, which led to his becoming a music producer for radio and TV commercials and to writing scores for independent films.
Dave moved to Nashville in '89, where he immediately began getting work in clubs and as a session player. After starting his own label, Hey Baby! Records, in '93, Dave put out 2 CDs: Rats in my Bedroom and All New Slender Man Blues. They were both nominated for Nashville Music Awards and received excellent reviews in the US and Europe.
This led to his first European tour in '96; he's since returned every year to play major blues festivals such as Kiel (Germany), Utrecht (Holland) and Brugge (Belgium) as well as scores of concert & club dates and radio and TV appearances. He's been included in several European blues compilation CD's and his most recent album Old, New, Borrowed and Blue was issued by the Dutch/Belgian label Black & Tan to universal critical praise in Europe and the US.
When not on tour, Dave continues to perform at Bourbon Street Blues and Boogie Bar in Nashville's famous (notorious) Printer's Alley. Continuing his work as a songwriter, Dave's tunes have been recorded by James Armstrong, Microwave Dave, Maria Muldaur, blues legend Johnny Jones and dozens of local and regional blues bands. His work as a session player led to his appearance as a special guest on the platinum-selling Jeff Foxworthy album Crank it Up.
A two-time recipient of the Music City Blues Society's Acoustic Blues Act of the Year award, Dave regularly participates in their Blues in the Schools program and conducts demonstrations/lectures at the Country Music Hall of Fame on the history of metal-bodied dobros and early roots recordings.
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