Aden Paul rocks Albany’s Oglethorpe Lounge
Staff Photo: Carlton Fletcher
By Carlton Fletcher
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ALBANY — Aden Paul should be famous.
Sure, the Louisiana-born Paul, a singer/songwriter/musician of significant renown, has his share of fans who eat up his works with the Rotten Cores and Paul’s solo stuff as well.
But a talent as large as Paul’s deserves more than “well-known,” “respected,” “hard-core following” and the like — not quite damning with faint praise, but close enough — as common descriptors. He deserves to be famous in that way people with talent are, people whose love and respect for the music they play and the fans they entertain are large and apparent.
Paul played at the Oglethorpe Lounge in Albany over the weekend, one of his regular stops when he’s making an eastward swing from his home state. He and upright bassist Kade Alexander left a group of fans in thrall, and created several new ones while playing music from the Rotten Cores’ excellent “Sunset Limited” and “Sweet Fellowship in Shame” albums and from Paul’s solo “Bad Seeds Precious Stones” disc.
As one excited — and, yes, maybe a little inebriated — listener exclaimed during a pause between songs, “Two people … making all that music.”
Paul and Alexander — who slaps the upright with pizzazz and provides perfect rhythm support as Paul plays guitar, sings and keeps time with a bass drum — left the audience at the O with face-splitting grins as everyone within earshot stomped their feet, patted their thighs or shouted along to songs that have become more familiar with each visit.
“We like coming to Albany, and we always try to make it here any time we come this way,” Paul said. “The Oglethorpe is a fun little club, and (O owner) Alison (McCorkle-Clealand) is just great. She’s a musician, and she supports other musicians. You have to like that.
“We played last night at a club just outside Atlanta, and it’s always fun to double up on shows. It gets me looser.”
It’s fitting that Paul, a prolific songwriter, keeps covers to a minimum during solo performances like the one at the O. But when he does covers, he does them right. Evidence: His stirring rendition of Steve Earle’s “The Devil’s Right Hand” and the blues classic “St. James Infirmary.”
But originals like the rousing and excellent — perhaps with “Devil,” the best song of the evening — “West Texas” from his solo album, Rotten Cores tunes “Lipstick,” “Swamp Stompin’ Baby,” “Josephine” and “Skeleton Key,” as well as “Monster” and “The Ballad of Mr. New Orleans” from “Bad Seeds” kept the audience moving from one musical high to the next.
McCorkle-Clealand is partially responsible for expanding Paul’s local audience base even moreso than booking him and Alexander to play the O. She introduced Paul’s and the Cores’ music to local radio personality Tara Dyer Stoyle.
“Alison told me about the Rotten Cores, and I trust her taste in music,” Stoyle said. “After listening to the band — and seeing Aden live — I agreed that everyone should hear his music. I can’t get to everyone, but I could play his music for the listeners of my (Rock 105, Tifton) station.”
Stoyle (who writes columns about music and other features for this newspaper) is the manager of the new Q-102, The Queen Bee station set to debut in the Pretoria Fields Brewery early next year, and she’s so far kept the station’s proposed format a closely guarded secret. So, she’s asked, will Albany music fans get to hear Paul and the Cores on The Queen Bee?
“Hmmmm … let’s see … I’ll just say that his music should fit in with our format,” Stoyle said.
If so, local fans are in for a treat. And, yeah, they can be a part of helping the punk/rockabilly/Americana/rocker claim his rightful place among famous musicians … the ones with real talent.
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