Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Adam Gabriel. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Adam, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Do you wish you had started sooner?

Well, the short answer is yes. I’m 44 years old this January. And I’ve been working as a professional musician for about 6 years. For 10 years before that I was trying to book local shows and play my music… but without any real idea or comprehension of what was involved in having a successful career as an artist.
In my naivety, I thought that all I really had to do was write some great songs and that when people heard them it would just take off and I’d be famous. I laugh at it now.
I started playing guitar and and writing my own music at the age of 12, and in all honesty, it’s all I’ve ever wanted to do with my life.
At the age of 18 I was on my own and everything I had to my name was a guitar and a green, army duffle bag filled with clothes and some books. I was homeless off and on, no car and I spent most days just walking… Or sitting in a coffee shop writing poetry or music, trying to get little gigs here and there. Then I met a girl and we accidentally got pregnant.
Any plans or hopes I’d had for pursuing music had to be set aside and I got a full-time job. It was time to be a man and provide for a family.
I spent the next 15 years providing for a family, a wife, 3 boys, a mortgage, and my music sank farther and farther into the background. It killed me. It was a continuous ache in my heart, because I loved music, making it, sharing it, more than anything.
I knew that regardless of my responsibilities and my duty as a husband and father, I was made for something else.

I felt like an explorer or mountain climber, stuck in the field, pulling up weeds and rocks all day, rising from the dirt periodically to see the mountains in the distance.
I can’t fully express the longing and the grief that I felt, trapped in a life that, to my mind, wasn’t truly meant for me.

Sometimes I wish with all my heart that I’d been able to make different decisions and pursue my music career sooner. But this feeling is quickly replaced by a knowing that that period of my life, the sacrifice and toil and internal suffering created the bedrock of meaningful art to come out of me. I’m not sure that I’d have anything of value to share with the world if I hadn’t spent years and years learning what it really meant to be a man, if I hadn’t tasted that bitter longing.
The struggle made me strong and produced substance of character. Now I have something of value to offer the world through my art.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

My name is Adam Gabriel, I’m a Georgia born, West Coast seasoned singer-songwriter, performer and recording artist.

I’m a professional musician, playing up and down the West Coast, and I usually tour once a year, reaching as far East as my stomping grounds in the deep South.

I play solo as well as with my band (The Cavaliers) and our music could be categorized as Soulful Rock and Southern Blues. My Georgia roots certainly come through in the music.

One of the main things that sets us apart is our approach to the music and of course the performance. We are passionate about the music, not using samples, or artificial elements that we can’t reproduce live- in the moment. It’s organic, raw expression in the way that most music was back in the late 60’s and 70’s. We’re like a contemporary Alman Brothers, or Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band.
There’s a nostalgic essence to our music that seems to resonate with all kinds of audiences.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Pursuing a career as a musician and performer, especially when you’re creating your own music is a constant test of your resilience.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve poured my heart out to an empty room. There’s nothing lonelier than driving home in the quiet dark, after giving everything you have, putting it all out there to walk away empty-handed.
Failure is unavoidable. There have been more mornings I care to recount, that I’ve laid in bed thinking to myself “what the hell am I doing? I’m never going to make it, I’ll never realize this dream… I should just work construction again, at least it paid the bills”.
I get knocked down frequently. But when I’m down there, looking at my blood staring up at me from the mat, and I’m contemplating whether or not it’s all worth it, something comes over me, and I force myself back to my feet, bruised, aching, sometimes with tears in my eyes. Because I would rather die fighting for a dream than live a mundane life of little consequence, wondering, “what if…”?

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

Without question, the most rewarding aspect of being an artist is connection.
When I’ve spent hours, days, months, years digging into the dirt of my own human experience and crafted a song that expresses that experience in the most raw, authentic way possible and I can see people responding to it, singing along, or coming up to me afterwards and sharing their own similar experiences… I feel like it was all worth it. We’ve made an authentic, meaningful connection, and in all the world, that kind of connection is the most important. It’s priceless.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.adamgabrielmusic.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adamgabrielmusic/profilecard/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/19hLTbzJTD/
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@adamgabriel5436?si=oVCm6Pzgb1Ft_dR4
• Other: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/0UWBHA9DNNrdslQ73wbtwB?si=yE33x4ORQjaPsmxvUnoapw