Adam’s Farm was this nifty blending of popular music that still resonates with me, years after the now-defunct Dallas-area group wandered off.
Band motto: If they can’t take a joke, folk ’em. Well, at first anyway. Adam’s Farm started out as a respectable set of earnest, well-meaning acoustics. Then they took a left turn in early January 1992 when Jeff Whittington dragged in a Marshall amp and a distortion pedal.
Along the way, they once again showed that pop is an endlessly appealing yet still challenging proposition when held in the right hands. There was a furious songcraft to Rock Music Machine – released in 1994 via Rainmaker Records – along with some of the age-appropriate knitted brows and a touch of real danger.
“Want In,” for instance, was genuinely nasty, a driving example of what made Adam’s Farm special. They take a shot at the Lemonheads, too. Even more traditionally folkie pieces like “Folsum” had a sneering guitar deep in the mix, making for a pleasantly rumbling sound texture. Like Neil Young, but with updated threads.
Yet, somehow, they never really broke out. They came, and went. Still, the fizzy alchemy, the sense of adventure found here – musical and otherwise – stayed with them.
Jeff Whittington’s twenty-five pin connector – a solo record from the late ’90s that closed with a stripped-down version of the Psychedelic Furs’ “Heaven” – was initially only available by e-mail from [email protected]. He performed as part of the 2006 experimental theater tribute Waiting for a Train: The Life and Songs of Jimmie Rodgers, the Father of Country Music. His next band grew out of a shared moment with a Beatles tune.
Whittington, who has such a solid, unironic way of singing and is definitely not the North Carolina banjo champion, apparently tried moving into straight life: He worked as a special-events coordinator for a television station, and became a longtime host on Dallas public radio. But his infatuation with song kept bringing him back to the stage – memorably with Toby Pipes from Deep Blue Something (of “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” fame) as the Hundred Inevitables.
Adam’s Farm had opened for Deep Blue Something at the height of their one-hit-wonderdom, and Whittington would often join them onstage for the encore, which included “Dear Prudence.” Pipes and Whittington later recorded “Trampoline” and “Kind to Hold” from twenty-five pin connector.
Paul Nugent’s Rainmaker Records also put out some Nixons stuff. The old Adam’s Farm rhythm section, bassist Mark Hedman and drummer Matt Pence, subsequently helped form Centro-matic. The ever-restless Whittington went on to work with Stuart Sikes, producer of the White Stripes, before hatching a plan to tour the country in a customized Fort Transit.
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Howdy,
I was just listening to Rock Music Machine and Googled to find this review that expresses my thoughts exactly. And while this review was written over 4 years ago, it’s still resonates. I’m about the same age as Jeff, Mark and Matt and in the prime of Adam’s Farm they used to tour through Stillwater, Oklahoma where I was going to college at the time. They use to crash at my house after shows. Super smart and super nice guys. Great memories.
Almost 20 years on, Rock Music Machine is still in my regular rotation. Brilliant stuff. Glad to learn that I’m not the only one.
-M.