Her name was Penelope, and she was the “little girl” artist.
Penelope was with her parents last weekend at Oglebay’s Hickman Bar & Grill and they enjoyed the live performance by local singer/songwriter Libby Adams. Before the family returned to their rooms at Wilson Lodge, the child’s mother offered Adams a drawing Penelope sketched during the show.
“Her mom came up to me and said, ‘She drew this for you,’” Adams said. “I was almost in tears. I asked for her autograph, and then she left.”
It was one of THOSE moments, though, that have led Adams to fall in love with her childhood dream that seems to be tiptoeing to coming true.
“When I was a kid, I remember wanting to be Hanna Montana, and I’m being 100 percent honest with you. I didn’t want anyone to cut my hair and I just wanted to sing everything,” Adams remembered. “I think every girl back then wanted to be Miley Cyrus because Hanna Montana was a really cool role model back then.
“That’s why, right now, I’m letting music take me where it wants to take me and I’m just doing it like I do it,” she said. “I’m running with it because it’s a dream and I really want it to come true is some way. I’m in love with it, I’m having a blast with it, I think it’s beautifully awesome, and I love when others sing with me.”
Hanna Montana made sense while the classroom didn’t. People, most of the time anyway, didn’t either.
“I’ve struggled my entire life with things like school and I’ve struggled with making friends, too, so at an early age I started concentrating on music and I listened to as many different bands and artists as I could. My parents are huge music fans so I’ve always loved their music frm the 80’s and 90’s,” Adams recalled. “There were times when those musicians would amaze me, and I would wish so hard that I knew how to do it. So, that’s when I decided I wanted to learn.
“Adele is a great example. Who doesn’t want to be able to do what Adale does? She’s so amazing,” she said. “I love to perform her songs, and there are so many other females who have terrific voices, too.
An Unadulterated Truth
It’s not about getting discovered, but it does concern finding her path to peace.
Adams has impressed audiences throughout the Upper Ohio Valley in person and on the local radio waves since crashing onto the live and local scene last summer. Along with Oglebay’s Hickman Lounge, she’s performed as far away as Nemacolin Resort and at venues up and down the Ohio River.
On occasion, one of her parents has activated their Facebook Live stream so online folks could enjoy, as well.
“Once I decided to dedicate a lot of my time to music, I’ve run with it. These days, there’s not much else that makes so much sense to me,” Adams said. “Music is a topic that I can talk about for a long time because I love it so much, and I want to get better and better. And I’ve started working on some of my own stuff, too.
“Now that I’m working some with Gage Joseph, he’s taught me a lot of about he goes out preparing and practicing and writing his own music and it’s helped a lot. He’s taught me a lot,” she explained. “Honestly, making songs is hard. It’s not easy at all, and, at least for me, if I write a song it’s gotta be about something I really care about.”
Performing cover song after cover song, she hopes, is temporary since she’s now writing on her own. Adams wants to tell her tales.
“I love to sing songs that tell stories,” Adams said. “When I write songs, that’s what I’m doing – telling stories, and I would say that my favorite part of this music experience has been that I’m able to reach people my age and people my dad’s age, and people my grandparents’ age. I think that’s a pretty cool thing that involves a wide range of music.
“That’s it’s so much fun for me to put my heart into it and really get into singing it,” she said. “Writing the music and having that process in my life is super special. It’s an honor to be able to do what I can do now. To put my songs out there for other people to hear and feel was really tough at first, but it’s really a very cool thing to experience.”
Libby is learning.
And the almost 22-year-old is teaching herself now how to provoke her soul to fill her heart with the necessary syllables so others can join her soulful journey.
“Writing a song is a very personal, sensitive thing, and it’s always about something going on in my life with my friends or my family. When I write the song, it’s like putting the pieces together,” Adams explained. “We all go through things in our lives and that’s why talking to my friends and working on music with Gage is always good for me because it helps me realize I’m not the only one. We’re all out here trying to make sense.
“It’s about getting your feelings out in a song, and it takes practice because in the beginning, it would just make me cry or laugh or something,” she continued. “It’s kind of like training your superpower. And it takes you somewhere and that’s a good thing when you need to go away for a while.”
