He remembers when he was given his first guitar. It’s his first memory, in fact.
“I don’t really know when music became a thing for me. All I know for sure is that I was born, and then I wanted a guitar. That was it,” said singer/songwriter Adrian Niles during a recent interview on the River Network’s “Novotney Now” program. “I know I was 3 years old.”
There’s a story to it, too.
His father, the late Loren Porter of Shadyside, Ohio, was an accomplished musicman and musician, and even his obituary states that he, “was an accomplished singer, songwriter and instrumentalist who welcomed everyone with his music.”
And that included young Adrian.
“I went to Murphy’s in Bellaire,” he recalled. “I remember my Dad holding me in his arms and walking up those steps. I remember it was dark.”
That G.C. Murphy, a retail store that employed a similar business model as what Dollar General does today, was located along Belmont Street in Bellaire’s downtown area. It was a “five and dime” department store, and there were nearly 450 of them at the company’s peak in 1980.
“And I remember that’s where my Dad got me my first guitar,” he said. “It wasn’t special. It was just a little plastic thing. But that’s the first memory I have, and it’s about that guitar.”
Now, a half century and several albums later, Niles is known as one of the finest performers in the Upper Ohio Valley, and he’s scheduled to perform on Stage 2 during this summer’s annual Heritage Bluesfest at Heritage Port in downtown Wheeling and during the city’s Art’s Fest at Wheeling Park on August 2.
And Niles also just released his newest album, “Wolf Spider,” but this one is different than any of the others. This is one a real record.
“Every album you do is a dream come true, but this one is special because it’s on vinyl and that’s something I’ve wanted to do for a very long time,” the artist explained. “Something I’ve always wanted to accomplish is putting out a vinyl record, and I made sure it’s 180 grams (in weight) so it’s a nice, thick record. It’s the thickest you can get, too, so when you pull it out of the sleeve, it’s not at all floppy. It’s a real record like when we were kids.
“And it’s on black vinyl because I didn’t want to make it some novelty or something like that. I can clearly remember pulling out a black vinyl record out of the sleeves when I was a kid, and wanted everyone who buys ‘Wolf Spider’ to have that same experience,” he said. “And it sounds the way I wanted it to sound, too. All of it – it’s what I wanted.”
In the Back of the Van
Working hard during the day and making music most evenings were a way of life for the Porter family, and it was something Adrian and his brothers Loren and Kelly learned early and often.
He wouldn’t have it any other way either.
“My Dad, my uncle, my cousins and my grandfather had a band called the ‘Porter Brothers. They were a bluegrass band,” Niles said. “And I grew up listening to that in the kitchen every night.
“We went to music festivals all the time. We’d all jump in the back of my dad’s van,” he recalled. “He’d take all his tools he used during the week and he’d put a cot in there, and then my brothers and I would jump in and we’d all head to a music festival. And that was our life.
“On those nights, everyone would hang out in the parking lot and play music, and we’d be there listening and learning it all. It was a great way to grow up and it explains a lot about what I do and how I do it every day.”
This time, though, with the “Wolf Spider” record, Niles added a dimension when he finally founded his own label, and “Roots Rock Records” acknowledges the musical genre that includes rock n’ roll’s roots in folk, blues, and country.
“Creating my own label also is a dream come true because it gave me 100 percent control over what I wanted to artistically, and I was able to call my own shots on everything. No one else owns the rights or earns any of the royalties either,” Niles said. “It’s all about owning everything you create and it’s the best way to go about it. I’m really happy I finally got to do it.
“Not there are real royalties, but if there were, I’d get them all now,” the singer/songwriter said with a chuckle. “It just feels better this way.”
