General Discussion
I'll kick this off by talking about the only thing I've talked about for the past three months, ✨ ALEXANDER JAMES ADAMS ✨ -- fantasy bard extraordinaire and literal trans changeling, or in his words, "Faerie Tale Minstrel". (Which is, as with so much he does, a pun and trans power move.) He is also a trans elder by now, at 58, having transitioned in his 40s. Also he wears kilts and I love him.
from his first post-transition/out album:
From Neverland
a remake of an old song-- AJA in 2008, featuring backing vocals from 1997:
Dance in a Circle
he transitioned 20 years into his musical career, explaining that his life up until this point had been lived by a changeling/glamour from the land of fae, who had now returned there; and he, the real child, had returned to the real world from imprisonment in faerieland to reclaim his life.
.......no, I mean, literally explaining JUST EXACTLY THAT at first, leaving his poor totally baffled fanbase to put the pieces together. in 2006/7. 🤦♂️ my hero.
(also recounted in this iconic piece:)
He of The Sidhe
read about that here: https://web.archive.org/web/20080402085142/http://www.sfbaytimes.com/?sec=article&article_id=7797
The deadname is not a secret, and when asked by his community about getting the credits on his old work updated, he said not to. So, no need to worry about seeing it.
In fact, he uses it to great effect t to make several puns in Harvest Season: Second Cutting, once again alluding to the story of his changeling background via the track ordering of the album, which is a primarily a collection of remakes of his most popular (with good reason!) songs.
intro (think of the faerie hills!)
Cat & the Fiddle
(prequel, parts 1 and 2:)
Stolen Child
Heather on the Moor
honestly the ultimate power move. And yeah... these are duets with his "shadow" again.
Everafter is -- and this is how AJA phrases it, so I shall do the same (three quick reminders, he's 58, can talk about his own life however he wants, and this is genuinely really cool): the last album Heather Alexander released, and the very last thing Sidhe played before going away to the land of fae so that Alexander James Adams could take her place -- and it's... a masterpiece, by which I mean it's a relentless onslaught of absolutely heartrending and gorgeous trans narrative pieces, weaving and diving through at least three or four different layers of metaphor. I really recommend listening to the whole thing straight through to get the full experience. (Actually I recommend listening to all of his albums straight through, and I have written another whole post elsewhere on various orders to do that, which I'll happily copy here if anyone is interested...) This is my favorite song from it though:
Making of My Own
here's another song from Everafter to cheer you up after that. ;)
Lifetime of Song
(ps:)
Shenandoah
Tam Lin by Tricky Pixie
Uffington Horse
----
add your favorite LGBTQ+ artists! :)
(I might also add more later if I can ever chill out about AJ Adams long enough to think about them, but more likely I'll just add more AJA song recs)
#music #queericons #transicons #pleaserespondtothispostiwroteitforfourhourslol
Like