Beautiful Soul: Margie Adam, 'Songwriter'

An in-depth conversation with one of Women's Music's most beloved artists

In the winter of 2020, I recorded a dozen or so interviews I’d planned on utilizing through 2021 for the Have You Ever Heard…? series. I had no idea, however, that God’s Music Is My Life would become such a central part of my content creation. I premiered the first of those conversations—finally— this past October with the reunion of the surviving Twenty-First Century Singers. The second conversation, with Donna McElroy, premiered in November.

Today, I’m thrilled to share my interview with Margie Adam, one of the early singer/songwriters of the Women’s Music movement. We focused our conversation on her 1976 debut album, Songwriter, which came after years of touring the country with Meg Christian, Cris Williamson and Holly Near—declared by women’s music aficionados as The Fab Four. Songwriter featured a stellar cast of musicians—all of whom happened to be women—including Diane Lindsay on bass, Linda Tillery on drums, along with Vicki Randle with Meg and Cris on background vocals.

Women’s Music, as I’ve written before, was not defined by a sound, but rather by a focus on self-determination and self-love. Margie and I talk in-depth about the ethics of the music and the message, as well as the inner journey that the music invoked for both the artists and the listeners.

If you’ve never heard Margie’s music before, I’m sharing three of my favorite Margie moments—two by Margie and one, which we discuss in our conversation, by Dusty Springfield who recorded one of Margie’s signature compositions, “Beautiful Soul.”

Our conversation jumped off as soon as the call began—so accidentally, that I didn’t even do a formal introduction! We touch on so much history in this dialog; Laura Nyro, Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Bella Abzug, and many of the forerunners of the Women’s Movement are invoked during our time together. Trust me, you don’t want to miss a second of it. Our conversation is lengthy—but here’s the good news: YouTube tracks where you stop and start—so if you need to watch a bit and come back, you don’t have to worry about starting over.