Stream: Adam Melchor, ‘What a Damn Shame’

Kevin Bronson on August 27th, 2021

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New Jersey-bred, L.A.-based Adam Melchor made a plenty of people’s “frequently contacted” lists this year with “Melchor’s Lullaby Hotline, Vol. 1,” an album that included tracks he sent via text to fans who hit him up at his hotline, (973) 264-4172.

That release came after he signed to Warner early in the year, and it was followed by a big one-off single featuring Lennon Stella that he released in May. Today he steps away from the intimate folk-pop that put him on the map to release a good ol’ barroom rocker, “What a Damn Shame.” It even has a chorus worthy of a country song.

“Growing up, my first experiences of playing live were to restaurants and bars in New Jersey,” Melchor explains. “This song is about a time I saw someone get stood up on a date. He waited, ate alone, left and the waitress came up to me and said did you see that? I said, ‘What a damn shame to waste a good shirt on a bad night.’ I wrote this song from the perspective of getting your hopes up with a sunken heart in a not-so-country country song.”

The release arrives as Melchor plots a big headlining tour starting in October (with an Oct. 9 date at the El Rey Theatre).

||| Stream: “What a Damn Shame”