By Dave Parsons
In the world of independent artists, you handle everything. The tour, the bus, setting up and tearing down equipment, and 1,000 other things. Adam Calvert knows that all too well. He has been singing and entertaining folks since before his teenage years.
In 2023, Adam did over 200 shows spanning 35 different states. In a world of rising costs and demands, he has his own tour bus, and a road manager/fiancée that is determined as he is. Calvert is probably one of the last remaining troubadours in the business who doesn’t play one region unendingly until a label deal happens. He is going out and becoming known to all reaches of the country.
Having won independent music honors such as Vocalist of the Year, Rising Star of the Year, Single of the Year and Video of the Year, Adam certainly has the industry on notice.
This cup of coffee chat with Adam took place in his hometown. It got delayed about 30 minutes, as he had to make his own repairs to the tour bus, before getting ready for the show, and sitting down to talk with me.
Me: You were fixing the generator?
Adam Calvert: That’s right! We all pull hard. Everyone’s been learning how to do stuff that will probably go with them the rest of their lives when it comes to the music industry and all that kind of stuff.
Me: More than meets the eye in this music business.
Adam Calvert: Got to figure it out, because you know, we’re not always gonna have my dad here, somebody like that, you know! And so, maybe one day I’ll be working on the big one.
Me: Let’s slide backwards for a minute…you started, at how old?
Adam Calvert: Five years old is when I first saw Toby Keith out at the Guernsey County Fairgrounds, somewhere around then. I saw Neal McCoy out at the Guernsey County Fairgrounds too. I started watching those guys and singing along, and then from there I started performing retirement facilities around the area. Then local fairs and festivals. And here I am today playing another festival.
Me: You went to a performing arts school?
Adam Calvert: Yeah.
Me: So, you went straight into being in the business?
Adam Calvert: Yes, even before that, I’d worked in theaters and different things, but, going to that school really taught me more about the classical side of music….how to read music, and understand music on a different level. So, going to that school really took me to the next step.
Me: Is that how you got introduced into doing the MTV show? (Adam was on the MTV show Taking The Stage)
Adam Calvert: They both came hand in hand…we found the audition for the show, and obviously I had an audition for the school as well, and I was home-schooled. Most of my grade school career before that. So going back to high school, not only going back to high school as a student, but as a performer on a show was different. It was a lot of fun, and I learned a lot from it.
Me: So, that was the only time you were ever in a real high school was when you were on that show?
Adam Calvert: Oh, yeah. I actually went to the school that’s behind us here, my grade school up to the fourth grade. I went to the Intermediate School for 5th grade, but I never went to a high school. From sixth grade until sort of in junior year, I was homeschooled. I got thrown back into high school junior year..it was something else.
And I hadn’t taken any foreign language, because I think Tennessee didn’t require it or something, but Ohio requires two years of foreign language. I didn’t know that when I got in there junior year. So, senior year comes around looking over our credits, and I didn’t have enough to graduate. Luckily, I learned quick enough that my dad speaks Spanish a little bit, and I made it.
Me: I think it was on your website. You’re fiercely determined to be an independent artist.
Adam Calvert: Yeah, as long as I can. It’s a lot of fun, but there’s a lot of challenges with that….just like anything, any kind of business…..the more you put into it, the more you’re going to be rewarded from it. And I’m trying to do as much as I can on my own until I can’t anymore, and we need the assistance of somebody….whether that be an investor or a record label or management company. But at the moment, we’re enjoying not being affiliated and doing on our own.
Me: Because usually that’s the goal…get the record label to get the deal.
Adam Calvert: It used to be. Now, there’s not so much that the record label can do for you. There’s so much that you can do on your own. I think you’re so much more of an asset if you can offer to a label later too…..You’re already playing shows….You’re already producing, putting up music…..You know, they’re going to give you a way better deal than the deal that you get if you don’t have any eggs. It’s just like any business. You just got to hope that it pays off.
Me: You can do all that and fix the bus.
Adam Calvert: Yeah and hey that’s job security right there.
Me: You’ve had three singles out in the last three months, right?
Adam Calvert: That’s correct. This is actually my second one since Tide Up.
We put that out for spring break, and my summer jam song is called .
And now this will be my summer jam that’s coming out called City Limit.
Me: So, is this the plan to keep just putting music out there instead of a whole album at once?
Adam Calvert: Eventually an album, but right now the goal has been putting out singles. I’m planning on maybe this coming spring, doing like a spring break album. This will be my sixth year playing down on the Gulf Coast during the Spring Break, March and April season. So, I plan on putting like a collage of the songs that I’ve put out in the last couple of years that kind of resonate together. They’re all beach tunes, put them all in like an EP or an LP, and get that out in the spring. That’ll be my first one. And I’m putting out my first Christmas song this Christmas season.
Me: I’m seeing you doing dates and posting on line. One day you post we’re driving 400 miles tonight. The next day you post 300 miles tonight, then 600 miles tonight. How do you line that up?
Adam Calvert: It’s Paige, (his fiancée) she does it all. She does the booking, she does the logistics, she promotes the music, and helps me get the music out there. Generally, we’ve been working towards building the repertoire and the relationship with venues. And that’s helped us be able to route every month. Coming up we will be playing a lot in North Dakota, Montana, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. We will be up in that area for like the whole month. Having the relationships helps with logistics and that kind of stuff.
Me: Usually, independent acts don’t travel like you do, and that’s why I’m just wondering how you manage to pull that off.
Adam Calvert: I mean I have a good team. Having people that pull their weight allows us to be able to do what we need to do. Just a lot of hard work and a lot of sacrifices. There’s a lot of things that we miss, a lot of events with my family and things like that, but that’s what it takes. Being on the road 20 days a month, it’s tough and it makes you tired, and luckily we have a place in Tennessee, and the same here in Ohio. And it makes you so thankful for the time for the like if there’s four days in a row that we don’t have to go somewhere.
Me: I guess that’s what I’m thinking because even your average middle grade act doesn’t tour like that. And, it’s a tribute to you guys. You are out there pounding it like the good old days of touring. It’s a rarity.
Adam Calvert: I don’t think we’re doing it forever. This is a season. I hope I can make the jump to playing in bigger venues, having more people come out, which then means I can play less shows a year. And, doing less shows will allow me to write more and produce more and promote the music more. I need to write more and put more music out.
Me: That’s what I was going to ask you as far as writing goes. Do you have songs that have been cut by other people?
Adam Calvert: I’m mainly focusing on writing music for me. I’ve written with Allie Colleen, which is the Garth Brooks’ daughter. I write with Damon Mitchell, who’s on stage right now. Ryan Robinette who is from here in Ohio. I have like a group of writers that mainly my goal is to get music for me that I can put out. But if something comes along and it fits for someone else, I’m down for that to you.
Me: You said you had a six-year plan?
Adam Calvert: To build myself as a better product, and continue to put out more music and see where my career and life goes. We’ve made so many goals, so many life movements in the last year or two that have given us so much inspiration to write more music.
But at the moment, we’re booking our own fairs and festivals, and not having to give away any of that percentage. And my fiancée, who’s my manager and agent directly, she can look at me and go do you want to do that and they get an answer right now. So, that’s the way we do things right now. And I plan on probably always doing that. Someday Paige may step down from some of this but there’s no doubt she will always be my right hand.
Me: So, when are you going to left hand her?
Adam Calvert: Either somebody listening comes and invest in a wedding, or we get a number one on the radio that pays for the wedding. And, God gave us the piece of land that we’ve been looking for. That will be the wedding venue. But, at the moment, even with that, things are expensive.
And especially when we fund all of our own stuff. We just did a music video for City Limit, and we paid to record it, then we’ve got to promote it. It works out to thousands of dollars per song. So, we pay it now so that we don’t have to give them a percentage on top of that, and have to worry about pleasing them. But it is a lot of work, and Paige and I were just talking today, we love doing the load ins and everything, but having someone to do them so that we could relax and write music and stuff like that.
That’s what the Beatles did, and that’s what we want to do.
