Once in a while a musician comes along with impecca… Read Full Bio ↴Beegie Adair Bio
Once in a while a musician comes along with impeccable technique, deep understanding of the jazz repertoire, an innate tendency to swing and the rare ability to communicate the heart and soul of a tune to listeners. That musician is Beegie Adair.
About her music Adair says, “Falling in love with jazz is like falling in love with a person, except with jazz you never get over it.” About Beegie (say B-G) Adair, what do others say?
Jazz great Helen Merrill salutes her “inventive jazz sense, her wonderful sense of time and improvised melody.”
Christopher Louden of Jazz Times magazine says Adair is “an accomplished artist with a delicate touch.”
The Los Angeles Times calls her music “Elegant.”
Entertainment News writes, “Beegie Adair is one of the finest piano players in the world.”
Intrigued? So are thousands of jazz fans, who agree with critics about Adair’s sophisticated and listenable jazz performances, and who have made her recordings among the biggest sellers in the jazz world.
Citing George Shearing, Bill Evans, Oscar Peterson and Erroll Garner among her influences, Adair has recorded 24 CDs, ranging from Cole Porter standards to Frank Sinatra classics to romantic World War II ballads. Her 6-CD Centennial Composers Collection of tunes by Rodgers, Gershwin, Kern, Ellington, Carmichael and Berlin became an instant collectible classic when it was released in 2002.
Kentucky born and raised, Adair lives and records in Nashville – something of a surprise to people who associate the city solely with country music. In fact Nashville lives up to its “Music City” nickname by hosting a vibrant jazz scene, in which she has been a leading light for decades. A sought-after studio musician in her early days there, Adair accompanied such legendary performers as Chet Atkins, Dolly Parton and Johnny Cash – and also worked with Lucille Ball, Dinah Shore, Mama Cass Elliott and Peggy Lee.
Her guests on Improvised Thoughts, Beegie’s radio talk/music show on the local NPR affiliate, included such greats as Tony Bennett, Joe Williams, Marian McPartland, Benny Golson and Helen Merrill. She has guested on McPartland’s Piano Jazz show and has performed with Nat Adderley, Bill Watrous, Lew Tabackin, Terry Clarke, Urbie Green and Jim Ferguson, among many others.
When she’s not in the studio or appearing in clubs and concert halls around the country, Adair wears a variety of hats, from adjunct professor at Vanderbilt University to teacher and mentor at the Nashville Jazz Workshop. Recently she co-wrote and scored an innovative theatrical production, Betsy, which in April 2006 premiered off-Broadway in New York.
She has recorded eight projects for Village Square Records in Nashville; her most recent CDs are Sentimental Journey, a popular collection of World War II-era songs, and a solo piano recording, Quiet Romance.
She performs solo and with the Beegie Adair Trio, whose members include drummer Chris Brown, a veteran of the Maynard Ferguson ensemble, and bassist Roger Spencer, who has played with the Les Brown Band, Ray Conniff, the Page Cavanaugh Trio and Pete Jolly. They are, she says, “my main guys. They’re so tuned into the way I visualize music that it’s effortless to play with them.”
In clubs and concert venues from Los Angeles to New York, Beegie and her “main guys” win kudos from audiences and critics alike who appreciate her unique take on classic jazz. She fell in love with the music a long time ago, and indeed she’s never gotten over it -- a love affair the jazz world is much the better for.
Skylark
Beegie Adair Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Have you anything to say to me?
Won't you tell me where my love can be?
Is there a meadow in the mist
Where someone's waiting to be kissed?
Skylark
Have you seen a valley green with spring?
Over the shadows and the rain
To a blossom covered lane
And in your lonely flight
Haven't you heard the music in the night?
Wonderful music, faint as a will o' the wisp
Crazy as a loon, sad as a gypsy serenading the moon
Oh skylark
I don't know if you can find these things
But my heart is riding on your wings
So if you see them anywhere
Won't you lead me there?
Oh skylark
I don't know if you can find these things
But my heart is riding on your wings
So if you see them anywhere
Won't you lead me there?
The song Skylark by Beegie Adair is a poignant and plaintive plea from the singer to the skylark, asking if it has seen or knows the whereabouts of the singer's lost love. The opening lines of the song set the tone for the singer's emotional state, as she beseeches the bird to help her locate her lover: "Skylark, have you anything to say to me? Won't you tell me where my love can be?" The use of the second person "you" throughout the song creates a sense of urgency and personal connection with the bird, as if the singer is speaking directly to it.
The imagery in the song is rich and evocative, as the singer describes a "meadow in the mist" where her lover might be waiting, and a "blossom covered lane" where she longs to travel with him. The use of nature imagery and the personification of the skylark as a guide adds to the dreamlike quality of the song, as if the singer is lost in her own thoughts and emotions. The final lines of the song are a heartfelt appeal to the bird to help her find what she is seeking: "So if you see them anywhere, won't you lead me there?"
Line by Line Meaning
Skylark
Beegie Adair addresses the bird and begins her plea for help.
Have you anything to say to me?
She asks the Skylark if it has any information that might help her find her lost love.
Won't you tell me where my love can be?
She begs the bird to provide any guidance or hint that will lead her to her lost love.
Is there a meadow in the mist
She wonders if the Skylark has seen a place covered in mist where romance could blossom.
Where someone's waiting to be kissed?
She's in search of the perfect spot, where she will finally find her lost love and shower him with kisses.
Have you seen a valley green with spring?
She asks if the Skylark has ever crossed a lush green valley during the Spring season.
Where my heart can go a journeying
She desires a place where her heart finds solace in the beauty of nature.
Over the shadows and the rain
She needs the Skylark to help her find the right path through dark, probably frustrating times to find her lost love.
To a blossom covered lane
Beegie Adair paints a picture of a path covered with vibrant flowers, suggestive of a romantic spot where she expects to find her love.
And in your lonely flight
The pianist acknowledges the lonely journey that the Skylark takes and proceeds to ask a question.
Haven't you heard the music in the night?
She wonders if Skylark has heard any music or romantic sounds during its lonely flight.
Wonderful music, faint as a will o' the wisp
She describes the delightful music she yearns to hear, which is elusive and difficult to find, like the hovering will-o'-the-wisp.
Crazy as a loon, sad as a gypsy serenading the moon
Beegie Adair describes the different emotions that the music she seeks can evoke - joyful, crazy, and melancholic sadness of a gypsy serenading the moon.
Oh skylark
She calls out to the bird once again, appealing for its help.
I don't know if you can find these things
Beegie Adair admits her uncertainty as regards the Skylark's ability to help her find what she is looking for.
But my heart is riding on your wings
However, she still places her hope in the Skylark, saying that her heart is with the bird.
So if you see them anywhere
She politely urges the Skylark to alert her of any signs that can lead her to her lost love.
Won't you lead me there?
Finally, she implores the Skylark to guide her lost heart to the intended destination.
Lyrics © Peermusic Publishing, Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: HOAGY CARMICHAEL, JOHNNY MERCER
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind