“Like most everything he dedicates his time and energy to, Adam’s music is a labor of love. While it has the power to do what he intended for it to do, to ‘make you feel good’, it might also make you think.”
It’s an exceptional album. It’s as if the Doobie Brothers, Stevie Wonder, and Marvin Gaye had lunch one afternoon and said, “Lets’ all pause for a moment and send some music vibes to Portland, Maine. I hear there’s a guy named Adam Waxman who’s onto something….” With their guitar, Wurlitzer, organ, alto sax, keyboard, flute, trumpet, bass and drums, a soulful masterpiece was caught on tape.
Adam’s charmed a bunch of local players on the soul/funk scene into becoming his Waxmen, and the band release their debut full-length album, Just Play. In tunes like “Shine On,” especially, Waxman espouses a feel-good, do-unto-others vibe that’s hard to withstand even for the most cynical among us. In a way, it’s fairly gospel, a call to Waxman’s own sort of congregation. Of course, he gets all “Imagine” in “What If,” wondering “what if this world had no religion? What if this world had some emancipation?” In person, the band is a majorly good time.
Sam Pfeifle, music writer Portland Phoenix
Sam Pfeifle, music writer Portland Phoenix
