About
Adeem Maria is a seventh-generation Carolinian, a makeshift poet, singer-songwriter, storyteller, and blue-collar Artist. They began toiling at their instrument in 2002 when their family relocated to Syracuse, NY and used songwriting as a vehicle to process the ensuing culture shock, their faith, and later their journey through apostasy.
Blending a homegrown affection for Country Music with the emotional ballyhoo of alternative folk in the early aughts, they have created a unique brand of Americana that pays homage to John Prine and John Darnielle (of The Mountain Goats) in equal parts.
On Cast-Iron Pansexual, they weave a rich tapestry of words with humor and wit; exploring identity across coalescing subcultures. Traveling to Carolina to get their Tarot read while straddling the duality of being a "blue collar boy" who is a "complicated dame," Adeem excavates unwonted stories of the forgotten south.
Press
"Cast Iron Pansexual lives up to its title with explorations of sexuality and gender expression that are equally clever and poignant."
- Rolling Stone
"Every word is perfectly placed, and every line shows us the three-dimensional workings of a human soul."
- Rachel Cholst | Adobe & Teardrops
"[Adeem] writes about the questions in a pensive Americana style. [Their] songs will both comfort you and challenge you."
- American Songwriter
"[Their] words are disarmingly sincere, not melodramatic or overly sentimental but instead forged from that peculiar kind of earnestness which makes you feel comfortable, the sense that someone is willing to listen."
- Jon Doyle | Wake The Deaf
“Cast Iron Pansexual effortlessly unpacks a number of cultural complexities around queerness and class in a genre and medium that is famous for dodging difficult dialogues."
-Traklife
"If it sounds real, that's what it is and that's what I dig about Adeem."
- Roger Alan Wade
"Adeem finds gentle humour and yearning in stories so often defined by hurt and fear."
- Parton & Pearl