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COCA Spotlight: Stories, friendship keep Hot Tamale sizzling

“I’ve spent a lot of time looking for people’s hidden stories,” says Adrian Fogelin, one half of the musical duo Hot Tamale.  As an author and singer-songwriter, Fogelin excavates these stories by connecting to her…

“I’ve spent a lot of time looking for people’s hidden stories,” says Adrian Fogelin, one half of the musical duo Hot Tamale. 

As an author and singer-songwriter, Fogelin excavates these stories by connecting to her community. She created The Front Porch Library in her neighborhood, which provides families with weekly crafts and activities. She also volunteers for Second Harvest Food Bank to distribute food and goods to the surrounding area. 

While running both projects she has heard “a million stories,” and feels a stronger bond with humanity because of them. These stories become the fuel for her writings — songs about people living on the fringes or having unexpected gifts. 

“I met a woman who cleaned the bathrooms at the Baltimore Zoo who was a blues singer with Billie Holiday,” recalls Fogelin. “That was the moment I realized that you never know who you’re talking to. You don’t know their story and you don’t know where they come from, but you better know that they are far more complex than you think they are.” 

As Hot Tamale gears up for their Sizzling Summer Show at Blue Tavern on Aug. 20, Fogelin and her music partner Craig Reeder want to tell these stories. They’ve been harmonizing together for 10 years, and borrowed their name from a Robert Johnson song lyric—“hot tamales and they’re red hot, yes she got ‘em for sale.” 

Fogelin first met Reeder at Tallahassee’s Downtown Market. She saw him performing on the sidewalk and felt he needed another voice in the mix. Just then, a woman walked up and started singing alongside him, which gave Fogelin the courage to do the same. After a decade of working together, she says they’re well attuned to each other’s musical strengths. 

“When you sing with someone for a long time you get good at covering the thin spots in their voices and at knowing what you do well and what they do well,” says Fogelin. “Sometimes I sing high but sometimes I sing low and Craig sings higher than I do. We have a lot of range in putting a song together.”  

Fogelin’s music journey began with her grandfather. She inherited his guitar, a Sears Roebuck Archtop Harmony and wanted to learn the riff to The Animals’ “House of the Rising Sun.” After a few failed attempts, her mother placed her in guitar lessons. 

Read the rest of the story by visiting the Tallahassee Democrat

or read more by downloading the article here