A local Knoxville storyteller traces home, loss, and loyalty through song.
By Nathan Sparks | Photograph By Ryan Read | Album Art by Terry Adams
Appeared in Cityview Magazine, Vol. 42, Issue 1 (Jan/Feb 2026)
F
or years, Terry Glen Adams has been a familiar byline and a trusted voice for Cityview readers—a writer who understands that good storytelling, whether on the page or in a song, comes from paying attention. This January, that voice steps fully into the spotlight with the release of Country Music, a new album available everywhere music is streamed on January 23, 2026.
Country Music is not a loose collection of songs. It’s a record in the old, intentional sense of the word—an album with an arc, a memory, and a spine. Its themes of departure and return, loss and loyalty, inheritance and reinvention echo the same sensibilities Terry brings to his writing: a belief that where you come from matters, even when you leave it behind.
The record opens with “All I Know About Texas,” a song rooted in Terry’s own experience of leaving home for the Navy, stepping into a wider world with equal parts hope and fear. From there, the album moves through love found and doubted, traditions eroded, parents remembered, and towns that shape you whether they lift you up or grind you down. The characters reappear, evolve, and contradict themselves—heartbroken in one moment, lovestruck in the next—just like real people do.
Songs like “Hard Pack of Winstons” and “Dog Bite Town” draw directly from lived experience, honoring parents who carried both discipline and dreams, and the hard truths of a music business that often takes more than it gives. Others, like “Roll Me a Beer Joint,” celebrate the smoky rooms and honest places where music once mattered most. By the time the album closes with “Smiles for Miles,” the journey feels earned—windows down, optimism intact, the road still unfolding.
We’re proud to count Terry Glen Adams as a Cityview contributor, and just as proud to celebrate this milestone. Country Music is thoughtful, grounded, and unafraid of its roots—qualities we recognize, admire, and are honored to share with our readers.
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