Category Archives: Country

Country, Great albums, Music Calendar, Ryan Adams

Today: Ryan Adams released “Heartbreaker” in 2000 – 12 years ago

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“On Heartbreaker, I had to sing those songs. I drank the way I did those songs. I ate the way I did those songs. I communicated the way I did those songs”
~Ryan Adams – Spin Dec 2003 

“I don’t know if Heartbreaker was influential as a record so much as the idea of it. There weren’t a lot of people out there doing that kind of thing. That’s all. But it was a terrible price to pay because I’ve never lived it down. I don’t regard that record as great art. I’m not even sure I put the right songs on the record. There are a lot of tracks that didn’t make it which with hindsight should have been on there.”
~Ryan Adams – Uncut Jan 2004

 From Wikipedia:

Released September 5, 2000
Recorded Woodland Studios, Nashville,Tennessee
Genre Alternative country, country
Length 51:57
Label Bloodshot
Producer Ethan Johns

Heartbreaker is the debut studio album by alternative country musician Ryan Adams, released September 5, 2000 on Bloodshot Records. The album was recorded over fourteen days at Woodland Studios in Nashville, Tennessee. It was nominated for the 2001 Shortlist Music Prize. The album is said to be inspired by Adams’ break-up with music-industry publicist Amy Lombardi.

According to Adams, the album’s title originates from a poster of Mariah Carey: “My manager called and said, ‘You have 15 seconds to name this record,’ “My eyes focused on this poster of Mariah wearing a T-shirt that said HEARTBREAKER. I just shouted, ‘Heartbreaker!'”

 Critical reception:

The album was considered to be a fresh start for Ryan Adams after the demise of his previous band Whiskeytown.

  • Allmusic’s Mark Derning wrote that the album “is loose, open, and heartfelt in a way Whiskeytown’s admittedly fine albums never were, and makes as strong a case for Adams’ gifts as anything his band ever released”, concluding that “the strength of the material and the performances suggest Adams is finally gaining some much-needed maturity, and his music is all the better for it.” 
  • A.V. Club’s Keith Phipps wrote: “Adams has recorded an intimate, largely quiet record that indisputably establishes his identity as an independent singer-songwriter”. 
  • Pitchfork Media’s Steven Byrd called it “an album of astonishing musical proficiency, complete honesty and severe beauty.”
  • Rolling Stone’s Anthony Decurtis was less enthusiastic, stating that “Adams’ songs too often fail to rise above their plain-spoken details to take on the symbolic power he yearns for”.

 

From pitchfork’s review (Steven Byrd):

…. Heartbreaker is the soundtrack to the last ten minutes of any relationship you’ve ever watched crumble before your eyes. It’s music for the ruined romantic in all of us. Usually, that little romantic simply sits quietly, tearfully watching everything disappear without so much as a single complaint. But on Heartbreaker, Ryan Adams has not only convinced that voice to speak, he’s taught it to sing. The result is an album of astonishing musical proficiency, complete honesty and severe beauty.  
Read more over @ pitchfork 

Track listing:

1. “(Argument with David Rawlings Concerning Morrissey)” (An argument regarding the Morrissey track “Suedehead”.)
2. “To Be Young (Is to Be Sad, Is to Be High)” Ryan Adams and David Rawlings
3. “My Winding Wheel”
4. “AMY”
5. “Oh My Sweet Carolina”
6. “Bartering Lines” Ryan Adams and Van Alston
7. “Call Me On Your Way Back Home”
8. “Damn, Sam (I Love a Woman That Rains)”
9. “Come Pick Me Up” Ryan Adams and Van Alston
10. “To Be the One”
11. “Why Do They Leave?”
12. “Shakedown on 9th Street”
13. “Don’t Ask for the Water”
14. “In My Time of Need”
15. “Sweet Lil Gal (23rd/1st)”

Musicians

  • Ryan Adams – vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, harmonica, piano, banjo
  • Ethan Johns – drums, bass, glockenspiel, B-3, Chamberlain, vibes
  • David Rawlings – backing vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, banjo, tambourine
  • Gillian Welch – backing vocals, acoustic guitar, electric bass, banjo, “voice of Lucy”
  • Pat Sansone – piano (5, 9, 11), Chamberlain and organ (6), backing vocals (2)
  • Emmylou Harris – backing vocals (5)
  • Kim Richey – backing vocals (9)
  • Allison Pierce – backing vocals (11)

—

Uncut Magazine (UK) listed Heartbreaker as no.9 on their “Top 150 Albums of the Decade List”

Continue reading Today: Ryan Adams released “Heartbreaker” in 2000 – 12 years ago →

Country, Music Calendar

Today: The late Hank Thompson was born in 1925

 

The glamour of the gay night life has lured you
To the places where the wine and liquor flow
Where you wait to be anybody’s baby
And forget the truest love you’ll ever know
~”The Wild Side of Life” H. Thompson 

From Wikipedia:

Birth name Henry William Thompson
Born September 3, 1925
Waco, Texas, USA
Died November 6, 2007 (aged 82)
Genres country
Western swing
Occupations singer and songwriter
Instruments electric guitar
Years active 1946–2007
Website www.hankthompson.com

Henry William Thompson (September 3, 1925 – November 6, 2007), known professionally as Hank Thompson, was an American country music entertainer whose career spanned seven decades. He sold more than 60 million records worldwide.

Thompson’s musical style, characterized as honky tonk Western swing, was a mixture of fiddles, electric guitar and steel guitar that featured his distinctive, smooth baritone vocals.

His backing band, The Brazos Valley Boys, was voted the top Country Western Band for 14 years in a row by Billboard. The primary difference between his music and that of Bob Wills was that Thompson, who used the swing beat and instrumentation to enhance his vocals, discouraged the intense instrumental soloing from his musicians that Wills encouraged; however, the “Hank Thompson sound” exceeded Bob Wills in Top 40 country hits.

Although not as prominent on the top county charts in later decades, Thompson remained a recording artist and concert draw well into his 80s.

The 1987 novel Crazy Heart by Thomas Cobb was inspired by Thompson’s life, specifically by his practice of picking up a local band to back him when he toured. In 2009 Cobb’s novel was turned into a successful film directed by Scott Cooper and starring Academy Award winner Jeff Bridges. 

From cmt.com – Ronnie Pugh:

Few performers in any era of the music have known and appreciated its history as well, and Thompson, elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1989, was a big part of that history. His warm and rich baritone graced hits from the 1940s to the 1970s, as his award-winning Brazos Valley Boys band gave those honky-tonk hits a distinctive flavor of Western swing, much in the pattern followed later by fellow Texan George Strait.

The Wild Side of Life:

A Six Pack to Go:

Album of the day – Vintage Collection (1996):

Other September-03:

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Country, Featured Articles

Billy Joe Shaver – Best Songs & more…

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A stone thrown from Heaven, skippin’ ‘cross the water
Would disappear in ripples left behind
A book with no cover, a rhyme with no reason
Guess i’ll always be one of the rovin’ kind

‘Cause movin’s in my soul, i guess a gypsy boy got a hold
Of somebody in my family long ago
If some night while half asleep you hear the back door softly squeak
You’ll touch my empty pillow,then you’ll know

That restless wind,is calling me again
Her warmin’ hand is tuggin’ at my soul
Summer’s gone,and winter’s comin’ on
And i can’t let it catch me standin’ in the cold

– From “Restless Wind” (one of his best songs)

–

“He may be the best songwriter alive
today” – Willie Nelson

«He’s a real writer like Hemmingway.
He’s timeless» – Kris Kristofferson

«Billy Joe is unique. One of a kind.
They threw away the mold. The best.»
– Robert Duvall

I’m listening to Billy Joe Shaver
And i’m reading James Joyce
-Bob Dylan (I Feel a Change Comin’ On)

Billy Joe Shaver turned 73 yesterday.

He is one of my greatest “Honky Tonk Heroes”, but due to Elvis’s  death the same day in 1977.. I could not put him first in yesterdays calendar post.

I need to honor him someway.. this is it…

«Throughout my career as a songwriter, I’ve just written songs about me – the good and the bad, the funny and the sad….. – Billy Joe Shaver

«The songs are my story…» – Billy Joe shaver

«..I’ve lost part of three fingers, broke my back, suffered a heart attack and a quadruple bypass, had a steel plate put in my neck and 136 stiches in my head, fought drugs and booze, spent the money I had, and burried my wife, son & mother in the span of one year…»… .. «I’m not proud of my misfortune – I’m proud of my survival» – Billy Joe Shaver

Continue reading Billy Joe Shaver – Best Songs & more… →

Country, Rock, Singer Songwriter

Video of the day: Someone to love – Ida Jenshus

Very promising taste of her new album, we’re very excited and looking forward to the new record. It will be available in october. We really hope she will tour close to were we live. We saw here at the Oya Festival last year, it was a revelation, one of the best concert at Oya that year. You owe it to yourself to go and see her live. Of the 51 concerts I saw last year I rated Ida Jenshus at Oya at number eight. Egil rated it even higher, at number 5!

Not exactly “acoustic” but a bit toned down and slower than the previousley released version:

Someone to love, faster and with a rhythm section:

– Hallgeir