Category Archives: Ryan Adams

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Today: Ryan Adams released “Heartbreaker” in 2000 – 13 years ago

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ryan adams heartbreaker

“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

Come Pick Me Up @ KCRW:

Come pick me up
Take me out
Fuck me up
Steal my records
Screw all my friends
They’re all full of shit
With a smile on your face
And then do it again
I wish you would

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!'”

ryan adams

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”

–

Oh My Sweet Carolina:

I went down to Houston
And I stopped in San Antone
I passed up the station for the bus
I was trying to find me something
But I wasn’t sure just what
Man I ended up with pockets full of dust
So I went on to Cleveland and I ended up insane
I bought a borrowed suit and learned to dance
I was spending money like the way it likes to rain
Man I ended up with pockets full of cane

Album of the day – Heartbreaker (2000):

Other September-05:

  • Freddie Mercury (born Farrokh Bulsara (5 September 1946 – 24 November 1991) was a British musician, singer and songwriter, best known as the lead vocalist and lyricist of the rock band Queen. As a performer, he was known for his flamboyant stage persona and powerful vocals over a four-octave range. As a songwriter, Mercury composed many hits for Queen, including “Bohemian Rhapsody”, “Killer Queen”, “Somebody to Love”, “Don’t Stop Me Now”, “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” and “We Are the Champions”. In addition to his work with Queen, he led a solo career, and also occasionally served as a producer and guest musician (piano or vocals) for other artists. He died of bronchopneumonia brought on by AIDS on 24 November 1991, only one day after publicly acknowledging he had the disease.
  • Loudon Snowden Wainwright III (born September 5, 1946) is a Grammy Award-winning American songwriter, folk singer, humorist, and actor. He is the father of musicians Rufus Wainwright, Martha Wainwright and Lucy Wainwright Roche, brother of Sloan Wainwright, and the former husband of the late folk singer Kate McGarrigle.

  • Joshua Daniel White (February 11, 1914 – September 5, 1969), better known as Josh White, was an American singer, guitarist, songwriter, actor, and civil rights activist. He also recorded under the names “Pinewood Tom” and “Tippy Barton” in the 1930s.

-Egil

Ryan Adams

Unreleased – Cracks in a photograph by Ryan Adams

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suicide handbook

The Unreleased series

“If you run into my sister tell her Elvis is cool
but the Rolling Stones will sweep her away”

Cracks in a photograph is from the unreleased album that was supposed to be the follow-up to Adams’ solo debut Heartbreaker. We can only speculate why the album was shelved, but it is a bleak affair and the title was/is Suicide Handbook. I’m guessing the record company wasn’t too thrilled by what they got served.

The song is the 4th song on the second disc and I will describe it as a hidden gem or a buried treasure, to my knowledge it has never been performed live. It is one of his finest compositions, but maybe it is too close and too true to those bad feelings from before,  even for Ryan Adams. The song could be interpreted as part of a suicide note, or at least the notes from a man making amends and leaving “the old life”.

Cracks in a photograph:

Continue reading Unreleased – Cracks in a photograph by Ryan Adams →

Ryan Adams, Singer Songwriter

Unreleased – Walls by Ryan Adams

ryan adams 48

The Unreleased series

“Maybe I had something nobody saw, blame it on the wall”

Ryan Adams is fantastic songwriter and musician, maybe he is one of the very few geniuses in the art form. Many reviewers are complaining about his vast output, I’m not, I think his body of work is remarkably high in quality. What is even more remarkable is that much of his songwriting is unavailable to the public. His output could have been double of what his discography tells us. A lot of his recorded material is of equally high quality, and in some cases even higher, than his official albums/songs.

I have more than 2000 Ryan Adams related songs on my hard disk, many of them are unreleased songs in studio quality, it was quite a task to pick one to present to you…

Ryan-Adams-48Hours

In 2001, Ryan Adams made one of the best albums of his career, and never released it. It’s one of my favorite albums and it has never seen the light of day. The name of the album is 48 Hours. It was recorded during a, yes you guessed it, 48 hour intense session. 48 Hours is the stuff og legends. It was recorded shortly after Gold, and it was helmed by multi-instrumentalist Ethan Johns who produced Adams’ Heartbreaker. For reasons unknown, 48 Hours was shelved in favor of Demolition (which does include a few tracks from the session). I love Demolition but 48 Hours is another league.

There are so many good songs on the album, there are at least 5 masterpieces and no fillers.  I should’ve done a post on the whole record, but…

I’ve chosen a country song from 48 Hours as my fifth in the Unreleased series, the song is called Walls:

Great pedal-steel work by Greg Leitz!

I see Walls as a song about looking back at your life, discovering that you maybe should have been more open, it’s about “the walls” between people.

Walls, lyrics:

These are the walls
Walls are emptiness made
Yeah, and this is the storm
Looks like it’s gonna hold
Yeah, nobody knows
Who they are around here anymore
Cigarettes and some beers
Then it’s back in the car to the store

Ain’t it funny how we forgot who we were through the years
Put your fist through the wall cryin’ television tears
Maybe I had something nobody saw
Blame it on the walls

Well the rain’s gonna come
Come and wash away all of our sins
And if the damn doesn’t break
Going to wash it away with some gin
Cause they got money to make
And I’ve always got a reason to go
Sheets don’t move from the bed
My head doesn’t move from the floor

Ain’t it funny how we forgot who we were through the years
Put your fist through the wall cryin’ television tears
Maybe I had something nobody saw
Blame it on the walls

Ain’t it funny how we forgot who we were through the years
Put your fist through the wall cryin’ television tears
Put your fist through the wall cryin’ television tears
Put your fist through the wall cryin’ television tears
Put your fist through the wall cryin’ television tears
Put your fist through the wall cryin’ television tears
Yeah . . . yeah . . . yeah
Oh . . . oh

– Hallgeir

Sources: My own memory and knowledge

Music Calendar, Ryan Adams

Today: Ryan Adams is 38

“I’ve never been to Vegas, but I’ve gambled all my life.”
― Ryan Adams (Oh My Sweet Carolina)

“Some people want to go forever, I just want to burn off hard and bright.”
― Ryan Adams (Firecracker)

From Wikipedia:

Birth name David Ryan Adams
Born November 5, 1974 (age 38)
Jacksonville, North Carolina
Origin Raleigh, North Carolina, United States
Genres Rock, alternative country
Occupations Musician, singer-songwriter,poet, painter
Instruments Vocals, guitar, piano, harmonica,bass guitar, drums, banjo,mandolin, ukulele
Years active 1991–present
Labels Bloodshot, Lost Highway, PAX AM, Capitol
Associated acts Whiskeytown, The Cardinals,The Finger, Patty Duke Syndrome, Blank Label
Website http://www.ryan-adams.com/

David Ryan Adams (born November 5, 1974) is an American alt-country/rock singer-songwriter, from Jacksonville, North Carolina. Adams left the group Whiskeytown and released his first solo album Heartbreaker in 2000. The album was nominated for the Shortlist Music Prize and Adams released six additional solo albums, including the UK certified-gold Gold. He released five albums with the rock band The Cardinals and in 2009 Adams married singer-songwriter and actress Mandy Moore. Adams left The Cardinals and announced that he was taking a break from music. He resumed performing in October 2010 and released his thirteenth studio album, Ashes & Fire, on October 11, 2011. The album peaked at No. 7 on the Billboard 200.

Oh My Sweet Carlonina:

Mark Deming (allmusic):
Mixing the heartfelt angst of a singer/songwriter with the cocky brashness of a garage rocker, Ryan Adams is at once one of the few artists to emerge from the alt-country scene to achieve mainstream commercial success and the one who most strongly refused to be defined by the genre, leaping from one spot to another stylistically while following his increasingly prolific muse. Adams was born in Jacksonville, North Carolina in 1974. While country music was a major part of his family’s musical diet when he was young (he’s cited Loretta Lynn, George Jones, Merle Haggard, and Johnny Cash as particular favorites), in his early teens Adams developed a taste for punk rock and began playing electric guitar.

Album of the day:

Gold (2001):

Check out these earlier posts on JV:

Other November 05:

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Music Calendar, Ryan Adams

Today: Ryan Adams released ‘Gold’ in 2001 – 11 years ago

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“All the songs had to work completely and honestly by themselves on acoustic guitar or on piano. If they didn’t, they weren’t worth putting on the record.”
~Ryan Adams (about ‘Gold’)

“[Gold is] me not buying my own bullshit for two seconds.”
~Ryan Adams

From Wikipedia:

Released September 25, 2001
Recorded The Sound Factory
(Hollywood, California)
Genre Rock, alternative country
Length 70:26
Label Lost Highway
Producer Ethan Johns

Gold is the second studio album by Ryan Adams, released September 25, 2001 on Lost Highway Records. The album remains Adams’ best-selling album, certifying gold in the UK and going on to sell 364,000 copies in the U.S. and 812,000 worldwide. Adams noted that “with Gold, I was trying to prove something to myself. I wanted to invent a modern classic.”

Adams intended for the album to be a double album, but his record label, Lost Highway, condensed the album into a single disc. According to Adams, the label “took the last five songs, made it a bonus disc and put it on the first hundred and fifty thousand copies. Fucking my fans over and making them pay extra for a record I wanted to be a double album. They counted that as one record.” This bonus disc is known as Side Four; the disc’s title reflects the fact that the bonus material makes up the fourth side of the double LP edition of the album.

The album includes “When the Stars Go Blue“, which has been covered by artists such as The Corrs and Bono, Tyler Hilton, Bethany Joy Galeotti, and Tim McGraw. “New York, New York” became a notable MTV and VH-1 favorite following the September 11 attacks. “The Rescue Blues” was featured in the end credits of the 2001 film Behind Enemy Lines.

Adams’ friend and former roommate Adam Duritz (lead singer of Counting Crows) lends background vocals to several tracks.

Adams received three Grammy Award nominations in 2002: Best Rock Album, Best Male Rock Vocal Performance for “New York, New York”, and Best Male Country Vocal Performance for “Lovesick Blues”.

Stephen King‘s 2006 book Lisey’s Story includes part of the lyrics to “When the Stars Go Blue”. Also, the song “The Rescue Blues” was featured in an episode of Scrubs. In 2011, “Answering Bell” was featured in the film and on the soundtrack to Bridesmaids.

RollingStone.com – David Fricke:

……
Gold lacks the concise ache of Adams’ indie solo prize from last year, Heartbreaker, but it is stronger on naked truth. In “Harder Now That It’s Over,” a messy tale of jealousy, gunplay and handcuffs co-written with Chris Stills, Adams sings with the straight, clear sorrow of a fool who beat doing hard time but sentenced himself to life alone. “I’m less than nothing now/I’m the one between the bars,” he admits over whispered accordion and a slender stream of steel-guitar tears — an age-old story told be a young singer-songwriter wise enough to let his heart speak for itself.
read more: rollingstone.com

Andrew Gilstrap @ popmatters.com:

……
Overall, though, Gold feels like a record hiding behind masks. Maybe Adams has spent so many years laying his heart out on the line that he’s trying to create a little distance. In some cases, especially on the uptempo numbers, that works just fine. However, the album’s surprisingly minimalist lyrics and derivative arrangements make it stronger on vibe than actual content. Adams recently complained that he’s sick of himself and sick of being deep, and Gold may very well be his respite from that, exercising his inner music geek rather than his soul. Or maybe he’s just trying to say what he needs to say without revealing as much as in the past. Whatever the case, most of Gold lacks the universality and the heart-wrenching beauty of much of Adams’s earlier work.
read more over @ popmatters.som 

Track Listing:

All songs written and composed by Ryan Adams unless otherwise stated.

  1. “New York, New York” 3:46
  2. “Firecracker” 2:51
  3. “Answering Bell” 3:05
  4. “La Cienega Just Smiled” 5:03
  5. “The Rescue Blues” 3:38
  6. “Somehow, Someday” 4:24
  7. “When the Stars Go Blue” 3:31
  8. “Nobody Girl” (Adams/Ethan Johns) 9:40
  9. “Sylvia Plath” (Adams/Richard Causon) 4:10
  10. “Enemy Fire” (Adams/Gillian Welch) 4:09
  11. “Gonna Make You Love Me” 2:36
  12. “Wild Flowers” 4:59
  13. “Harder Now That It’s Over” (Adams/Chris Stills) 4:32
  14. “Touch, Feel and Lose” (Adams/David Rawlings) 4:15
  15. “Tina Toledo’s Street Walkin’ Blues” (Adams/Johns) 6:10
  16. “Goodnight, Hollywood Blvd.” (Adams/Causon) 3:25

Bonus disc: “Side Four”

  1. “Rosalie Come and Go” 3:54
  2. “The Fools We Are As Men” 4:01
  3. “Sweet Black Magic” (Adams/Johns) 2:35
  4. “The Bar Is a Beautiful Place” 5:58
  5. “Cannonball Days”
Personnel:
  • Ryan Adams – Vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, banjo, piano
  • Bucky Baxter – Steel guitar
  • Andre Carter – Trumpet
  • Richard Causon – Piano
  • Jennifer Condos – Bass
  • Milo De Cruz – Bass
  • Adam Duritz – Choir, background vocals
  • Keith Hunter – Choir
  • Rami Jaffi – Accordion
  • Ethan Johns – Drums, electric guitar, chamberlain strings, lead guitar, hammond B-3, background vocals, acoustic guitar, 12-string guitar, mando-cello, vibes, string arrangement, guitar, slide guitar, mandolin, bass, electric piano, celeste, harmonium, congas
  • Rob McDonald – Choir
  • Sid Paige – Concert master
  • Julianna Raye – Background vocals, choir
  • Chris Stills – Background vocals, electric guitar, bass, acoustic guitar, acoustic 12-string guitar
  • Benmont Tench – Hammond B-3, piano
  • Kamasi Washington – Saxophone
  • C.C. White – Background vocals, choir, solo vocals

Firecracker – live:

When The Stars go blue – Live:

Album of the day – Gold (2001):

Other September 25:

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