Thursday, June 21st, 2007
Oh My God, Whatever, Etc.
I know lots of you still love Ryan Adams. That’s cool. My thoughts on the man haven’t changed too much since this post a couple years ago, even though afterwards, on the recommendations of many, I picked up what was generally regarded as the strongest of his three 2005 releases, Jacksonville City Nights. And while it was decent enough, like most of the rest of his post-Heartbreaker releases, it failed to engage me for any significant length of time. I really can’t put my finger on why, but I can probably say with some certainty that Ry-ry and my CD collection have parted ways for good.
But he remains a fascinating individual, as this weekend’s New York Times feature proved – as restlessly creative as he is (was?) self-destructive, even if you’re not into the music he’s great tabloid fodder. And with the release of his new record Easy Tiger
But wait – there’s a contest component to this post. Courtesy of Universal Music Canada, I’ve got a pretty sweet prize pack to give away to some lucky Canuck (this contest is only open to Canadians, sorry). The winner of this one will get to stare at a poster of Ryan Adams whilst listening to Easy Tiger in either analog or digital form because they’ll have a copy of the new record on LP and CD. That’s Easy Tiger on LP, Easy Tiger on CD and a Ryan Adams poster, just to be clear (don’t know what the poster looks like, sorry). To enter, leave me a comment with your pick for the best song Adams has written. You can pick from either his solo work or his Whiskeytown oeuvre – I’m curious what era of his career gets the most votes. Now though the contest is only open to Canadians, if someone from elsewhere wants to chime in, feel free. Just mention you’re not eligible for the contest (and don’t try to sneak one by me – you’ll have to provide your mailing address if you win). I’ll let this one run for a week – contest closes at midnight, June 28. Update: Congrats to Braden on winning the prize pack. The rest of y’all are still in the running for the autographed litho, though.
Stream: Ryan Adams / Easy Tiger
NPR also has Wilco at the World Cafe with a four-song session and interview while Filter has posted their cover story on the band from their latest issue. Wilco are in town at Massey Hall next Saturday with Low, and Bradley’s Almanac has assembled an almost-complete live version of their latest Drums & Guns pulling tracks from various shows, including one in Boston in April which he’s also sharing in its entirety.
The Age talks to Dinosaur Jr.
Coming July 21 to Sneaky Dee’s – Vancouver’s They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? accompanied by Montreal’s Shapes & Sizes.
Drowned In Sound has words with Handsome Furs, in town at Lee’s Palace on July 31.
eye and The Toronto Star interview Graham Van Pelt of Miracle Fortress, in town Saturday night for a show at the Whippersnapper Gallery. My contest for the Miracle Fortress vinyl closes tonight so if you wanted to enter but haven’t had any interesting dreams lately… make one up. I won’t know the difference.
Speed Of Dark offers up a combination concert review/interview with Land Of Talk. Among things revealed – the band have signed with One Little Indian in Europe and will release their forthcoming full-length there this year with a domestic release possibly not coming until 2008. Boo, hiss!
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6/21/07 9:18 am
best ryan adam’s song….right now I really love goodnight rose from easy tiger, even though i’ve only heard the live version I’ve listened to it many times, im anxious to hear the album version, before that song my favorite would have been "hardest part" from jacksonville city nights.
Do i have to leave my address here?
6/21/07 9:37 am
well you don’t, craig – I know how to find you. But for everyone else, give me a spam-proof email addy or website or something, just so that I can find you if you win.
6/21/07 9:47 am
It’s hard for me to pick a favourite, but when I look at my iTunes stats, I find I’ve actually listened to _Rock N Roll_ more than his other albums. I know a lot of people didn’t think much of this album, but I quite like it — probably because it was what he was playing the only time I saw him live. Of that album, I like "So Alive" best.
6/21/07 9:48 am
The Hardest Part from Jacskonville City Nights.
6/21/07 9:57 am
My Winding Wheel. Besides the fact that it is a beautiful musical masterpiece, there is something else about the song that I love. It is the "what the hell" factor. I have to love a song that is smarter then me. And "wheel" speaks of things far deeper then this Southern Ontario brain. However, I am in good company with the WTF? element of mystery. Bob Dylan once said in response to a question about Ryan Adams, "Yeah, What the hell is a whinding wheel?".
I hear ya Bob.
6/21/07 10:01 am
‘Harder Now That It’s Over’ from Gold. I don’t know why. I like a lot of his songs from different releases but if I have to pick a favourite, this would be it (even if Gold isn’t my fave CD). so, do I win?
6/21/07 10:22 am
I love Ryan Adams! I just wish he weren’t so….hmm..mean sometimes. When I saw him in concert he actually stormed off after smashing a bottle on the stage. =o/
6/21/07 10:45 am
Good contest, Frank! My immediate choice is "Why Do They Leave’ from Heartbreaker (although ‘Desperate Ain’t Lonely’ from Faithless Street runs a close second)…
6/21/07 11:01 am
Definitely "Strawberry Wine"
6/21/07 11:14 am
Jacksonville Skyline, from Whiskeytown’s Pneumonia.
What a gorgeous, sad, lonely song. I think it really portrays how his innocence has been hardened and jaded over the years, and how lonely life can be sometimes. I think for a long time, it was his most soul-bearing song.
6/21/07 11:15 am
Cold Roses – sweet riff, nice easy jam, good full-band kinda song. harmony guitars. definitely a song the allmans or dead would have written if either were decent anymore (and that’s a compliment). old time feel is what i going for….
6/21/07 11:25 am
Hey Frank – I still love me some Ryan Adams – "la cienega just smiled" from GOLD is my favourite.
6/21/07 11:29 am
In My Time Of Need from Heartbreaker. But that may change in five minutes.
6/21/07 11:44 am
I’m going to go with ‘My Winding Wheel’, so fantastic, but really I love the entire Heartbreaker album. Also, Rock n Roll doesn’t get the credit it deserves.
Ryan Adams is wicked.
6/21/07 11:51 am
Oh My Sweet Carolina. It’s great because it’s NOT about a girl, it’s about wanting to go home. It doesn’t reinvent the wheel or anything, but it’s simple, sad, and kinda beautiful; one of those tunes that probably wrote itself. All this would be enough for a great song…but then it’s got Emmylou Harris.
6/21/07 12:31 pm
RA has so many great tunes. It’s very hard to choose just one. But I love Nobody Girl for it’s driving force. One of those songs I just want to crank up in my car on some long desolate highway and speed to!! :) As well Sweet Carolina is an incredibly beautiful song, both lyrically and instrumentally.
6/21/07 12:43 pm
i’d have to go with "Magnolia Mountain" from Cold Roses. i couldn’t believe that song when i first heard it streaming on his website. still love it: live and on record.
6/21/07 1:17 pm
16 days destroys me, so passionate, so Ryan!
6/21/07 1:33 pm
"Call Me On Your Way Back Home" is by favourite song by anybody.
6/21/07 1:53 pm
I’ll second "16 Days" (Stranger’s Almanac version).
6/21/07 2:05 pm
"Excuse Me While I Break My Own Heart Tonight" from Strangers Almanac.
This song saved my life
6/21/07 2:12 pm
I personally like "Cuts Like a Knife", although for some reason a lot of folks prefer "Summer of ’69". Mostly he just makes me feel sort of tired.
6/21/07 3:09 pm
fav. ryan adams song — "This House Is Not for Sale"
6/21/07 3:10 pm
whoops, mean to add in the old email there.
6/21/07 3:32 pm
Damn, this is so hard… I’ll have to settle on Oh My Sweet Caroina, as it’s the one I keep coming back to.
It’s really mind-boggling how people can STILL think the "mistaking Ryan Adams for Bryan Adams" joke is still funny. Must be the same crowd who keep America’s funniest home videos and Reba on the air.
6/21/07 3:32 pm
The best Ryan Adams song for me is The Battle. Played live a couple times by Whiskeytown and recorded as an extra track for Caitlin Cary’s first cd.
6/21/07 3:33 pm
I’d go with Hard Way To Fall.
6/21/07 3:44 pm
This is hard, but I’m gonna go with Paper Moon
6/21/07 3:50 pm
i gotta say jacksonville skyline, too
6/21/07 5:57 pm
I cast my vote for "My Love For You Is Real"
6/21/07 6:20 pm
"call me on your way back home" never gets old for me.
6/21/07 7:23 pm
Oh My Sweet Carolina, though Houses on the Hill and Come Pick Me Up are really, really, REALLY, close behind!!
6/21/07 8:02 pm
"Desire" off Demolition
6/21/07 8:33 pm
i’m not eligible for this contest so i’ll give you two songs… in the last few years i find myself going back to "city rain, city streets" over and over again. he’s writen far better songs, but there’s something about the song that i love. i think "love is hell" is a very underrated album in the ryan adams catalog. if we’re talking about the older stuff, then i would have to say that "la cienega just smiled" is my favorite.
6/21/07 9:16 pm
Come Pick Me Up if only for the line "steal my records"
6/22/07 12:43 am
as a diehard Ryan fan, I can tell you that Jacksonville was the worst of his ’05 releases. The best? The highly underrated 29.
6/22/07 9:53 am
Ryan Adams should learn the value of quality over quantity. He should wait on releasing three of his albums, cut them down to one, then he might make something worth listening to again.
6/22/07 10:17 am
Best song he’s written is "In My Time Of Need"
6/22/07 10:18 am
"Sylvia Plath"
6/22/07 7:33 pm
‘Avenues’ – I know it sounds like he’s repeating some lines but I’m telling it’s a sweet little song in the middle of a great Whiskeytown CD ‘Strangers Almanac’. It’s the first tune that made me want to pick up their catalogue.
6/22/07 10:16 pm
This thread is probably would make up a good best-of record. Like Ryan needs an excuse for another record… My vote goes to Come Pick Me Up.
6/23/07 1:44 pm
My fave Ryan Adams song, or at least one of my recurring faves (there are way too many) is "Sweet L’il Gal (23rd and 1st)" from Heartbreaker. I love his muted piano and vocal songs.
(Second fave, maybe, Shadowlands from Love is Hell, the record everybody loves to hate!)
P.S. As an aside, I was at the Enwave show last night, and damn it was good. You will read reviews saying that the audience was "rowdy", and all that, and there were only 2 shout-outs in the whole show, which if anyone has ever been to a Ryan show, is remarkably low. And no encore; so what? He played song after song after song, without banter, and with little pause. It was a filled hour and ten. Seriously one of the best auditory experiences I’ve had, aided perhaps by the fact that it was a dark show with ambient lighting only. Anyone who says any differently couldn’t have possibly been there to hear the music.
6/24/07 2:07 pm
alright…I’m chasing Ryan vinyl here. Fave song, which is really tough given that he’s been my fave artist for almost a decade…
Gimme Sunshine – available only as a live track. He opened with this song at the Horseshoe in 2000. If we were meant to choose an officially recorded track, I’d have to go with ‘Come Pick Me Up’ from Heartbreaker.
btw, if anyone wants to download the Toronto show from Friday, it’s here and it sounds beautiful. Even Frank might enjoy it ;)
http://bt.etree.org/details…
Is this where I beg and plead now?
david
6/24/07 7:59 pm
"When The Stars Go Blue" from Gold. Because it’s been covered by Tyler Hilton, and I still love it.
6/25/07 1:15 am
The Bar is a Beautiful Place
6/25/07 9:49 am
right now it would probably be Strawberry wine, the story that runs through it is fantastic.
6/25/07 5:00 pm
Rosalie Come & Go
he did write that right? well, it’s my fave song anyway
6/25/07 7:48 pm
Magnolia Mountain, hands down.
6/26/07 1:07 pm
Yeah, I love Magnolia Mountain, too… that’s my pick!
6/27/07 4:20 pm
my pick is for Firecracker off Gold. Just very of the moment and unapologetic. yeah vinyl and cd.
6/28/07 9:59 am
Harder Now That It’s Over – not to say Gold is my favourite album, but this song is very special for so many reasons.
6/28/07 11:54 am
I’d have to say "Oh My Sweet Carolina" – those harmonies with Emmylou Harris are unbelievable. A – very – close second would have to be "Excuse Me While I Break My Own Heart".
6/28/07 1:29 pm
I have to pick a non-official release song because the first time I heard it it made me a little weepy. The song is Memories of You from the Destroyer or Bedhead sessions.
Officially….Easy Hearts from Pneumonia OR Lo-Fi Tennessee Mountain Angel from Faithless Street. I like my Ryan a little country.
6/28/07 9:04 pm
"Cracks In A Photograph" from his album The Suicide Handbook. It’s just amazing.
7/1/07 3:20 am
"i see monsters"….so good
7/13/07 4:49 am
My absolute favorite hands down is "Afraid Not Scared." If you really listen to that song you can feel the meanings behind the music and it is so powerful. I also feel "Come Pick Me Up" from Heatrbreaker, "How Do You Keep Love Alive" from Cold Roses and "Two" from his newest LP, Easy Tiger.