A troubled troubadour
Ryan Adams has produced a huge volume of great music. Lew Guthrie III casts his eye over it, particularly last year’s Jacksonville City Nights
When Ryan Adams came crashing out of the American South he did so with the swagger of a guitar slinger and the talent of a troubled troubadour. Fearless, unpredictable and highly prolific, heâs never made it easy for himself and weâre all the better off as a result.
Take the name. He wasnât christened Ryan and he must have known using it publicly would have caused some confusion; and yet heâs been known to evict leary hecklers for asking him to play Everything I Do (I Do It For You).
Rock music doesnât produce true left field rebels very often any more, which is why those of us who like our rock and roll dirty and unkempt cling to Shane MacGown and stand up for Pete Docherty.
But anyone can be a waster. To carry this stuff off you have to have charisma and a bucketful of talent. And boy, Ryan Adams has both â and then some.
He set out his agenda years back when he named his band Whiskeytown, and started producing country-tinged rock songs that have their roots in the music of Gram Parsons and Johnny Cash and have been distilled through bands such as Green On Red, the Long Ryders, Rain Parade and more recently Son Volt.
Adams is the nearest thing weâve got to a new Neil Young, and his output swings from unaccompanied gentle acoustic sets to hard hitting rock-outs. In the harrowing two part collection Love Is Hell he even gave us a modern answer to Youngâs Tonightâs the Night.
Unlike Young, though, Adams has had the fast forward button pressed down firml.....
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By Lew Guthrie III
Section : Whisky and Music
Page number : 35
