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Album review
RYAN ADAMS & THE CARDINALS - JACKSONVILLE CITY NIGHTS
"Hitting his stride from this point in, songs like THE
HARDEST PART, WITHERING HEIGHTS and SEPTEMBER
are further proof that Adams is a songwriter only just starting
to hint at what he's truly capable of. The fact that SEPTEMBER
ranks alongside his best work, if not better - a haunting return
to the heartbroken majesty of his first record "
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The second of three promised albums this
year, JACKSONVILLE CITY NIGHTS finds Ryan
Adams reinforcing his image as someone who is nothing if not
prolific. If COLD ROSES was Adams going through
his Neil Young and Crazy Horse phase, then this is his Gram
Parsons record - a record he's been threatening to make since
the first album it seems. Settling into an easy groove with
his band The Cardinals, the second album this year for them
too JACKSONVILLE CITY NIGHTS has a soulful
country rock feel to it. Littered with gentle pedal steel
guitar licks and the brush of drums, this marks a change in
pace and volume from earlier this year - replacing that blistering
guitar storm with something smoother and more languid.
With the opening track A KISS BEFORE I GO,
Ryan Adams sounds more the country rock star than he ever
has before, effecting a Tennessee drawl and treading a very
fine line between love for the genre and parody. Its a similar
effect on THE END, a song that at times sails
close to cheap pastiche with cliched guitar licks and a honky
tonk piano waltz completing the package. DEAR JOHN,
a sublime duet with Norah Jones is all it takes to restore
your faith though, both singers sounding suitably husky and
smokey lunged. If there was a clinging doubt that this album
was heading down the parody route, this is the point to set
you straight - classic songwriting that sounds less like a
weak imitation of Gram Parsons, instead reinforcing the theory
that Adams is his natural successor and making Norah Jones
sound cool to boot.
Hitting his stride from this point in, songs like THE
HARDEST PART, WITHERING HEIGHTS
and SEPTEMBER are further proof that Adams
is a songwriter only just starting to hint at what he's truly
capable of. The fact that SEPTEMBER ranks
alongside his best work, if not better - a haunting return
to the heartbroken majesty of his first record is enough to
convince you that Ryan Adams is someone far from being the
washed up trainwreck that he's constantly taken for in the
press. The bluegrass goes country rock TRAINS sounds
like Bob Dylan channelling Gram Parsons, with a bit of Beck
thrown in for good measure - infectious acoustic guitar grooves
married to fiddles and a hit record in a perfect world.
Of course, being a Ryan Adams record JACKSONVILLE
CITY NIGHTS falls someway short of perfect and like
all his records could do with a healthy dose of quality control
and shortening. The odd patchy moments, like an Elvis cover
version or the ill judged opening songs may stop this being
quite the classic it could have been, but its so close you
can taste it and surely its part of Ryan Adams charm by now
that he does things with such a disregard for the conventions.
Dangerously close to being the classic record he's always
threatened to make, JACKSONVILLE CITY NIGHTS finds
Ryan Adams once again showing flashes of genius amidst the
chaos.
David Ryan Adams was born on 5 November 1974 in Jacksonville,
North Carolina, USA. Influenced early on by bands like Sonic
Youth and The Dead Kennedies he formed high school punk band,
Patty Duke Syndrome, before discovering a love for country
and folk as he grew up. Forming Whiskeytown in 1994 with Caitlin
Cary, Phil Wandscher, Eric "Skillet' Gilmore and Steve
Grothman, they released two albums, Faithless Street and Strangers
Almanac, but artistic and personal differences led to their
eventual disbandment within a few years.
After a period of introspection, Adams began working on his
own songs and honing his musicianship by jamming with friends
Gillian Welch and David Rawlings. He teamed up with Emmylou
Harris for a tribute album to his hero Gram Parsons, which
featured their duet of "Return Of The Grievous Angel'.
However, it was the emotional reaction of the split with a
girlfriend that led to his first solo album in 2000, HEARTBREAKER,
recorded in collaboration with Ethan Johns (who Adams had
already worked with on the final Whiskeytown album).
Adams' second album, GOLD, was a highly ambitious and remarkably
consistent work which helped confirm Adams as the alt-country
artist with the most potential to break into the mainstream.
The album was released on Mercury Records' new alt-country
offshoot, Lost Highway. The prolific Adams released his third
long-player DEMOLITION (compiled from several different album
sessions) in September 2002, and collaborated with singer-songwriter
Jesse Malin in hardcore tribute band the Finger. Three further
releases followed in late 2003, the long-playing ROCK N ROLL
and the EPs LOVE IS HELL PT. 1 and LOVE IS HELL PT. 2. The
latter pair were compiled from material
rejected by Adams' record company as being too bleak to appear
on an official follow-up to GOLD. The artist's response was
to record the hard rocking but critically derided ROCK N ROLL.
Coming back with a new band soon after and announcing their
intention to release three albums in one year, Ryan Adams
and The Cardinals released the double album COLD ROSES in
2005 - a record that harked back to the classic rock sounds
of Neil Young and The Grateful Dead. After a string of cancelled
live dates including a high profile headlining slot at Glastonbury,
the band released the second Cardinals record JACKSONVILLE
CITY NIGHTS later the same year, a more traditional country
rock record in the fashion of Gram Parsons and The Flying
Burrito Brothers.
MIKE BOND_UKMUSICSEARCH 2005
::
Line Up :: Discography :: Merchandise :: Further Listening
:: Web Links ::
| Ryan Adams>vocals/guitar/harmonica/piano J.P. Bowersock>guitar Jon Graboff>pedal steel Brad Pemberton>drums/vocals Catherine Popper>bass/vocals/piano
TEXAS/HISTORY SPLIT 7" (1994>Blast-O-Platter)
AS WHISKEYTOWN ANGELS EP (1995>Mood Food)
FAITHLESS STREET (1995>Mood Food) THEME FOR A TRUCKER (1997>Bloodshot Records)
RURAL FREE DELIVERY (1997>Mood Food)
STRANGERS ALMANAC (1997>Outpost Records)
16 Days (1997>Outpost Records) STRANGERS ALMANAC SAMPLER (1997>Outpost
Records) IN YOUR WILDEST DREAMS EP (1997>Outpost
Records) YESTERDAY'S NEWS (1998>Outpost Records)
WHISKEYTOWN/NEKO CASE AND THE SADIES FAITHLESS STREET (Reissue) (1998>Outpost
Records) RYAN ADAMS HEARTBREAKER (2000>Bloodshot
Records) WHISKEYTOWN PNEUMONIA (2001>Lost Highway
Records) DON'T BE SAD (2001>Lost Highway) GOLD (2001>Lost Highway) NEW YORK, NEW YORK (2001>Lost Highway)
ANSWERING BELL (2002>Lost Highway) ANSWERING BELL (UK LIVE HITS EP) (2002>Lost
Highway) NUCLEAR (2002>Lost Highway) DEMOLITION (2002>Lost Highway) THE FINGER WE ARE FUCK YOU (2002>Broadway
Jungle/Babyman) PUNK'S DEAD LET'S FUCK (2003>Broadway
Jungle/Babyman) ROCK N ROLL (2003) LOVE IS HELL (2003) CHRISTMAS PROMO 7" (2003) COME PICK ME UP (2003) SO ALIVE (2004) RESCUE BLUES 4 TRACK 7" (2004) CALIFORNIA 4 TRACK 7" (2004) MORROCAN ROLE EP (2004>iTunes) 241 EP (2004>iTunes) THIS IS IT (2004) WONDERWALL (2004>Lost Highway) HALLOWEEN PROMO (2004>Lost Highway) NOW THAT YOU'RE GONE (2004>Lost Highway)
LET IT RIDE (2005>iTunes) RYAN ADAMS & THE CARDINALS EASY PLATEAU (2005>Lost Highway) JACKSONVILLE CITY NIGHTS (2005>Lost Highway)
Review date: October 2005
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