Ryan Adams "Heartbreaker" (2000)
I've never had a huge urge to check out Ryan Adams. Not sure why, I
think I heard a song or two back in the day that I didn't care for, then
heard stories about him being a bit of a dick (not that that
necessarily makes for bad music) so didn't really feel the motivation.
After the breakup of his alt-country group Whiskeytown, Adams teamed up
with country/Americana artists Gillian Welch and David Rawlings to work
on his solo album.
The album was actually pretty good. It's mostly alt-country with a bit
of a Bob Dylan vibe in places (drawling vocal, harmonica and acoustic
guitars). The opening track is wasted on a discussion about which
album a particular Morrissey song is on... not exactly going to stand up
to re-listens that one.
After that it bursts into an ambitious
rockabilly track "To be young (is to be sad, is to be high) which breaks
into more melodic passages. "Amy"
is a gorgeous 60s flavoured ballad that wouldn't be out of place on a
later era Beatles album. "Oh my sweet Carolina" is a smouldering
country ballad with guest vocals by Emmylou Harris, whose album "Red
Dirt Girl" shows up shortly in this list. "Bartering Lines" almost has that atmospheric T-Bone Burnett production to it and some lovely vocal harmonies.
Perfectly listenable, and I'd be more than happy to check out further Adams albums based on this.
