Ryan Adams

I've got this mate, let's call him Gav, for that is his name, who has a band called the Scuffers, if you're into alt country with a weegie twist then they are the band for you. When I first met the Gster he was a bit of a cheesy quaver all Rezerection and Stone Island clobber. Then one day he had an epiphany and started listening to his dad's albums which led him to Americana, alt country and picking up a guitar.

Gav and I have been to quite a few gigs together and I suppose I got him into a few bands although like many others he still doesn't get The Fall and he was responsible for putting me onto Ryan Adams. I did not like the idea of country which I thought was all redneck, Republican shit and alt country I just thought would be a watered down version.

Gav kept banging on about Ryan Adams, so in order to be able to argue with him I thought I better at least buy something, listen to it and then I would be able to rip it to shreds. So I bought the album which I had been told was his best, Heartbreaker. To both my dismay and my delight I loved it. Dismay that I could no longer just dismiss alt country as shit kicking music and delight as I had found, albeit rather late, a great singer songwriter and decided to invest in the back catalogue and this is where my problems with Ryan Adams begin.

If you looked up the meaning of prolific in the dictionary, I don't think that Adams' name would be far away. The man has produced 11 legitimate albums in the past 8 years and that's not including the 3 albums with his previous band Whiskeytown. This huge body of work has been the topic of many a conversation between myself and Gav. I think that those 11 albums could be condensed into 5 brilliant albums, not including anything from Rock n Roll. I also believe that his quality control is way off. My evidence for this being the many album recording sessions available where it is not uncommon to find absolutely brilliant tracks which have been shelved in favour of others which are mediocre at best.

Which is the whole point of this post, a couple of days ago a track called Saturday Night came on the ipod, one of Adams best track in my opinion but which has never appeared on any of his albums, it is available on the Pinkheart Sessions which can be found without too much effort on the internet.

Also included in this post is a beautiful song written about Anne Frank which Gav introduced me to, about 5 years ago and reliably informs me that Adams has no intention of ever putting on a legitimate release!

Ryan Adams - Saturday Night

Ryan Adams - Dear Anne