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Artists > A - C > Adams, Ryan

 
:: Heartbreaker  Ref: COOKCD205
 
 
 
Heartbreaker

Price:   £7.99

Buy Now

...searing country poetics - Uncut

...visionary rock troubadour - NME

The singing/songwriting force behind the critically-hailed, country-rock trash brat romantics Whiskeytown lets loose with his first solo CD. That force is Ryan Adams, an artist whose voice, both physically and lyrically, is like a street poet's coming out of a skate punk.

Heartbreaker is a disc to listen to when you're home from a long night of drowning your sorrows, too drunk to sleep but too sober to face staying awake. You can't stop the treadmill of despair that's spinning in your brain. Maybe you should have another drink, and go sit on the back porch to torture yourself by thinking, thinking, thinking …. Better put on that cd, and try to stop your brain.

A sleepless dream ensues. Adams appears as a troubadour along the road, hair in his eyes. He sings in a voice whose ragged edges are worn smooth, like a stone polished in a river of sorrow. The songs take you back in time: Washington Square Park in Manhattan, the troubadour playing an acoustic guitar, a harmonica … a Beatles-esque musical garden, where you float on a bed of stringed swells … The songs sure are sad, but the troubadour tells you there's nothing wrong with being sad, nothing wrong with feeling old before your time. You come to wondering how feeling so sad can feel so damn good.

Ryan's approach on this disc is simple: a stripped down band + killer songs + lots o' soul-baring = a Dylanesque, raggedy folk-punk confessional. Themes of desperation, loss and hope are delivered via bleak and eerie country-tinged laments, Byrds-y country pop and a car/murder rocker/ballad. Top it all off with guest vocals from such estimable folks as the legendary Emmylou Harris (!!!), Gillian Welch and Kim Richey, and this record lives up to its title.

Lest you fear that you won't hear from Whiskeytown again, rest assured they'll be back. In the meantime, Ryan has some stories to tell and songs that just had to get out there, and he wanted to put them out on an independent label. So he called Bloodshot, said (basically) How 'bout it? and Bloodshot said (exactly) Hell yeah!. Bloodshot called Cooking Vinyl and you guessed it, Cooking Vinyl said too right!

In addition to Heartbreaker, Ryan Adams has been a frequent contributor to the Bloodshot cause. Whiskeytown released a double 7" in 1997, and a split single with Neko Case in 1998. They also contributed tracks to our Straight Outta Boone County (1997 - a Moon Mullican song), and Poor Little Knitter on the Road (1999 - a Merle Haggard song) compilations. As a solo artist, earlier this year Ryan released a song on our 5th Anniversary compilation Down To The Promised Land.


This album is on CD and not vinyl. 


 


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