It’s Valentine’s Day, and Ryan Adams is celebrating the occasion with a new love song appropriately called ‘Baby, I Love You’. Adams’ press release describes the tune as “a song to one’s baby, whom they love—a unique twist on Ryan Adams’ classic recipe, with key ingredient ‘sad’ replaced by ‘happy’”.
On top of the new song, the singer-songwriter has also announced a huge show at Red Rocks Amphitheatre on June 14th, Early last year, Adams released his latest album Prisoner. The Prisoner singer has been embroiled in a long-term feud with The Strokes, which saw Adams once again took to Twitter last July, writing: “Abert Hammond is a more horrible songwriter than his dad. If that’s possible. It rains in Sthtrn CA & washes out the dirt As you were RA x”
He swiftly followed that up with a dig at Strokes frontman Julian Casablancas, tweeting “Julian Casablancas: who got you strung out on lasagna tho?”
Adams continued: “I should have got them addicted to writing better songs. Too bad The Killers did it for them”.
The spat came after it was claimed by The Strokes that Adams was in some way responsible for Albert Hammond Jr.’s past heroin addiction.
The comments came in a new book by Lizzy Goodman calledMeet Me in the Bathroom: Rebirth and Rock and Roll in New York City, 2001–2011, which details the rise of 2000s NYC indie bands such as The Strokes, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, LCD Soundsystem, Interpol and Vampire Weekend.
Ryan Adams drew from some potentially surprising sources while dreaming up the musical landscape for his next solo LP. The new record, released in November, has evolved beyond Adams’ initial description of an album inspired by the “sonic geography” of classic releases from Bruce Springsteen and the Smiths. In its place stands a set of songs whose recordings absorbed the strains of different artists on Adams’ iPod playlist.
“When I run, I listen to [an iPod] Nano that I have. I put all the AC/DC records on from back to front, or I’ll listen to the best of stuff from the ’80s: Springsteen, or [Bruce] Hornsby, and I’ll listen to what is going on there. I was listening to AC/DC’s Fly on the Wall,” he recalled, “and that’s when I realized what I had to do for the record.”
But if AC/DC inspired a new direction for the album, fans probably shouldn’t expect to hear that band’s stomping, monolithic crunch. In fact, it sounds like there’s a lot more going on in terms of production — including more intricate guitar arrangements inspired by ELO and Bachman-Turner Overdrive. “I was like, ‘Wow! I understand the multicolored guitar tone moments now. You can layer stuff. I really just learned a lot.””
Fueled by the maddening depression that comes from divorce, Ryan Adams did what he does best: He wrote about it. For 12 tracks, the shaggy singer-songwriter wrestles with his worst demons, reeking of pathos and abandon.
Not since Heartbreaker has Ryan Adams sounded this earnest. Every track beams with the kind of fragility you’d want from a denim lothario like Adams, but instead of wallowing in grief, these songs attempt to resolve it. They do.
To help him achieve all this, Adams turned to Grammy-winning producer Don Was, who he referred to in the interview as “Gandalf” and credited with helping him winnow down the “quite literally 80″ songs he had written for the record. Adams described the end result as an album that asks some “cool, big questions” without getting unwieldy.
“I think the challenge for me — the Everest peak, for me — is to tell this story in 11 songs, to tell this part of my life in 11 songs,” he added. “How do I make a real distinct record where anybody listens to it and says, ‘That’s the truth from beginning to end.’ So it’s like exercise. It sucks in the beginning. But then you get into it.”
Essential Tracks: “Doomsday”, “Anything I Say to You”, “To Be Without You”, and “Outbound Train”
Following the success of Gold, in 2002 Ryan Adams was blocked by his label from releasing his choice for a follow-up. This would be the second time this happened, the first being with Gold; Adams had recorded “The Suicide Handbook” which was rejected on the grounds that it was “too sad”. Ryan has stated that The Suicide Handbook was made for Lost Highway as the follow-up to “Heartbreaker” and called it his “most majestic piece ever.
Tracklist
“Suicide Handbook” Ryan Adams The Unofficial Unreleased CDr “Wildflowers” 4:30 “Perfect And True” 3:07 “Tell It To My Heart” 3:18 “She Wants To Play Hearts” 4:01 “Pretenders” 2:56 “Famous Eyes” 2:16 “Touch, Feel & Lose” 3:42 “Firecracker” 2:59 “La Cienega Just Smiled” 3:20 “You Don’t Know Me” 4:12 “Bow To The Sad Lady” 3:42 “Off Broadway” 3:39 “Cracks In A Photograph” 3:57 “I’m Waiting” 3:04 “Cry On Demand” 4:24 “Miss Sunflower” 4:38 “Just Saying Hi (Answering Bell)” 3:13 “California Love” 2:27 “Idiots Rule The World” 3:30 “Dear Chicago” 2:13 Ships from the UK
The Suicide Handbook is an unplugged collection of 21 acoustic songs, that Ryan wrote following his ill-fated breakup with an unnamed Hollywood actress. Recorded in January of 2001, and just months prior to the sessions for Gold, these songs have a similar feel to those of Bruce Springsteen’s classic album Nebraska. Joined only by band mate – Bucky Baxter, who plays some excellent pedal steel, guitar and occasional background vocals, this albumis Ryan Adams at his most stripped down. Nearly half of the songs on The Suicide Handbook have gone on to be re-recorded for other albums; sometimes with different lyrics, or slightly different arrangements; other times with a faster tempo or doctored up with more reverb. “Answering Bell”, “Firecracker”, “La Cienega Just Smiled”, “Mara Lisa”, “Wild Flowers”, and “Touch, Feel, and Lose” would all go on to be highlights on Gold. While “Dear Chicago”, “She Wants to PlayHearts”, and “Cry on Demand” would be left almost untouched, and released the following year on a collection called Demolition.
Over the past ten years, there have been a number of rumors and tentative plans, made by Ryan Adams and Lost Highway Records; that The Suicide Handbook would be officially released. Originally, the record was going to come out as part of a 4-6 disc collection called 20:20; and feature a treasure trove of previously unreleased material, including several finished albums. Unfortunately these recordings have yet to surface, but there is some good news! Recently, after leaving Lost Highway Records, Ryan retained the rights to release these recordings on his own. His new plan is to release this someday as a single album. Since being recorded in 2001, Ryan has gone back and properly mixed and mastered the album, with full band accompaniment (including drums by Brad Pemberton of The Cardinals, and a 16 piece string section with parts arranged by Ryan). He has also stated that there are several songs on the final version which do not appear on this bootleg recording.
Thanks for the words mega-superior-gold.blogspot.co.uk
Produced by Ryan Adams at Pax-Am Studios, Bridgers is – in Adams’ words — a “musical unicorn” who “could make a jar of sand sound like ‘Blood On The Tracks’”. Possessing vulnerability and strength in equal measure, Phoebe Bridgers is one of my favorite up and coming singer-songwriters. I love what she’s doing, I’m excited to see what she does next, and I hope you enjoy it as well.
I met Ryan through my boyfriend, Marshall Vore, another amazing songwriter. We all hung out, I played Ryan some songs, and the next day we recorded three of my songs. Just me, singing and playing Ryan’s guitar, with his doctor, his actual literal doctor, on pedal steel.
Director Noah Abrams did a good thing when he decided to shoot Ryan Adams’ newest release “Do You Still Love Me?” at Colorado’s Red Rocks Amphitheatre. Arguably one of the best outdoor gig venues in the US, it’s set between two massive monoliths that sit beside thousands of seats sloping downwards into a natural amphitheatre—just as appealing as Adams’ newest musical offering. But you didn’t come here for a geography lesson, did you? You came here to watch Ryan Adams, so go ahead. The video is cut with private moments on tour, in the studio, and with some standard hair on face action in front of a crowd in Red Rocks. Fun fact: you can drag the subtitles around the screen as they play.
Ryan Adams – Do You Still Love Me? (Live on The Tonight Show
January 24th, 2017. Live @ BBC Radio 6 Music.Ryan Adams perform a beautiful cover of Bruce Springsteen’s classic “Streets Of Philadelphia”.
The timing of the release of Adams’ cover is particularly apt, given that the 89th Academy Awards took place in LA on Sunday. The cover was recently recorded as part of BBC Radio 6 Music’s upcoming celebration of the year 1994 – which will be broadcast on Friday (March 3) – with Adams taking on Springsteen’s track from the Oscar-winning film Philadelphia, which although released in 1993 won the Oscar for Best Original Song at the 1994 ceremony.
Ahead of 6 Music Celebrates 1994 on Friday March 3rd, Ryan Adams performed an exclusive cover of the Bruce Springsteen 1994 classic Streets Of Philadelphia for Lauren Laverne in the 6 Music Live Room.
Ryan Adams is preparing a limited-edition version of his upcoming latest album, “Prisoner”, which will come with a host of special, seriously unusual extras. Pre-orders for the “Prisoner: End of the World” box are available now for Adams’ Mystery Box email list subscribers (and here on Jan. 25 for the general public), with both in line to receive a digital copy of the album when it drops on February. 17th
So, what do you get for your $150? For starters you’ll unpack 12 7-inch records — one for each of the dozen songs on Prisoner backed with 17 previously unreleased B-sides and all pressed on different colored vinyl and with their own unique cover art. But wait, there’s more! Prisoner is Ryan Adams‘ first album of new material since 2014’s self-titled set and the follow-up to 2015’s cover of Taylor Swift’s 1989 album.
The set also comes with a 2-D playset featuring action figures of Adams and his band, complete with working lights and sound, amps, arcade games, cats and guitar pedal boards. Upping the ante, 12 randomly selected copies of the box will also include a one-of-a-kind solo acoustic 7-inch singles of a Prisoner track recorded at Electric Lady Studios’ legendary Voice-O-Graph. According to a release announcing the set, there will only be one production run of the box, with only one per customer.
The Fat Angel Sings 