Ryan Adams & The Cardinals - Live, Gem Theatre, Detroit, 20/6/2007
Download from: http://www.archive.org/details/radams2007-06-20.sbd.flac16
by Martin Ryan
As you may or may not know, there are thousands of sites on the
internet which provide links for illegal downloading of mp3's. I would never, under any circumstances,
advocate that readers should make use of these sites, all of which are easily
found with a search of Google blogs. This concert is taken from the Internet
Archive, a source of streamable and (legally) downloadable music, amongst other
things. Adams is one of the few
artists of his stature that allows real free sharing of his music by
giving fans access to the soundboard at his concerts. Apparently Radiohead made more money from the "free"
download of their last album than any of their previous, more conventional,
releases. And this does not take
into consideration all of the free publicity they garnered for their
"revolutionary" vision. Pull the
other one Thom. But...I digress
(just needed to get that one off my chest...bitchy, I know).
Enigmatic. A song writing talent bordering on genius.
Self-destructive. Egotistical. One
of the best male voices in music today. Any or all of the above could describe Ryan Adams. Born in 1974 in North Carolina, he came
to international attention with the alt-country Whiskeytown, which produced
three albums. It seems other
members of the band had difficulties working with Adams, causing him to go solo
in 2000 with his first release, the critically well-received "Heartbreaker". In
2001 a video for his song "New York, New York", recorded on September 7th
in front of the Twin Towers, brought a lot of unexpected attention his way and
helped the album it came from, "Gold", become his best seller so far. Adams
seems to almost have a fear of success, however, his next release being a
compilation of previously recorded tracks that weren't included on earlier
albums. That apparent delight in
confounding the expectations of his supporters, along with his self-confessed
tendency to abuse pretty toxic substances, have seen a talent that should have
reached a wide audience remain a relatively cult-type figure. To date he's released nine solo albums,
three seeing the light of day in the same year (2005). Not exactly the actions of somebody
whose over-riding interests are commercial. Each album contained material that
hinted at the potential that was there if it could be harnessed. His final album of the 2005 trilogy,
"29", was by far his most complete work to date. Last year's "Easy Tiger" refined things even more with a set
of songs that sounded like he'd realised it was time to cut out the chaff and
production values that, while retaining the purity of the music, made it more
palatable to ears not attuned to the country sound. Critics mentioned the
mythical Gram Parsons (with whom Adams shares a birthday) and Neil Young's
classic "After The Goldrush".
This show opens with "Please Do Not Let Me Go" and we're immersed in
the intimacy that Adams can summon up with the help of The Cardinals. A
mid-tempo ballad, it demonstrates the depth of emotion that Adams's voice is
capable of and the quality of his song writing. "If the walls in the room could talk/
I wonder to myself would they lie" leads us into one of his trademark
broken-hearted lover scenarios. This kind of thing has been done to maudlin death, particularly in the
country genre, but when Adams hits the falsetto on "would you lay here for a
while" you know that this is the real thing. The up-tempo "Let It Ride" precedes the first song from
"29", the gorgeous "Elizabeth, You Were Born To Play That Part", followed by
two from "Easy Tiger", the second of which "Oh My God, Whatever, Etc." tells
the story of "strange lovers" lying on "by hour sheets", one of whose name
changes " every time she lies across his bed". The pay-off line, "Oh my God, whatever, etc..." gives a sense of the emptiness
and futility felt by the protagonist in an industry where "Everybody tips but
not enough to knock me over / I've just worked two shifts". The sensitivity of
The Cardinals is highlighted on "Two", one of the stand out tracks from the
same album. Adams's voice is
ghosted by the pedal steel as he sings "It takes two when it used to take one",
a reference to his increased use of stimulants, while the vocal harmonies on
the lines "I'm fractured from the fall / And I wanna go home" lifts a song that
deals with a dark subject to an extent that you're sorry that it ends too soon.
As I've already mentioned, Adams
has been compared to Gram Parsons, the father of country/rock. Many consider
him to be his natural heir. It may
be heretical and I'm sure many country purists reading this will be horrified,
but I'm beginning to believe that the pupil has started to surpass the
master. Adams's voice is
undoubtedly superior to Gram's and improving with maturity. The same can be argued for his song
writing. He is, without a doubt,
as prolific as Parsons was. Sure,
volume does not always equate to guaranteed quality and Parsons died at the age
of 27, having completed only two solo albums but Adams has shown a facility to
straddle genres during his solo career, without compromising his "home turf" by
straying too far from a country sensibility. An example of this is the haunting
final song "Blue Sky Blues". In
its studio form it is a piano led ballad that builds to a glorious
string-driven chorus and finale. Here the band features more prominently but the magic of the song is
unwrapped when Adams winds up the falsetto to sing "But I can't fight your
blues/ 'Cause I know I'll lose what's left / Of my mind/ I can't win/ But for
you I will try". Not the greatest
lyrics ever written but you've really got to hear him sing them.
In an age of
manufactured artists and bands, this is a record of a real singer-songwriter
reaching the pinnacle of his profession, accompanied by a band that's aware of
its individual and collective strengths. The fact that it's free means you can dip your feet without being
burned. If you like what you hear,
I'd suggest you get your hands on a copy of "29" for a breath-taking "Blue Sky
Blues" and "Easy Tiger", for an even better version of "Oh My God, Whatever,
Etc...."