RL,

You might listen to his Jacksonville City Nights, the second of his three 2005 releases. It sounds the most like the stuff on Heartbreaker.

Hmmm. Thanks for the advice, pE. I may have to do that.

quote:

Originally posted by RavingLunatic:
Hmmm. Thanks for the advice, pE. I may have to do that.

You also might like Whiskeytown's "Pneumonia". It was their last album before Adams went solo, and it's very similar to "Heartbreaker".

quote:

You might listen to his Jacksonville City Nights, the second of his three 2005 releases. It sounds the most like the stuff on Heartbreaker.

You also hate country, and it's the least "alt" of 'em all (but my favorite of his recent material). I favor the Whiskeytown route if you're big on Heartbreaker.

quote:

Originally posted by m.leland:
You also hate country, and it's the least "alt" of 'em all (but my favorite of his recent material). I favor the Whiskeytown route if you're big on Heartbreaker.

Yeah, but I got my brother Stranger's Almanac for his birthday a couple months back, and I just couldn't get into it much. And I had heard that Jacksonville City Nights was a really country album. I don't think that I hate all country, just the upbeat stuff. I really dig some sad slow country songs, which is probably why I liked Heartbreaker so much. Really, a good 70% of the music I like is sad bastard music. It's just what I can relate to I guess. Post-Heartbreaker Ryan Adams may just not be for me. So be it. Thanks anyway, guys.

quote:

Originally posted by RavingLunatic:
Yeah, but I got my brother Stranger's Almanac for his birthday a couple months back, and I just couldn't get into it much. And I had heard that Jacksonville City Nights was a really country album. I don't think that I hate all country, just the upbeat stuff. I really dig some sad slow country songs, which is probably why I liked Heartbreaker so much. Really, a good 70% of the music I like is sad bastard music. It's just what I can relate to I guess. Post-Heartbreaker Ryan Adams may just not be for me. So be it. Thanks anyway, guys.

Whiskeytown's Pneumonia is quite a bit different than Stranger's Almanac, and a lot closer to Adams' Heartbreaker. Check out "The Ballad of Carol Lynn", the opening track. It's a great sad bastard anthem that I think is one of Adams' best songs.

I've enjoyed all of Adams solo albums. Guess I'm more into his more upbeat music than compared to the sad bastard stuff, but any Adams is good to me.

The song "Carolina Rain" was mentioned earlier (I'm too lazy right now to search back as to why it was brought up). Seems that dealt with adultry, murder, death of the narrator's children, maybe some more murder including that of the narrator. Hey, I guess that is sad bastard music. And it's damn good, too.

Thanks for bringing up Carolina rain again. If anyone owns "29" listen to that song again, and try to sort out the narrative. "Crazed" is right that it involves adultery and murder, but really listen and try to figure out the importance of certain details. I am wondering if folks will have the same questions i do, and the same basic idea of the "plot".

Dave

I've been listening to 29 a lot more lately since your thread on "Carolina Rain", ddarch. I'm still not sold on Cold Roses, and occasionally Adams enters territory that makes me cringe a little (the vocal exercise delivery thing he has going on in "Starlite Diner") but I find Jacksonville City Nights and 29 more engaging than the French-Canadian invasion.

I can't explain why I like Adams, or answer why, as The Guardian wonders, "he commands such loyalty." He strikes me as someone who loves telling stories. Maybe he can't edit himself because everything's so personal — 29 strikes me as a pretty personal record — and he can't tell the difference. Or maybe I give him too much credit.

But this is why, and I'm sure I've expressed this before somewhere around here, I don't believe in "filler." At least not in the sense that artists — who have at least limited control over their work — write a few catchy tracks and throw in some throwaways just to get the record out there. I've produced failed experiments I still love and share like I would an ugly child (so have the parents of indie rockers — ZING!), and I'm sure this feeling extends to anyone involved in creating anything from scratch. Expressing yourself through a medium ain't always easy.

quote:

Originally posted by m.leland:
I can't explain why I like Adams, or answer why, as The Guardian wonders, "he commands such loyalty."

I have a simple answer to why I like Ryan Adams: "Houses on The Hill." It's a song on Strangers Almanac and such a brilliant little Raymond Carver-esque vignette that I'm willing to forgive Ryan's indulgences and wade through 3 albums because maybe, JUST MAYBE, there's another "Houses On The Hill" in there.

I'll listen to "Carolina Rain" and see if it hits that high mark.

Eric you make a great point when you say - I'm paraphrasing here - you're willing to wade through some filler in order to reach a possible gem. There have many times where I've given a band another chance because of something great I liked by them from a previous album.

Okay, so now that it seems I've hooked a couple of you into listening closely to Carolina Rain...here are my questions:

1. What were the 2 hundred dollar bills used for?
2. Did the narrator murder more than one person?
3. Was one of the people murdered Alder? Seems not.
4. Is Rose also Caroline? Seems like it.
5. What was happening at the "banquet hall" which he mentions 3 times...their wedding?
6. Why might the two men at the end be angry?
7. Is Rose/Caroline dead at the end?

Part of the brilliance of this song is the lyric sheet is very little help at all...Adams blends lines from one sentence into the start of another...like the wonderful eggs/legs line!

Dave

quote:

Originally posted by m.leland:
I can't explain why I like Adams, or answer why, as The Guardian wonders, "he commands such loyalty."

But this is why, and I'm sure I've expressed this before somewhere around here, I don't believe in "filler." At least not in the sense that artists — who have at least limited control over their work — write a few catchy tracks and throw in some throwaways just to get the record out there. I've produced failed experiments I still love and share like I would an ugly child (so have the parents of indie rockers — ZING!), and I'm sure this feeling extends to anyone involved in creating anything from scratch. Expressing yourself through a medium ain't always easy.

Yeah, I'm not sure if I agree with everyone who claims that he should just heavily edit his material and put out fewer albums. Maybe his albums would be of higher quality, but I'm not so sure. When I really like an artist or an album, it's hard for me to imagine any of the tracks being edited out. Lots of times, the less popular songs are ones that I love and would hate to see cut.

But really, the bottom line here is that Ryan Adams fans love getting all this material, and Adams loves putting it out. What's the problem? So what if the average critic doesn't like it? If you think he should've cut songs, cut them yourself and make a mixtape.

I feel the same way about Jason Molina as a lot of people do about Ryan Adams. I love just about everything the guy has done, and I love the fact that he's coming out with 3 full-length albums this year (and that after two albums and an EP last year). I think that Molina fans are even more cultish than Ryan Adams fans if that's possible. That [URL=pry.com songs ohia fansite]http://pry.com/songsohia[/URL] is ridiculously awesome.

I think the "Ryan needs an editor" backlash is silly. I agree with RL that it shouldn't be up to the critics(or a label boss) to decide what songs are on a record, it should be up to the artist. Kudos to Ryan for finding a label (Lost Highway) that tolerates what might be seen as 'excesses' and lets him put the records out as he envisions them. If I don't like 4 songs off of 29, I don't have to listen to them. But I'd much rather get 3 records of stuff to pick and choose from than 1.

Sorry for the back to back posts, but I've listened to "Carolina Rain" a few times and I can't offer much help.

I think that Rose is Caroline...maybe she killed her landlord and used the $200 to buy the gold plated cross and then changed her name?

I'm pretty sure the narrator killed the Alderman and took up with Caroline, but I'm not sure if he killed anyone else.

It's a weird narrative. It seems to jump from perspectives on a dime and may be a stream of consciousness thing, nonlinear in form.

I hadn't thought of the name change due to the murders. That's a good theory. At first I thought it was just the narrator who had done the killings...but now that I recall, there is the line "Rose spilled the beans" which means maybe they both did it???

I feel just the opposite about the writing of the song...not stream of consciousness at all, but rather a very evolved poem that was pared down and re-shuffled for maximum effect. One of the main reasons I think that is the sophisticated wordplay...the "egg" line I mentioned earlier and also the "granite" line. Both of those kind of blend in an interesting way when he sings them, whereas on the lyric sheet it looks blase.

Ironically, I would agree the narrator is appearing to relate these details in a way that is "stream of consciousness." The song, though, for its density...to me...seems anything but.

Anyone else want to chime in?

Dave

Hero

quote:

Originally posted by philosopherEric:
I think that Rose is Caroline...maybe she killed her landlord and used the $200 to buy the gold plated cross and then changed her name?

I'm pretty sure the narrator killed the Alderman and took up with Caroline, but I'm not sure if he killed anyone else.

It's a weird narrative. It seems to jump from perspectives on a dime and may be a stream of consciousness thing, nonlinear in form.

After hearing the song again, I'm wondering if before the narrator drifts into town, he was hired by the Alderman to kill the landlord? The Alderman desired Rose. Rose had problems with the landlord. The Alderman hires the narrator to help dispose of the landlord. The Alderman helps Rose change her name to Caroline. She marries him, maybe more for his money and status than for him (though she still works because she hates being cooped up in that house on the hill). The narrator drifts into town, maybe wanting to meet the woman who he killed for or maybe he's seen her from afar when Alderman was helping her move. He falls for her. Maybe "Rose spilled the beans" is her confessing that the Alderman had the landlord killed. But- maybe the Alderman, knowing that the narrator & Caroline were having an affair, created false evidence that narrator, working alone, killed the landlord. Perhaps the Alderman told some of his friends, 'Hey, anything happens to me, go after Percy's husband cause I believe he's seeing Caroline and I think he might have killed her old landlord' or something like that. Thus we have the angry drunk guys shooting in the banquet hall (unless the narrator went on a killing spree). What a great film noir this would make. I hope they cast Jennifer Connelly and Rachel McAdams.

I just got back from the record store with 29 in my bag. I'm sure I'll have an opinion on this damn song within a few days.

I'll second the Jennifer Connelly thing if she returns to her pre-2001 "form".

Looking forward to someonelse chiming in...

Dave