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Ryan Adams
Ryan Adams performing live
Background information
Birth name	David Ryan Adams
Born	November 5, 1974 (1974-11-05) (age 35) in Jacksonville, North Carolina, United States
Origin	Raleigh, North Carolina, United States
Genres	Alternative country, rock
Occupations	Musician, singer-songwriter, author
Instruments	Vocals, guitar, piano, harmonica, bass guitar, drums, banjo
Years active	1991 – 2009, 2010 – present
Labels	Bloodshot Records (1999-2000) Lost Highway Records (2001-2008) PAX AM (2009-present)
Associated acts	Whiskeytown, The Cardinals, The Finger
Website	Official website
Notable instruments
Gibson ES-355 Fender Telecaster 1974 Guild D-25 Fender Stratocaster

David Ryan Adams (born November 5, 1974) is a Grammy Award-nominated American alt-country/rock singer-songwriter from Jacksonville, North Carolina. Initially part of the group Whiskeytown, Adams left the group to pursue a solo career, releasing Heartbreaker in 2000. A longtime resident of New York City, Adams is probably best known for his critically acclaimed 2001 release Gold. He has since released five more solo albums and three albums with backing band The Cardinals. His most recent album, Cardinology, was released on October 28, 2008.

Adams has also produced albums by Jesse Malin and Willie Nelson and contributed to the albums of various artists including Toots & the Maytals, Beth Orton, Minnie Driver, Counting Crows, America and Cowboy Junkies. He appeared on CMT Crossroads with friend Elton John in 2002.

In early 2009 Adams left The Cardinals and announced that he was taking an indefinite hiatus from music.^[1] Adams has since announced a new metal-influenced album, entitled Orion, due to be released on his own label, PAX AM, in 2010.^[2]

Adams has written two books of short stories and poems, entitled Infinity Blues and Hello Sunshine. In August 2009, Adams also began blogging for The Awl.^[3]

Adams married singer and actress Mandy Moore on March 10, 2009, in Savannah, Georgia.^[4]

Biography

Early life

Ryan Adams was born on November 5, 1974, in Jacksonville, North Carolina. When he was eight years old, Adams began writing short stories and poetry on his grandmother's typewriter. He is quoted as saying, "I started writing short stories when I was really into Edgar Allan Poe. Then later, when I was a teenager, I got really hard into cult fiction: Hubert Selby, Jr., Henry Miller, Jack Kerouac." At the age of 14 Adams began learning to play the electric guitar that his mom and stepfather had bought him, and shortly afterward joined a local band named Blank Label. Although Blank Label did not stay together long, a three-track 7" record exists, dated 1991 and lasting less than seven minutes in total.^[5]

Adams dropped out of high school in his first week of tenth grade, moving into bandmate Jere McIlwean's rental house just outside Jacksonville. Around this time he performed briefly with two local bands, Ass and The Lazy Stars. Following this, Adams joined The Patty Duke Syndrome and once played in a bar in Jacksonville. After obtaining his GED, Adams left Jacksonville for Raleigh, shortly followed by McIlwean. The Patty Duke Syndrome split in 1994^[6] after releasing a 7" single containing two songs (The Patty Duke Syndrome was on one side, while the other side was a band called GlamourPuss).

Whiskeytown

Following the break up of The Patty Duke Syndrome, Adams went on to found Whiskeytown with Caitlin Cary, Eric "Skillet" Gilmore, Steve Grothmann and Phil Wandscher. The founding of Whiskeytown saw Adams move to alt-country, describing punk rock as "too hard to sing" in the title track of Whiskeytown's debut album Faithless Street. Whiskeytown was heavily influenced by the country-rock pioneers, most notably Gram Parsons (with whom Adams shares a birthday). Whiskeytown quickly gained critical acclaim with the release of their second full-length album, Strangers Almanac, their first major label release.

Solo Career (2000-2004)

Adams made his solo debut in 2000, with Heartbreaker (produced by Ethan Johns).^[7] Emmylou Harris, who was originally Gram Parsons' singing partner, sang backup on "Oh My Sweet Carolina." Other backing vocals and instruments were provided by Gillian Welch, David Rawlings, and Kim Richey as Adams embraced a style more reminiscent of folk music. It was met with considerable critical success, but sales were slow.

Adams released Gold, the follow up to Heartbreaker, in 2001. It was well received; however, Adams voted against making videos or doing a radio station meet-and-greet type tour for more recording and some live dates. A video was eventually made for album's first single, "New York, New York". The music video featured Adams performing in front of the city's skyline four days before the September 11, 2001 attacks. The video was played often on MTV and VH1 after the attacks and became Adams's breakthrough to mainstream music consumers.

Following the success of Gold, in 2002 Adams was blocked by his label from releasing the recorded 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". The label opted this time around to cherry pick from the four recorded albums already dismissed as releasable full albums ("48 Hours", "The Suicide Handbook", "The Pinkhearts" and "The Swedish Sessions") for a mix tape type record assembled without his involvement. Demolition, a compilation of tracks from these recording sessions, was released instead of the intended album in 2002. Although the album garnered more critical attention, it failed to sell as well as Gold. That same year, Adams produced Jesse Malin's first album, The Fine Art of Self Destruction, and later worked with Malin to form the punk-rock group The Finger (under the pseudonyms, "Warren Peace" and "Irving Plaza" respectively), who released two E.P.s which were collected together to form We Are Fuck You, released on One Little Indian Records in 2003. He also starred in a Gap advertisement with Willie Nelson, performing a cover of Hank Williams's "Move It On Over."

In May 2002, Adams joined Elton John on CMT Crossroads,^[8] which brings together country artists with musicians from other genres. During the show, John referred to Adams as "fabulous one" and spoke of how Heartbreaker inspired him to record Songs from the West Coast, which at the time was his most successful album in several years. Also in 2002, Adams reportedly recorded a cover of The Strokes' debut album Is This It, though it has never been publicly released.^[9]

During 2002 and 2003 Adams worked on recording Love Is Hell, intending to release it in 2003. Lost Highway deemed that it was not commercially viable and was reluctant to release it, leading Adams to go back to the studio. Two weeks later he returned to Lost Highway with Rock n Roll, which featured guest musicians including Melissa Auf der Maur, Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong, and Adams's girlfriend at the time, Parker Posey.

Adams and Lost Highway eventually agreed that the label would release Rock N Roll as well as Love Is Hell, on the condition that Love Is Hell be split into two EP installments. Rock N Roll and Love Is Hell, Pt. 1 were released in November 2003, followed by Love Is Hell, Pt. 2 in December. Both albums were well received by critics, and in May 2004 Love Is Hell was re-released as a full-length album.

Love Is Hell included a cover of Oasis' "Wonderwall", which Adams had previously performed live, and about which Noel Gallagher once said, "I never got my head round this song until I went to [see] Ryan Adams play and he did an amazing cover of it."^[10] The song earned Adams a Grammy nomination for "Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance".

While on tour to support Love Is Hell in January 2004, Adams broke his left wrist during a performance at the Royal Court Theatre in Liverpool. Adams fell off the end of the stage into the lowered orchestra pit six feet below, while performing "The Shadowlands". Dates from Adams's European and American tours had to be cancelled as a result of his injury.^[11]

The Cardinals (2004-2009)

Adams live with The Cardinals in November 2008

2005 saw Adams join with backing band The Cardinals to produce two albums, Cold Roses and Jacksonville City Nights. Cold Roses, a double album, included backing vocals from Rachael Yamagata on three songs; "Let It Ride", "Cold Roses" and "Friends". His second album of the year, Jacksonville City Nights, featured a duet with Norah Jones on "Dear John". As well as releasing two albums with The Cardinals, Adams released the solo album 29 late in the year.

In addition to releasing three albums, that year Adams joined other musicians in playing a Hurricane Katrina benefit show at Irving Plaza in New York City. He also contributed three songs to the soundtrack of Elizabethtown; "Come Pick Me Up", "English Girls Approximately", and a new song called "Words", which was pulled from 2005's The Elizabethtown sessions, which remains unreleased, but is floating amongst collectors as Darkbreaker.

Adams befriended Phil Lesh of the Grateful Dead, after first meeting him at the Jammys awards in New York in 2005. The two performed Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter's Grateful Dead classic, "Wharf Rat". Adams performed at subsequent outings of Phil Lesh and Friends, including a two-night stand at Red Rocks Amphitheatre outside of Denver, Colorado and on New Year's Eve 2005 at the Bill Graham Event Center in San Francisco. Throughout 2006, Lesh's live performances included compositions by Adams, including several from Cold Roses ("Cold Roses", "Let It Ride", and "Magnolia Mountain").

In early 2006 Adams performed a solo tour of the United Kingdom, often accompanied by Brad Pemberton (drummer for The Cardinals) and on the final date in London by Carina Round, who performed harmony vocals on 'Come Pick Me Up' from his first solo album- 'Heartbreaker'. Also present was Cardinals guitarist- Neal Casal. Adams then toured the United States with The Cardinals, including a performance at Lollapalooza in Chicago. Adams and The Cardinals then returned to the UK in the summer to begin a tour of Europe.

Adams produced Willie Nelson's album Songbird, while he and The Cardinals performed as Nelson's backing band. The album was released in October, 2006. He also opened for Nelson at the Hollywood Bowl later that fall, a show that featured Phil Lesh on bass and multiple Grateful Dead songs. Late in 2006, Adams experimented with hip hop music, adding to his web site 18 albums worth of new recordings under various pseudonyms, featuring humorous and nonsensical lyrics.

Adams was scheduled to play Stonehenge when the Stonehenge society had to cancel the gigs to an overwhelming response to email or call-in for free tickets. They feared the highway would have to be shut down during the performance due to overwhelming demand for tickets. Adams released his ninth album on June 26, 2007, titled Easy Tiger.^[12] The album includes many tracks which were debuted during 2006's tours, as well as other older tracks which were previously unreleased. Later that year, Adams revealed that he had endured "an extended period of substance abuse" that ended in 2006. Adams indicated that he routinely snorted heroin mixed with cocaine, and abused alcohol and pills. Adams beat his addiction with the assistance of his girlfriend at the time, Jessica Joffe, using Valium therapy and occasionally attending meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous.^[13]

On October 23, 2007, Adams released Follow the Lights, an EP featuring three new songs: "Follow The Lights","Blue Hotel" and "My Love For You Is Real", along with live studio versions of other previously released songs and a cover of Alice in Chains' "Down In A Hole".^[14] Adams also appeared as a guest musician on Cowboy Junkies' 2007 album and DVD Trinity Revisited, a 20th-anniversary re-recording of their classic album The Trinity Session. In 2007 Adams co-wrote a song with Australian singer/songwriter Krista Polvere for her debut record Here Be Dragons; he also played guitar and piano on the album, which was recorded in New York.^[15]

A new album with The Cardinals, Cardinology was released on October 28, 2008.^[16][17] Adams has also announced plans to release a book, entitled Infinity Blues.^[18][19] According to Lost Highway chairman, Luke Lewis, there will be an "anthology" release in 2009, featuring several new songs.^[20]

On January 14, 2009, Ryan Adams announced that he was quitting the Cardinals after their final show on March 20, 2009 at the Fox Theatre in Atlanta. Adams cited hearing loss due to Ménière's disease as well as disillusionment with the music industry, the media and audience behavior as reasons for his decision.^{[21][22][23][24]} He also stated that he has been working on two new books, in addition to Infinity Blues.^[25] The second book, released in the fall of 2009, is entitled Hello Sunshine. Preorders of Hello Sunshine were shipped on 18 August by publisher Akashic Books.

Post-Cardinals (2009)

In April 2009, Adams uploaded three new tracks under his black metal moniker Werewolph,^[26][27] and five hard rock tracks under the name Sleazy Handshake.^[28]

When asked about the Cardinals' future, guitarist Neal Casal stated that: "I have absolutely no idea what the future holds. The Cardinals were the best band I’ve ever been in, and I would love to play with them again. Only time will tell what’s going to happen. [...] I’ll certainly miss it a lot."^[29]

In May 2009, drummer Brad Pemberton stated that: "everyone was a bit fried, so it was the right time to step back for a minute. I encouraged Ryan to go and get married, and have a life and find some peace; the guy hasn’t really slowed down in ten years, and he needed it as much as we did. Ryan and I have shared too much and are too good of friends to not ever do anything again, but I think we all need to do our own thing for a minute."^[30]

The Cardinals, without Adams, have recorded together alongside Gin Wigmore for her debut album.^[31]

In August 2009, Adams began posting on the fan-site, Ryan Adams Archive, discussing the possibility of a Whiskeytown reunion, new songs and the releasing his many 'unreleased' albums.^[32]

In September 2009, Adams debuted a new song online, entitled "Happy Birthday",^[33] and began releasing singles, featuring previously unreleased material, from his new online record label, PAX AM.^[34]

Orion and Return to Music (2010)

In March 2010, Adams announced a metal influenced album, entitled Orion, to be released on his label PAX AM.^[35]

Discography

• Heartbreaker (2000)
• Gold (2001)
• Demolition (2002)
• Rock N Roll (2003)
• Love Is Hell (2004)
• Cold Roses (with The Cardinals) (2005)
• Jacksonville City Nights (with The Cardinals) (2005)
• 29 (2005)
• Easy Tiger (with The Cardinals, but billed as solo) (2007)
• Follow the Lights (with The Cardinals) (2007)
• Cardinology (with The Cardinals) (2008)
• Orion (2010)^[36]

Bibliography

• Infinity Blues (2009)
• Hello Sunshine (2009)

References

External links

• Official website
• Ryan Adams at MySpace
• Official Live Recordings Archive at the Ryan Adams Archive
• Ryan Adams at the Internet Movie Database
• Ryan Adams discography at MusicBrainz
• Live recordings by Ryan Adams at the Internet Archive

From Wikiquote

David Ryan Adams (born November 5, 1974) is an American alt-country and rock singer-songwriter.

Sourced

• It's not very fashionable nowadays to have a philosophy that demands a lot of life. I tend to be drawn to people who are emotional - now they'd be called 'crazy'. Pollock, Jasper Johns, Toulouse-Lautrec. People said, 'They're off their nut!' Was Faulkner off his nut because he stayed in his house for eight months at a time writing books, and then you'd find him drunk up in a tree, making out with some old black woman? I think that's fuckin' great!
  • Blender (August/September 2001)

• I want to make sure I'm with a girl that's a good kisser, and that when I wake up, I have coffee and a cigarette. That's all I really want out of life. That, and world domination.
  • Rolling Stone (February 14, 2002)

• My lifestyle changed when this wonderful person came into my life. I couldn't sleep for years. All of a sudden, I don't know why or how, but I slept.
  • Spin (December 2003)

• I quit drinking every night, at 1:30 A.M.
  • Spin (February 2006)

• I'm sort of planting Post-It notes all over my psyche. Do not skateboard wasted. Do not buy $10,000 rugs. Be careful what you say to journalists. You don't have to stay up until 7 A.M. - tomorrow is a new day.
  • Blender (December 2003)

• I've got maybe five or ten jean jackets with jeans. I can pack three to four pairs of denim jeans, five T-shirts, ten Western-style shirts, and two ties and just buy socks when I get there. That, a Walkman, two books, and some records, and I'm out the door for a year. Not a problem. Doesn't freak me out at all. Usually, if you're thinking about your clothes too much, you're probably not high enough.
  • GQ (April 2002)

• What happens is, people get a little taste of fame, and they get used to having things go that way, and the ego really kicks in. They'll do whatever it takes to stay there. They get addicted, and they make decisions that don't have anything to do with music. You get big like that, and people will maybe come and see you once. It never lasts. It's not real. I'll tell you this - it's fucking real behind a guitar.
  • Harp (July/August 2005)

• It’s like—I don’t know, sometimes it’s like chasing a pretty girl on the beach. And things I never thought I could do…I can do.
  • MySpace - Easy, Tiger description/interview by Stephen King (May 2007)

• I was doing soundcheck, and Rancid was playing over there. That's some good shit. Actually, it wasn't Rancid, it was the opening band, the Distillers. I was like, screaming and shit. Running around. I had no one to slam dance with. I was very lonesome. It was very singer-songwriter.
  • Live performance^{[citation needed]}

• If I had a reed made of lightening I could blow the sax all night... I don't know where one would acquire a reed made of lightening but I would imagine that Bill Clinton has one.
  • Live performance 9/29/07- Chicago Theater^{[specific citation needed]}

Song Lyrics

When you get the time
Sit down and write me a letter
When you're feeling better
Drop me a line

I wanna know how it all works out
I had a feeling we were fading out
I didn't know that people faded out
That people faded out so fast
I wanna show you all the things I got inside
But you know those parts of me died
Just like us they faded out
They faded out so fast
When there was love enough left to fix it
But there it is

• • Sun Also Sets

• And I'm tired of living here in this hotel,
  Snow and the rain falling through the sheets.
  In fact, I'm tired of 23rd Street.
  Strung out like some Christmas lights
  Out there in the Chelsea night.
  • Hotel Chelsea Nights

• I should've died a hundred thousand times,
  Teetering stoned off the side of a building.
  Nobody loved me and nobody even tried
  You can't hang on to something that won't stop moving.
  Singing and dancing to them nighttime songs.
  • 29

• She's got the brown eyes, yeah, and they're pretty as hell,
  And they'll burn through your shirt if you're holding her still.
  She's got a lighter, and a lit cigarette,
  And if you're making her smile, that's just as high as you can get.
  • Miss Sunflower

• Real. Real like a plastic bouquet
  That thrives on the smoke from an old fireplace
  And dies every night with her face on the news.
  Nobody cries, they just smoke and stare and their shoes.
  The only difference is,
  The only difference is,
  Nobody can cry -
  It's hard to do
  For most folks, without a reason why.
  • Cry on Demand

• There's something in the way she eases my mind
  And lays me across the bed till I close my eyes.
  Stirs me in the morning till I can't ever be satisfied.
  I leave Carolina every night in my dreams,
  Like the girls that try to love me that I only leave.
  Rock me like a baby doll and hold me to your chest,
  But I'm always moving too fast.
  • When Will You Come Back Home?

• As a man I ain’t never been much for sunny days.
  I’m as calm as a fruit stand in New York and maybe as strange.
  But when the color goes out of my eyes, it’s usually the change.
  But damn, Sam, I love a woman that rains.
  • Damn Sam

• I would've held your mother's hand on the day you was born.
  She runs through my veins like a long black river and rattles my cage like a thunderstorm.
  • How Do You Keep Love Alive?

• See her smiling at him? That used to be me, and I could find her in a thunderstorm just by the way that the rain would fall.
  • Hard Way To Fall

• Just a nobody girl
  With a radar to the scene.
  When the emptiness finds you
  You find all the numbers you need.
  You say you follow your heart
  Well, honey, you're just being lost.
  You could you follow your gut
  But how much would it cost?
  • Nobody Girl

• They carved your name into a stone and then they put it in the ground.
  I run my fingers through the grooves when no one's around,
  Drink till I'm sick and I talk to myself in the dog days of the summer.
  Then I feel you coming but I don't know how...
  • September

• One night at the diner over eggs,
  Over easy she showed me the length of her legs,
  But that gold plated cross on her neck, it was real
  And you don't get that kind of money from pushing a meal.
  • Carolina Rain

• I feel just like a map
  Without a single place to go of interest
  And I'm further north than south
  If I could shut my mouth
  She'd probably like this.
  • My Winding Wheel

• These things inside me, they repeat like broken records
  Spinning pretty things behind my eyes
  And when I can't look at you
  I can paint your picture perfectly in my mind
  And when I get old
  I'm gonna miss you all the time.
  • Friends

• All the sweetest winds they blow across the south
  • Oh My Sweet Carolina

• While the things I do kill me, they just tell me to relax
  • To Be the One

• Words may move but they’re never moving fast enough
  • English Girls Approximately

• Bring you down, can't bring you down
  Bring you down, can't hear the sound
  Run through the river and head to town
  Pretty little moon with it's head hung down
  Chin up. Cheer up.
  • Chin Up, Cheer Up

• Do you remember stormy winter?
  Well button up your coat, one's comin' soon
  • The Last Dance

• Well we can't be strong
  

When we don't belong
So I'm saving up my energy for you
Well we can't go on
Well we don't belong
So I'm saving up this last dance just for you

• • The Last Dance

• You didn't see us, nothing can free us
  

We're just trapped inside the lens without a smile
Wanna get to you, nothing can get through
Lookin' back's a real fine time to say goodbye

• • The Last Dance

• If I could tell you something, I would tell you it all
  

But I don't know anything anymore
I let the dirt and the rain and the cold come in
They were outside just poundin' on the door

• • Cracks in the Photograph

• Well, everybody wants to go forever
  

I just wanna burn up hard and bright

• • Firecracker

• Dancin' where the stars go blue
  

Dancin' where the evening fell

• • Where the Stars Go Blue

• The night plays games
  

And the people they come and go

• • Nobody Girl

• Well, the night makes moves
  

And it shatters like broken glass

• • Nobody Girl

• The night destroys the sun
  • Gonna Make You Love Me

• Sleep now and your angels will come, dear
  • Wild Flowers

• Forever only takes its toll on some
  • Wild Flowers

• So close your eyes
  

So close your mouth
And do this all in time to the music
That screams like a child in the back of your mind
In a clown's saloon

• • Goodnight, Hollywood Boulevard

• And I do this all in time to the music
  

That dance like fools set on fire

• • Goodnight, Hollywood Boulevard

• Note to self: don't change for anyone
  

Note to self: don't die

• • Note to Self: Don’t Die

• So, I am in the twilight of my youth
  

Not that I'm going to remember
And have you seen the moon tonight
Is it full?
Still burning its embers
The people dancing in the corner, they seem happy

• • Anybody Want to Take Me Home

• Walking through a star field covered in lights
  

Wasted like you're losing your job you're so fired
We're just like the ones we used to make fun of

• • Beautiful Sorta

• Let's take a ride to the easy plateau
  

Where the cold don't come and the wind don't blow
Moonlight flickers on the water below

• • Easy Plateau

• Bad nights lead to better days
  • Easy Plateau

• The mirrors in the room go black and blue
  

On a Sunday morning in her Saturday shoes

• • Cold Roses

• Daylight comes and exposes
  

Saturday's bruises and cold roses

• • Cold Roses

• And the pain in the morning comes as easy as it goes
  

Can't find the truth in a house of lies
And you can't see tomorrow with yesterday's eyes
One shot, one beer and a place where nobody cries

• • A Kiss Before I Go

• All the cars are lined up on a Saturday night
  

With the sky full of nothing but moon
And I lose my reflection in the bottles of wine

• • The End

• Oh, my God, I miss those things
  

And it's a hard way to fall
And this ain't the easy way down
And it's a hard thing to love anyone, anyhow

• • Hard Way to Fall

• Lord take me home
  

To the peaceful valley
Down the winding river
To your city your soul
I've grown so tired
And my hearts grown heavy
To walk any longer
To your cities of gold

• • Peaceful Valley

• Trying to find a peaceful song
  

To sing when everything goes wrong
Till the peaceful valley calls me home

• • Peaceful Valley

• Can I still smoke my cigarettes and have my coffee
  

Up there in heaven with a bottle of wine

• • Peaceful Valley

• Hope this place don't never change
  

Goddamn it Nashville, don't never grow up

• • Saturday Night

• Put your troubles behind you and go on to bed
  

Let go of the worry, there's so much nobody understands
Don't live your life in such a hurry, life goes by us so so fast

• • Goodnight Rose

"All wrapped up, in the ribbons of your heart."

 "16 Days"  Strangers Almanac

External links

Wikipedia has an article about:

Ryan Adams

• Answering Bell
• ryandamsonline.com