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Famous Like Me > Composer > A > Ryan Adams

Profile of Ryan Adams on Famous Like Me

 
Name: Ryan Adams  
   
Also Know As:
   
Date of Birth: 5th November 1974
   
Place of Birth: Jacksonville, North Carolina, USA
   
Profession: Composer
 
 
From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia
Ryan Adams

Ryan Adams is often mistaken for Canadian artist Bryan Adams, a confusion that Ryan Adams particularly dislikes.

Ryan Adams (born David Ryan Adams on November 5, 1974) is an alt-country and rock and roll singer/songwriter from Jacksonville, North Carolina. Adams dropped out of high school at 16 to work and make music. He formed a band named Whiskeytown in 1994; they disbanded in 1999. Adams went on to put out his first solo record, Heartbreaker, in 2000.

Ryan Adams is a highly prolific artist, releasing five albums by May of 2005, with two more albums planned for release that year. He has also produced an album by Jesse Malin, contributed to Beth Orton, the Wallflowers and Counting Crows albums, dated Winona Ryder, Beth Orton, Leona Naess, Carrie Hamilton, and Parker Posey, performed specials with Elton John (who referred to him as "Oh Fabulous One"), Willie Nelson, and Toots & the Maytals, and found time to release a punk record with Jesse Malin under the name The Finger (Punk Band). Additionally, at least ten other session recordings can be found floating around the internet.

Musical Career and personal life

Early years

Ryan started out as a punk artist in a band known as The Patty Duke Syndrome They released two songs in 1994 on a 7" single (two songs on one side, the other side was a band called GlamourPuss.) Ryan described punk rock as "too hard to sing" in the song "Faithless Street" by his new outfit, Whiskeytown. Whiskeytown was part of the burgeoning alt-country movement which traces its roots to the work of a number of artists, most notably Gram Parsons and Uncle Tupelo. Following the success of Wilco and Son Volt, Whiskeytown quickly moved to the front of the pack in this movement with the release of their second full-length album, Stranger's Almanac. Being a member of a band was too stifling for Ryan's creativity - the only band member able to tolerate Ryan throughout was Caitlin Cary, the rest came and went in rapid succession. Their last album together, 2001's Pneumonia was held up by legal troubles and didn't come out until two years after Ryan had disbanded the band and gone solo, and then as a sort of work-up for Gold

Album cover of Heartbreaker

Solo debut

Ryan made his solo debut in 2000, with the Ethan Johns produced album Heartbreaker. It is the story of the end of a relationship from one man's perspective. Emmylou Harris, who was the legendary Gram Parson's singing partner, sang backup on "Oh My Sweet Carolina," believed by many fans to be the best song on the album, and maybe even in the history of alt-country. Other backing vocals are provided by Gillian Welch. It was met with considerable critical success, but sales were slow.

Gold

In 2001, Ryan released Gold, a sprawling sixteen-song album with a limited edition five-song bonus disc. This album adopted a more 'rock' style, but maintained Adams' previous alt-country roots. On September 7, 2001, Ryan made a video for his song, "New York, New York." Featuring Ryan standing on the New Jersey shoreline, with the twin towers of the World Trade Center looming over his shoulders, and Ryan singing "I still love you New York," it became a near-immediate staple on MTV in the days following the September 11 attacks. In 2002, Adams was nominated for three Grammy Award, "Best Male Rock Vocal" for "New York, New York"; "Best Rock Album, Gold; and "Best Male Country Vocal, a cover of Hank Williams's "Lovesick Blues" from Timeless. None won.

Rock 'n' Roll and Love is Hell

Ryan has released several albums since, all have met with critical success, but he still has not had a breakthrough hit. One attempt was made with "So Alive," from his album Rock N Roll, which sounded like he was channeling Bono, circa 1985. A broken wrist suffered in a fall from the stage during a performance in Liverpool, England, put an end to his touring schedule for a while, and it appears that his album sales for Rock 'n' Roll and Love Is Hell (curiously, Love is Hell was originally released in two parts, Part 1 the same day as RnR, then later merged into a single album) suffered as a result.

Ryan was nominated for a Grammy Award for his cover of Oasis's "Wonderwall" from Love is Hell but did not win. Having faced such greats as Bruce Springsteen and Tom Waits in the same category. The Boss enventually walked away with the award.

Ryan Adams and the Cardinals

Ryan's first release of 2005 album, the 2CD release, Cold Roses, was released on May 3rd, 2005. It is credited to Ryan Adams and The Cardinals (and is also his first studio album to not feature himself on the cover). The album includes backing vocals from Rachael Yamagata on three songs; "Let it Ride", "Cold Roses", and "Friends." He plans on releasing two more albums this year: Jacksonville City Nights (released on September 27th, 2005) and 29, a collection of nine nine-minute long story songs to be released in December of 2005.

Work together with Jesse Malin

Ryan Adams made his album-production debut with Jesse Malin's first album, The Fine Art of Self Destruction in 2002 (Ryan also plays some electric guitar and keyboard on the album as well as contributing some backing vocals). Ryan 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 to form the album: We Are Fuck You, released on One Little Indian Records in 2003. Ryan has also gotten behind the board on some of his solo works, but mainly relies on such pros as Ethan Johns and Tom Schick to twist the knobs while he cranks out the songs.

Trivia

  • The Old 97's song "Crash on the Barrelhead" is supposed to be about Adams being drunk at their Austin City Limits perfomance.
  • According to an interview with Pitchfork, Adams explains that he was upset with the disrespect of a fan's Bryan Adams-related screams during a three-part harmony between Adams, Gillian Welch and David Rawlings.

Discography

  • Heartbreaker - (2000)
  • Gold - (2001)
  • Demolition - (2002)
  • Rock N Roll - (2003)
  • Love Is Hell pt. 1 - (2003)
  • Love Is Hell pt. 2 - (2003)
  • Love Is Hell - (2004)
  • Cold Roses (under the artist name Ryan Adams and the Cardinals) - (2005)
  • Jacksonville City Nights (under the artist name Ryan Adams and the Cardinals) - (2005)
  • 29 (produced by Ethan Johns) - (2005)

Bootlegs

  • Exile On Franklin Street - (2000)
  • Destroyer - (2000)
  • The Suicide Handbook - (2001)
  • 48 Hours - (2001)
  • The Sweden Sessions - (2001)

This content from Wikipedia is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Ryan Adams