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Ryan Adams

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Ryan Adams <tr style="text-align: center;"><td colspan="3">Ryan Adams On SNL
Ryan Adams On SNL
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Background information

<tr><td>Birth name</td><td colspan="2">David Ryan Adams</td></tr><tr><td>Born</td><td colspan="2">5 November 1974</td></tr><tr><td>Origin</td><td colspan="2">Jacksonville, North Carolina, US</td></tr><tr><td>Genre(s)</td><td colspan="2">Alternative country
Rock</td></tr><tr><td>Instrument(s)</td><td colspan="2">Vocals
Guitar
Piano
Harmonica</td></tr><tr><td>Years active</td><td colspan="2">1994 - present</td></tr><tr><td style="padding-right: 1em;">Label(s)</td><td colspan="2">Lost Highway</td></tr><tr><td textalign="top" style="padding-right: 1em;">Associated
acts</td><td colspan="2">Whiskeytown</td></tr><tr><td>Website</td><td colspan="2">[www.ryan-adams.com]</td></tr>

Not to be confused with Bryan Adams

Ryan Adams (born David Ryan Adams on November 5, 1974) is an alt-country/rock singer/songwriter from Jacksonville, North Carolina. Adams dropped out of high school at 16 to work in a shoe shop and make music. He subsequently earned his GED and briefly attended Coastal Carolina Community College in Jacksonville. 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, which was reissued on SACD by audiophile label Mobile Fidelity in 2004.

Ryan Adams is a prolific artist, releasing eight solo albums between January 2000 and December 2005. He has also produced albums by Jesse Malin and Willie Nelson, contributed to Beth Orton, the Wallflowers and Counting Crows albums, dated Winona Ryder, Alanis Morissette (they still remain good friends), Beth Orton, Leona Naess, Carrie Hamilton, and Parker Posey, performed specials with Elton John (who refers 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. At least ten other session recordings can be found floating around the internet.

Contents

[edit] Musical career and personal life

[edit] Early years

Ryan Adams 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). Adams would later describe punk rock as "too hard to sing" in the song "Faithless Street" which appeared on the debut album of the same name for his new band, Whiskeytown. The band was part of the burgeoning alt-country movement which traces its roots to the country-rock pioneers, most notably Gram Parsons. Following the success of Uncle Tupelo, Whiskeytown quickly gained critical acclaim with the release of their second full-length album, Stranger's Almanac. Adams' antics soon proved destructive for the band, with only Caitlin Cary enduring Adams for all three albums. Their last album, 2001's Pneumonia (Ryan's first collaboration with Ethan Johns) was held up by legal troubles and finally came out as a sort of work-up for Gold, two years after Adams had left Whiskeytown. Album cover of Heartbreaker

[edit] Heartbreaker

Adams made his solo debut in 2000, with Heartbreaker (also produced by Ethan Johns). It's the story of the end of a relationship from one man's perspective. Emmylou Harris, Gram Parson's legendary singing partner, sang backup on album highlight "Oh My Sweet Carolina." Other backing vocals and instruments are provided by Gillian Welch, David Rawlings and Kim Richey as Ryan embraced a more folkish style. It was met with considerable critical success, but sales were slow.

[edit] Gold

In 2001, Adams released Gold, a sprawling 16-song album with a limited edition five-song bonus disc. This album adopted a more 'rock' (less country) style. On September 7, 2001, Adams made a video for his song, "New York, New York."[1] Featuring Adams standing on the Brooklyn shoreline, with the twin towers of the World Trade Center looming over his shoulders, and singing "I still love you, though, New York," it became a near-immediate staple on MTV in the days following the September 11 attacks, although it obviously wasn't written with that in mind. It is notable, however, that almost every scene in the video features the World Trade Center as if it is the center of attention. In 2002, Adams was nominated for three Grammy Awards, "Best Male Rock Vocal" for "New York"; "Best Rock Album, Gold; and "Best Male Country Vocal, a cover of Hank Williams's "Lovesick Blues" from Timeless. The album went on to sell 364,000 copies, Ryan's best-selling album to-date.

[edit] Demolition

Since the success of Gold, Adams has continued to record incessantly (as evidenced by numerous bootlegs and unreleased albums). He boasted that he was going to put out five albums in 2002, but ultimately only one came out. "Demolition" is a compilation of the favorite tracks of Adams' then-girlfriend Carrie Hamilton from the five projects, including the sessions for the unreleased albums 48 Hours, and The Suicide Handbook. Although the album garnered more critical attention it failed to sell as well as Gold. The song "Dear Chicago," from Demolition, was said to have originally been intended to be the closing track on Heartbreaker; it remains a staple of Adams's live shows to this day.

[edit] Rock N Roll and Love is Hell

In an attempt to deal with the death of Carrie Hamilton, Adams began a year long effort at recording an album; the result was Love Is Hell. Upon completion, Lost Highway, Adams' current label, perceived it to be too dark and not commercially viable. Disgusted, Adams went into the studio and two weeks later emerged with Rock N Roll. These sessions featured notable guest musicians including Melissa Auf Der Maur, Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong, and Adams' partner at the time, Parker Posey. Adams and Lost Highway eventually struck a deal where the label would release the more commercial Rock N Roll coupled with Love Is Hell in two EP installments, the first of which would coincide with the release of Rock N Roll in November 2003. The second would be released later in December. In May of 2004, Love Is Hell was released as the complete album it was intended to be. It featured the total tracks from both EPs as well as an extended version of "Anybody Wanna Take Me Home?" which was initially released on Rock N Roll.

Adams was nominated for a 2005 Grammy Award for his cover of Oasis's "Wonderwall" from Love is Hell but lost to Bruce Springsteen's "Code of Silence" in the Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance category.

[edit] Cold Roses, Jacksonville City Nights and 29

Image:29 ryan adams.jpg

Early in the year, Adams announced he would release three albums in 2005. His first release of the year, a double album entitled Cold Roses, was released on May 3, 2005. Credited to Ryan Adams and The Cardinals, the album also includes backing vocals from Rachael Yamagata on three songs; "Let it Ride", "Cold Roses", and "Friends." His second album of the year released with The Cardinals, Jacksonville City Nights, includes the songs "Hard Way To Fall", "The Hardest Part" as well as "Dear John," which features Norah Jones. Ryan Adams, this time without The Cardinals, released his third album of the year, 29, on December 20, 2005. The album, according to Adams, would be his last as a solo artist. Though Adams claimed in interviews that the album would feature nine songs, each nine minutes long, the album actually featured nine songs of lengths shorter than the projected nine minutes.

[edit] Elizabethtown

Adams' song "Come Pick Me Up" from 2000's Heartbreaker was featured in the Cameron Crowe film Elizabethtown. The previously unreleased song "Words", which was featured in the film during Drew's (Orlando Bloom) road trip, first appeared officially on an iTunes Exclusive EP, Songs For The Ride Home, followed by a more proper release on the second volume of the Elizabethtown soundtrack, released on February 7, 2006, along with "English Girls Approximately" originally from Love Is Hell. In the film, Claire (Kirsten Dunst) can be seen packing the album Love Is Hell in her suitcase along with Heart's Jupiter's Darling.

[edit] 2006

February 2006 saw Adams complete a UK tour without interruption for the first time since 2003. Playing solo, often accompanied by Brad Pemberton (drummer for both The Pinkhearts and The Cardinals) and on the final date in London by Neal Casal. Adams began a tour of the United States with five dates on the west coast in April, then moved on to an East Coast/Midwest tour in June, July, and August. Adams played at Lollapalooza in Chicago on August 4, 2006. This tour premiered around half a dozen new songs which may appear on his upcoming works, including "Breakdown in the Resolve," "Two Hearts," "Rip Off," "Everybody Knows," and "Blue Hotel." Adams also drew heavily from the Grateful Dead's catalogue, covering songs such as "He's Gone", "Bird Song", "Franklin's Tower", and "Stella Blue".

In the beginning of August a new song was available on his official website, the song was titled "Lovely and Blue" (initially thought to be titled "France" due to an incorrect idv3 tag on the actual mp3 file) and is, according to a message board post quoting Adams, "an old chesnut kicked up from the demo box."[2] The track bears tonal qualities reminiscent of "Rock N Roll"-era material.

Several other online board posts purportedly from Ryan Adams appeared in late July of 2006, state that he plans to release three new albums in 2006, but that his record company is hesitant to release them. The supposed titles to the three albums are "Blackhole," "War and Peace," and "Starwars." [3]

On August 30, 2006 it was announced via the official Ryan Adams website that Cardinals' bassist Catherine Popper had decided to leave the band indefinitely. The bands replacement will be a long-time friend of the band, Chris Feinstein.

In late September 2006, Adams added hip-hop music to his repertoire, posting two new tracks as a welcome to his official website, which had been redesigned. The tracks seemed to be heavily influenced by Beck and featured humorous and nonsensical lyrics.

On October 31, 2006, the album Songbird, a collaboration with Willie Nelson, was released. Ryan produced the album for Willie where he and The Cardinals performed as his backing band.

[edit] Working with Jesse Malin

Ryan Adams made his first foray into album production 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). Adams 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. In 2005 Adams and Malin, along with Blondie and others, played a Hurricane Katrina benefit show at Irving Plaza in New York City. Ryan Adams also contributed on Jesse Malin's 2004 release The Heat - and he is also playing his part on Malin's upcoming 2007 album Glitter in the Gutter.

[edit] Working with Phil Lesh

Ryan Adams made quick friends with an unlikely legend, Phil Lesh of the famed Grateful Dead. He and Phil met at the Jammys awards in NYC during early 2005. The two connected for Jerry Garcia's "Wharf Rat" where Phil bonded with Adams. Over the next 2 years, Ryan has joined Phil in a few versions of Phil Lesh & Friends, including a 2-night stand at Red Rocks outside of Denver, CO and on NYE 2005 at the Bill Graham Event Center in San Francisco. Lesh has also showed up at numerous Ryan Adams concerts as a guest. Lesh has publicly endorsed the musician many times as one of the "great guitarists of his generation."

[edit] Adams and the Copyright Laws

Although Adams is not personally involved, his label's parent company, Universal Music Group, is engaged with the FBI and the United States Attorney's Office in prosecuting the first arrests on violation of the prerelease copyright provision law passed in 2005. The law makes it a federal offense to release copyrighted music before its scheduled time without permission of the copyright holder. Two separate individuals, Robert Thomas (Milwaukee, Wisconsin) and Jared Chase Bowser (Jacksonville, Florida), were charged on March 10, 2006, for posting four tracks of Jacksonville City Nights on a message board forum in August 2005, shortly before its release. The two face up to 11 years in prison and fines up to $750,000.

[edit] Trivia

  • The Old 97's song "Crash on the Barrelhead" is supposed to be about Adams being drunk at their Austin City Limits performance.
  • Adams shares a birthday with both Gram Parsons, one of his major musical influences, and his near-namesake Bryan Adams.
  • In the credits of his album Gold, Adams thanked Alanis Morissette 10 times, when asked about this in an interview he said that it was from a bet they had which she had won, although Ryan won't clarify what their bet was.

Adams has a reputation for his unstable temperament. Notable incidents include:

  • Ejecting a fan who repeatedly requested the song "Summer of 69" (written and performed by Bryan Adams) at a Nashville concert on October 14, 2002. 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.
  • Leaving a drunken message on Jim Derogatis' answering machine in response to the critic's review of his concert. This has subsequently been leaked onto the Internet. Although initially viewed as a rather irresponsible act, the message has now become something of a touchstone for those irked by the current state of musical criticism. Derogatis felt the impact of the confrontation through a backlash against his work and heavy criticism of his methodology and style.[citation needed]
  • Posting a message on celebrity gossip site Jossip [4] defending Jessica Joffe against what he saw as an attempt "to trash a decent, thoughtful, hard-working beautiful person." A similar message was sent to the editor of Gawker [5] under the name of Johnathan Carter. Adams described the Gawker post on Joffe [6] as "cruel and meaningless".
  • Pitchfork Media claims that Ryan Adams is a self-described asshole, "Everybody can't be cool. Somebody's gotta be the fucking dork. And I'm the dork. Or the asshole, or whatever."

[edit] Songs Featured in Television and Film

  • The song "To Be Young (Is to be sad, Is to be high)" appeared in the comedy Old School and the independent film The Slaughter Rule.
  • The song "Dance All Night" is played over the ending credits of the romantic comedy film Must Love Dogs, starring John Cusack and Diane Lane.
  • The song "Rescue Blues" concludes a fourth season episode (entitled Moving On) of the TV series Felicity, a third season episode of the TV series Scrubs,and also plays over the end of the film Behind Enemy Lines.
  • The song "Harder Now That It's Over" is featured in a fourth season episode of the TV series Felicity entitled The Storm.
  • The song "Gonna Make You Love Me" can be heard throughout one of the trailers from the movie The Break-up, which stars Vince Vaughn and Jennifer Aniston. It is also featured in the film Sweet Home Alabama. In addition, it was played on the pilot episode of TV series The Evidence.
  • The song "In My Time Of Need" is featured on the soundtrack for the film The Rookie.
  • The song "Desire" is featured in a sixth season episode of the TV Series The West Wing and a second season episode of the TV series House.
  • The song "La Cienega Just Smiled" is featured in the fifth season episode of the TV series Angel entitled Unleashed and in a fourth season episode of the TV series Felicity entitled Declaration of Independence. It is also featured on the Felicity Soundtrack.
  • The songs "Wonderwall" (Season 1), "Friends" (Season 2 finale) and "Night Birds" (season 3) feature in the TV series The O.C..
  • The song "When The Stars Go Blue" is featured in TV series One Tree Hill and the two characters on the show, Haley James and Chris Keller, sing a cover version of this song.
  • The songs "Burning Photographs" and "Let it Ride" are featured in episodes of the TV series Six Feet Under. "Burning Photographs" appears in the ninth episode of the fourth season. "Let it Ride" appears in the seventh episode of the fifth and final season. It is played in the bar where Claire and her colleagues have a drink after work.
  • The song "Hallelujah" appears in an second-season episode of the TV series Rescue Me when Tommy Gavin (Denis Leary) is standing outside at night wondering what to do with his life.
  • The song "Wonderwall" appears in the fourth-season episode of the TV series "Cold Case" titled "Saving Sammy".
  • The song "Dancing with the Women at the Bar", recorded by Whiskeytown, appears in the bar scene in the black comedy, Clay Pigeons, starring Vince Vaughn, Janine Garapholo, and Juaquin Phoenix.
  • The song "Everything I do," recorded by Whiskeytown, is featured in an episode of the TV series Friday Night Lights entitled El Accidente.
  • The song "Don't Be Sad," recorded by Whiskeytown, is featured in the comedy Eurotrip.
  • The Song "Nightbirds" is featured on the second-season episode of the TV series Bones (TV series) titled "The Headless Witch In The Woods".

[edit] Discography

[edit] Albums

[edit] EPs

[edit] Singles & Notable Promos

  • New York, New York - (2001 - CD)
  • Answering Bell - (2002 - 2xCD)
  • Answering Bell (Live at the Paradiso) - (2002 - CD)
  • Nuclear - (2002 - CD & 7")
  • Hey Parker, It's Christmas - (2003 - Promo 7")
  • Come Pick Me Up (4-Track version) - (2003 - Promo 7")
  • So Alive - (2004 - 2xCD & 7")
  • This is It - (2004 - CD)
  • Wonderwall - (2004 - 2xCD & 7")
  • Halloween - (2004 - Promo CD)
  • Now that You're Gone - (2004 - 7")
  • Let it Ride - (2005 - 2xCD)
  • Easy Plateau - (2005 - 2xCD)

[edit] Bootlegs

  • According to an NME.com article, Adams has also recorded an entire cover of The Strokes' debut album Is This It, but currently has not released it on the internet or in retail stores.


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Persondata
NAME Adams, David Ryan
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ryan Adams
SHORT DESCRIPTION American singer
DATE OF BIRTH November 5 1974
PLACE OF BIRTH Jacksonville, North Carolina
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH
de:Ryan Adams

it:Ryan Adams nl:Ryan Adams no:Ryan Adams fi:Ryan Adams sv:Ryan Adams

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