The Hall of Fame

Ryan Adams  

Born: DAVID RYAN ADAMS, 1975, Jacksonville, North Carolina, USA. Before turning into a music industry brat and hanging around the likes of Eiton John and Jon Bon Jovi, RYAN ADAMS used to be a highy respected and low-key member of America's thriving mid-west alt Country scene and the co-founder of the excellent WHISKEYTOWN. After his split with the aforementioned, however, ADAMS cleaned up his act, stopped partying and became friendly with the rich and famous. Luckily for us, he still managed to write songs that could smash most of today's modern singer/songwriter
types into tiny pieces. 'HEARTBREAKER' (2000) was a fine example of this: recorded in seventeen days and featuring the likes of EMMYLOU HARRIS, GILLIAN WELCH and her husband DAVID RAWLINGS, the album was full of sweetness, bitterness and of course, downright heartbreak. 'TO BE YOUNG (IS TO BE SAD, IS TO BE HIGH)' was a good ol' country rock'n'roll track, while 'AMY' wouldn't have sounded out of place on The BEATLES 'WHITE ALBUM'. But most impressive of all was the sheer poignancy shot
through most of ADAMS' songs, whether it be the soloistic flare of 'IN MY TIME OF NEED' or HARRIS' timely western vocals on the haunting 'OH MY SWEET CAROLINA' (perhaps one of the greatest songs of ADAMS' career, if not one of the greatest ballads ever written). The set also displayed an impressive array of songs and not one would fail to move the listener. After the critical acclaim of 'HEARTBREAKER', ADAMS began work on a more 
commercial affair, 'GOLD' (2001), a follow-up which saw him moving slowly towards the mainstream and abandoning his lo-fi country roots. To call him a sell-out would be unfair, but ADAMS certainly must have been tempted by the overground to issue such a MOR-tinged, conformist album. Some tracks still hit through (especially in America where it hit the Top 20). For instance
'RESCUE BLUES' and the sweet ballad 'WHEN THE STARS GO BLUE' lived up to the standards of his previous set, but single 'NEW YORK, NEW YORK' (accompanied by a terrible 'nostalgic' music video) was strictly for the Starbucks generation and could've easily featured on BON JOVI's latest.