Goodbye, Ryan

Randomly, when I lived in Berkeley, I went through a fairly intense country phase. I spent an inordinate amount of time trying to sort out the progression from Uncle Tupelo to Wilco, and subsequently coming up with a position,simultaneously pro and con, on the Old 97s....the sort of thing you do when you have nothing to do but smoke some pot and contemplate the universe I guess.

One of my favorite discoveries from that time was Ryan Adams. His first solo album, Heartbreaker bordered on inspired. Gold, a later effort, had one of the prettiest songs ever on it - "When the Stars go Blue"; a song later covered by Andrea Coor. By the time I came upon him he was already shifting gears, aggressively playing with arena rock on 2002's Rock-n-Roll.However, between the recently released Demolition, his collection of b-sides, and tracking down his older work as the frontman for Whiskeytown I had more than enough to keep my engaged. Of course, when I finished all that he was good enough to release a pair of EPs - Love is Hell Part I and II (2002).

You might see a pattern forming here.

Back in NY, I read Ryan had taken up with Parker Posey and started a band. I was pumped. A few years earlier I had relegated Ryan to someone who was capable of nothing more than one or two perfect melodies per album. Of course, I liked Cold Roses (2005). So did a lot of people. He rewarded this new found faith by releasing the terribly forgettable Jacksonville City Nights and 29 over the next 8 months. He was suddenly everywhere. He was even modeling in a John Varvatros ad.

I was done.

In 2007, I saw Ryan sing "I Taught Myself How to Grow Old" on Letterman and almost cried myself into a stupor. I told ET #2 about the song. ET #2 likes her songs sad, like me. She agreed it was great. I remembered what I enjoyed about his stuff. Articles trumpeted Ryan's new found sobriety and hailed the album Easy Tiger was one of his better works in years. Best of all, his band was growing around him and his stuff was better because of it.

Rather than rush out the next album 3 months later, he and the Cardinals toured extensively. I liked 2008's Cardinology a lot. Finally, I thought we were on the cusp of something great, rather than one or two great songs surrounded by a lot of crap. Of course, these hopes were fleeting.

Last week Ryan announced he was quitting music for a while so to focus on his writing.

He has 3 books planned for 2009.