Ryan (not Bryan) Adams show 11/18/05

So Ryan Adams played an outstanding show last Friday night in New York, which I would have loved to have been at. SOMEDAY my turn will come! Stop standing me up, Ryan, goldangit!

The setlist was awesome, a nice blend of tunes. Songs highlighted with a link will take you to the yousendit site to download the video of the performance. I really enjoyed watching these, and for those of you who may not have heard Ryan before, take a look & listen.

Thanks Sharif, for taping and sharing!

Shakedown on 9th Street
What Sin Replaces Love
Nightbirds
Peaceful Valley
Beautiful Sorta
A Kiss Before I Go
Please Do Not Let Me Go
Willow Jane
Love is Hell

intermission

The End
Jacksonville Skyline
Hard Way to Fall
Now That You're Gone
Games
The Rescue Blues
Magnolia Mountain
To Be Young (Is To Be Sad, Is To Be High)
I See Monsters (this one is a zip file due to size)

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Now a little blurb for my friends who don't know yet who this man is. "Bryan Adams? That guy with the Everything I Do, I Do It For You song? Really, Heather?"

Um, no. Ryan Adams is, in my opinion, one of the best, most beautiful, honest, prolific, and heartfelt musicians of our generation, and is chronically underappreciated. I feel like it took 25 years of my life for me to hear about him, a stellar recommendation from a friend in the know.

My reaction when I first heard him was to exclaim out loud, and felt like a punch to the gut (in a really good way). It had been a while since I had been introduced to a new *quality* musician, one who I felt I could really delve deep into, and respect and admire for their music. Adams can do stunning piano, quality rock'n'roll, back-porch alt-country (he is the former frontman for alt-country poster boys Whiskeytown, whom you may have heard of), and writes music and lyrics that make me stop and say woah. My current favorite lyric of his is from Hard Way To Fall, talking about a girl (aren't they all?), and sings, "I could find her in a thunderstorm by the way that the rain would fall..." How beautiful is that?

Ryan has his third CD of the year coming out on December 20th. It is called "29," and it is supposed to be about a journey through his twenties (so I can sorta 6/10ths relate to that), and allegedly represents his stylistic follow-up to 2003's Love is Hell, which is probably one of my favorite Ryan Adams albums. How is that possible, you ask, when two other albums (Cold Roses and Jacksonville City Nights) were released in between? Well, from what I hear, 29 was written in New York immediately following the release of Love is Hell, and he has sat on the tracks and let them percolate a bit. And now we are reaping all the benefits.

December 20th can't come soon enough. Merry early Christmas to us all.

*Credit to Dan's Flickr album for the great photos