Ryan Adams Update
In advance of his new album, Easy Tiger [PRE-ORDER], Ryan Adams seems to be everywhere these days. First, the New York Times has a large piece on him today, along with some detailed, disturbing admissions by Ryan about his drug use over the early part of the decade. (Link via The Modern Age)Second, Rolling Stone's blog has more info on the Ryan box set coming out later in the year. Sounds like, between the albums I've never heard (Black Hole, Darkbreaker), the full-band versions of albums I've only heard acoustic (The Suicide Handbook, 48 Hours), and the rarities, there's going to be a ton of stuff worth getting.
posted by Steve @ 11:11 AM
1 comments
1 Comments:
Not sure about you, but I found the NYT article extremely annoying. By my count, this is the third or fourth time Ryan has gotten "sober," the first being right after Whiskeytown broke up and he was playing solo around NYC to very small crowds. Not to be extremely cynical, but he's always had a desire to be a rock n roll martyr, a la Gram Parsons, and part of me thinks he's played up his debauched side to create that image, beginning with the time he got realy drunk with a GQ writer and walked him down "The Strip" from Dancing With the Women at the Bar in Raleigh. He made it sound like some kind of romantic skid row, when in fact it's a typical college town street with a few frat bars and one or two decent local hang-outs. In fact, much of Faithless Street, as much as I loved it, was about creating this image (Drank Like a River, etc.), and it always felt at least a little like a put-on.
Now, of course, it's perfectly possible (even likely) that he's had issues, but he also seems very willing to talk about them. A lot. And the fact that they compare themselves to Sid and Nancy makes it even more than a little annoying. So while I've no doubt Ryan has/had a drug habit, part of me thinks he is playing up just how "close to the edge" he actually was/is.
On top of that, this is at least the third "return to form" he's supposedly had during his solo career. I really, really like Easy Tiger, but the kid continues to drive me batty.
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