Dolly Parton followed up her Platinum-selling Here You Come Again with 1978’s Heartbreaker, another album aimed at the pop market. This one was even more of a stretch, at times dabbling in the era’s disco sound.
Dolly wrote six of the album’s ten tracks, penning another double single that sent two songs up the charts: ‘Baby I’m Burnin” was a Top 40 crossover success while ‘I Really Got the Feeling’ topped the Country chart.
My appreciation and affection for Mandy Moore makes me loathe to spend blog time on Ryan Adams, the man who badly mistreated her during their 6-year marriage, even though he released some truly great music before his career was derailed by numerous accusations of misconduct.
So, while presenting a lovely track from Adams’ excellent 2000 album Heartbreaker, I will use this space to advocate for an Emmy nomination for Moore honoring her amazing work in the ABC show This is Us.
It seems crazy to me that I’ve written nearly 5,000 Song of the Day posts and yet this is only my fourth featured track from Ryan Adams’ 2000 alt-country album Heartbreaker.
I love this album enough to have posted a track from it all the way back in 2008 for Song of the Day #2. I posted another nine months later. And then nothing, save for a Random Weekend appearance in 2018.
‘Bartering Lines’ is probably my least favorite song on Ryan Adams’ solo debut album, 2000’s Heartbreaker.
I don’t mean that as a slight to this song, which is fine, but as praise for the rest of Heartbreaker. This is one of the greatest alt-country albums, indie rock albums and break-up albums of all time. Adams followed this record the following year with Gold, an equally good album, and never topped either of those achievements again.
It was way back at Song of the Day #2 that I last featured Ryan Adams on this blog. I’ve written about 276 songs since then, and I believe Adams has recorded that many during the same span.
And now we meet again, and I’m featuring another song from the same album I highlighted back then. Adams is perhaps the most prolific songwriter working today but I can’t get past those first two albums, Heartbreaker and Gold, which contain more than enough genius to go around.
Adams recently married Mandy Moore — bright, sunny Mandy Moore — which is kind of funny considering how messed up he comes across in his songs. He once dated Winona Ryder (as have most rock stars) and that seems a better fit.
