It’s too bad Ryan Adams turned out to be such a shitty person because that really got in the way of one of the most interesting and diverse careers in the music business.
Who else would record a song-by-song cover of Taylor Swift’s 1989, giving each pop song on the record his own melancholy folk-rock twist? His 1989, released in 2015 a year after the original, is the sort of project I’d love to see attempted again.
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.
Happy Mother’s Day to my wonderful mom, who I haven’t had a chance to hug in a couple of months now. I hope that changes soon.
And Happy Mother’s Day to my lovely wife, who along with our two daughters has made this extended quarantine something special. I’m going to look back on this time fondly, especially when my older daughter leaves for college (coronavirus willing) later this year and we miss the chance to see her all day every day.
Demolition, Ryan Adams’ collection of outtakes from earlier albums, is as solid as many artists’ top tier work. Today’s track is a particular standout, a song about a man tentatively moving on after a failed relationship (he personifies the women as cities in these lyrics).
This is the second Ryan Adams song to pop up on Random Weekends since he was exposed as an alleged predator and harasser who derailed the careers of many female artists. It’s hard not to at least mention that fact, even as I appreciate his work.
Meet Me In Montauk 