Saturday Night w/Ryan Adams

Saturday night, my friend, Mike Matteson, and I went to see one of my favorite artists play at the War Memorial Auditorium. Ryan Adams was playing with his band, the Cardinals. It's wild, because the drummer in the band is Brad Pemberton, the brother of my high school buddy, Bart Pemberton. It was a fantastic show. Mike and I ran into another high school friend of ours - Christie Remaly - and she sat with us on the first row of the balcony. After the show, we all went to Mirror on 12th Avenue for a nightcap. It was a really, really fun night.

I think one of the reasons I've always been such a big Ryan Adams fan is that I first discovered his music early in his career, in the mid-1990s, when he was playing with Whiskeytown, a band based in Raleigh, North Carolina. Their second album, "Strangers Almanac," is probably one of my ten favorite records of all time. In 2000, he embarked on a solo career with the release of "Heartbreaker," another amazingly strong album. Since then, he's released several solo albums, along with other albums on which he plays with his band, the Cardinals.

Recently, Ryan Adams announced he announced he was quitting the Cardinals after their show at the Fox Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia, on March 20, 2009. I've heard a rumor that he's going to retire from performing and playing music, which I hope isn't the case. If it is, Ryan Adams has a pretty impressive body of work to show for the past 15 years.

If you're interested, here's a few links to videos of few of my favorite Ryan Adams' songs.

The first is "New York, New York." Interestingly, the video for the song was shot in New York City on September 7, 2001, four days before 9/11. Notice the World Trade Center Towers prominent in the background. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IhDW18rxyY

The second is a live version of "When the Stars go Blue," which has been covered by several artists. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99sjZT1qB2Q

The third is a stripped down version of "Let it Ride," performed at St. James Church in Dingle, Ireland in 2007. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LW-_vOKxRfs

And, finally, the fourth is from an appearance on David Letterman in February 2006, when Ryan Adams and the Cardinals performed "Come Pick Me Up," one of his early solo songs. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRnoh86FD2A

Enjoy.