The Loop : Ryan Adams and The Cardinals - Cold Roses

Ryan Adams and the Cardinals - Cold Roses (2005)

Confession : Ryan Adams is one of those artists I totally missed the boat on.

A few years ago, I was seeing my friend Matthew play at Modified Arts (under his moniker "Poem" www.myspace.com/poemmusic) Matthew has one of those truly captivating personalities with a touch of self destruction. His live shows feel very much in the vein of Bright Eyes or Elliott Smith, where the beauty and the tragedy intertwine between songs about loving your neighbor and the ever present frailties of life. It's a very human experience. During this set, he went into a Ryan Adams cover song. Every once in a while, if I don't know the band or it's a cover and I hear a song that I like, I'll take the lyrics and text them to myself so I'll look them up later. This also happened with another one of my favorite Matthews, Matthew Reveles, when he covered an Old 97's song "Designs on You". I jotted down a few of the lines : "There's somethin' in the way she easies my mind . . . I leave Carolina every night in my dreams . . . When, when will you come back home. . . " I text my brother and it turns out that the latter is the title of the song and it's from his album Cold Roses, which he assures me is a great place to start with Ryan, so I did.

I was obviously aware of Ryan Adams. He had made his dent and quickly become a poster child in the "alt-country" world. I think through the course of time and music and how music is consumed, we don't have the same kind of icons that my parents would have had in Bob Dylan or Elvis. We have huge superstars, but because of how much we now know about these superstars through the internet, TV and what consumers need to put these artists in their hearts and minds, the mysterious quality of Bob Dylan doesn't seem to exist anymore. It feels though that this scene took Ryan Adams' candid personalitity matched with his clearly dark undertones and championed him as their modern day hero. That's certainly not to say that Ryan has gained fame on image alone, because the music has set a tone for so many alt-country crooners after him, but it's probably why so many have stuck with him through his many incarnations. We could make him our mystery.

However, the best part about Cold Roses is that it feels like his MOST candid work, all while being a collaborative effort with his on again off again band The Cardinals. I'd imagine being put on a pedastol either sat TOO well for Ryan or not well at all, as it goes with some of music's tragic eccentrics. However, I feel that lyrically he was more captivating and musically expanded, perhaps by his own means or by the insight of The Cardinals on this record. The idea of "cold" is painted throughout the tracks, and maybe it's just the album cover, but the feeling of blue is present the entire time. It is still very much about Ryan despite it being a "band", and it shows why people took ownership of him from day one.

This record is beautiful and tragic and I think makes Ryan as human as he's ever been, despite him possibly wanting to fade into the ensemble. I feel like so many of my beautifully tragic friends take musical cues from him which is why Matthew covering him was so fitting. It's human for Ryan and it's human for everyone who could finally take something from it for themselves, too.