I'd like to make a confession: I enjoy country music. And no, I'm not talking about the brand of country music marketed by the suits at CMT. I'm talking about real country music -- the heartfelt, honest kind synonymous with the names of Merle Haggard, Loretta Lynn and Johnny Cash, among others.
Over the course of time, however, real country has fallen to the wayside in favor of the sorts of artists who give the genre a bad name. The notion of rock musicians picking up the pieces of this broken legacy is not new. The late 1960s saw the rise of what could only be dubbed country-rock embodied in the music of artists like The Band, Neil Young and Gram Parsons. This unlikely fusion of sounds influences music, with or without a twang, to this day, which brings us to Ryan Adams.
A 30-year-old singer-songwriter from rural North Carolina, Adams is known to his fans as a genre-defying chameleon. His new release, Jacksonville City Nights, is an unabashedly country effort from top to bottom. Supported by his new backing band, The Cardinals, the album is a genuine take on the triumphant sounds of Nashville's yesteryear.
"A Kiss Before I Go," the opener, houses all of the token ingredients -- whining, pedal steel guitar, steady horse-trotting percussion, honky-tonk piano and a simple up-down bass line. The sound is straightforward but surprisingly engaging. Even Adams' smooth honey vocals sound particularly well-suited for his country crooner delivery.
Conversely, the waltz-time lament "The End" paints him as a heartbroken troubadour. The emotional chorus, in which Adams' battles the muse of his hometown, Jacksonville, is the album's highpoint. Like a stage actor's soliloquy, the poignant lyrics offer a deeply personal view of returning home.
Complimenting Adams' vocals so perfectly that her trademark voice almost goes unnoticed, Norah Jones guests on "Dear John." A slow and soulful piano ballad, the song is a pleasant shift from the equally enjoyable country shuffle of songs such as "The Hardest Part."
Yet Jacksonville City Nights is not without its faults. Featuring near-solo performances by Adams only lightly augmented the band, the mid-section of the album quickly loses steam. Without the full sound of The Cardinals at work, quiet numbers like "Games" and "Silver Bullets" miss their emotional mark.
Late in the album and continuing a theme of loss, the plaintive "September" is an effective, soft-spoken song. Adams' character sketch of a widower dealing with solitude is yet another highlight among a collection of solid material.
At its best, Ryan Adams & The Cardinals' Jacksonville City Nights is a thoughtful, inspired album steeped in the tradition of real country music. While the album is decidedly front-loaded, sequencing its strongest tracks near the beginning and trailing off slightly, the hits far outweigh the misses. If you find yourself distanced from contemporary country music, give revivalists like Ryan Adams a listen.
Read More
The best albums of 2014
By Noah Zeidman | December 4, 2014Across genres, it has been a pretty great year in music.
Top 10 movies of 2014
December 4, 2014This has been an excellent year for film, offering everything from gripping blockbusters to innovative personal films.
Iggy Azalea is “Reclassified”
December 4, 2014It has become common practice among music artists to repackage their albums in an effort to simultaneously boost single sales and dish out new content by slightly renaming the album or slapping “Deluxe” onto the title.
