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Ryan Adams is often mistaken for Canadian artist
Bryan Adams, a confusion that Ryan Adams
particularly dislikes.

Ryan Adams (born David Ryan Adams on November 5,
1974) is an alt-country and rock and roll
singer/songwriter from Jacksonville, North
Carolina. Adams dropped out of high school at 16
to work and make music. He formed a band named
Whiskeytown in 1994; they disbanded in 1999. Adams
went on to put out his first solo record,
Heartbreaker (Ryan Adams album)|Heartbreaker, in
2000.

Ryan Adams is a highly prolific artist, releasing
five albums by May of 2005, with two more albums
planned for release that year.  He has also
produced an album by Jesse Malin, contributed to
Beth Orton, the Wallflowers and Counting Crows
albums, dated Winona Ryder, Beth Orton, Leona
Naess, Carrie Hamilton, and Parker Posey, 
performed specials with Elton John (who referred
to him as "Oh Fabulous One"), Willie Nelson, and
Toots & the Maytals, and found time to release a
punk record with Jesse Malin under the name The
Finger. Additionally, at least  ten other session
recordings can be found floating around the
internet.

Ryan started out as a punk artist in a band known
as The Patty Duke Syndrome  They released two
songs in 1994 on a 7" single (two songs on one
side, the other side was a band called
GlamourPuss.)  Ryan described punk rock as "too
hard to sing" in the song "Faithless Street" by
his new outfit, Whiskeytown.  Whiskeytown was part
of the burgeoning alt-country movement which
traces its roots to the work of a number of
artists, most notably Gram Parsons and Uncle
Tupelo.  Following the success of Wilco and Son
Volt, Whiskeytown quickly moved to the front of
the pack in this movement with the release of
their second full-length album, Stranger's
Almanac.  Being a member of a band was too
stifling for Ryan's creativity - the only band
member able to tolerate Ryan throughout was
Caitlin Cary, the rest came and went in rapid
succession.  Their last album together, 2001's
Pneumonia was held up by legal troubles and didn't
come out until two years after Ryan had disbanded
the band and gone solo, and then as a sort of
work-up for Gold 

Ryan made his solo debut in 2000, with the Ethan
Johns produced album Heartbreaker (Ryan Adams
album)|Heartbreaker. It is the story of the end of
a relationship from one man's perspective. 
Emmylou Harris, who was the legendary Gram
Parson's singing partner, sang backup on "Oh My
Sweet Carolina," believed by many fans to be the
best song on the album, and maybe even in the
history of alt-country. Other backing vocals are
provided by Gillian Welch. It was met with
considerable critical success, but sales were
slow. 

In 2001, Ryan released Gold (album)|Gold, a
sprawling sixteen-song album with a limited
edition five-song bonus disc.  This album adopted
a more 'rock' style, but maintained Adams'
previous alt-country roots.  On September 7, 2001,
Ryan made a video for his song, "New York, New
York."  Featuring Ryan standing on the New Jersey
shoreline, with the twin towers of the World Trade
Center looming over his shoulders, and Ryan
singing "I still love you New York,"  it became a
near-immediate staple on MTV in the days following
the September 11, 2001 attacks|September 11
attacks.  In 2002, Adams was nominated for three
Grammy Award, "Best Male  Rock Vocal" for "New
York, New York"; "Best Rock Album, Gold; and "Best
Male Country Vocal, a cover of Hank Williams's
"Lovesick Blues" from Timeless.  None won. 

Ryan has released several albums since, all have
met with critical success, but he still has not
had a breakthrough hit.  One attempt was made with
"So Alive," from his album Rock N Roll, which
sounded like he was channeling Bono, circa 1985. 
A broken wrist suffered in a fall from the stage
during a performance in Liverpool, England, put an
end to his touring schedule for a while, and it
appears that his album sales for Rock 'n' Roll and
Love Is Hell (curiously, Love is Hell was
originally released in two parts, Part 1 the same
day as RnR, then later merged into a single album)
suffered as a result. 

Ryan was nominated for a Grammy Award for his
cover of Oasis (band)|Oasis's "Wonderwall" from
Love is Hell but did not win. Having faced such
greats as Bruce Springsteen and Tom Waits in the
same category. The Boss enventually walked away
with the award. 

Ryan's first release of 2005 album, the 2CD
release, Cold Roses, was released on May 3rd,
2005. It is credited to Ryan Adams and The
Cardinals (band)|The Cardinals (and is also his
first studio album to not feature himself on the
cover). The album includes backing vocals from
Rachael Yamagata on three songs; "Let it Ride",
"Cold Roses", and "Friends."  He plans on
releasing two more albums this year September
(Ryan Adams Album)|September (to be released on
September 27th, 2005) and 29 (Ryan Adams
album)|29, a collection of nine nine-minute long
story songs to be released in December of 2005.

Ryan Adams made his album-production debut with
Jesse Malin's first album, 'The Fine Art of Self
Destruction' in 2002 (Ryan also plays some
electric guitar and keyboard on the album as well
as contributing some backing vocals). Ryan later
worked with Malin to form the punk-rock group 'The
Finger (Punk Band)|The Finger' (under the
pseudonyms, 'Warren Peace' and 'Irving Plaza'
respectively), who released two E.P.s which were
collected to form the album: 'We Are Fuck You',
released on One Little Indian Records in 2003.
Ryan has also gotten behind the board on some of
his solo works, but mainly relies on such pros as
Ethan Johns and Tom Sctick to twist the knobs
while he cranks out the songs.

*Rumor*
The Old 97's song "Crash on the Barrelhead" is
supposed to be about Adams being drunk at their
Austin City Limits perfomance.



==Discography==
* Heartbreaker (Ryan Adams album)|Heartbreaker -
(2000)
* Gold (album)|Gold - (2001)
* Demolition (Ryan Adams album)|Demolition -
(2002)
* Rock N Roll - (2003)
* Love Is Hell pt. 1 - (2003)
* Love Is Hell pt. 2 - (2003)
* Love Is Hell - (2004)
* Cold Roses (under the artist name Ryan Adams and
the Cardinals) - (2005)
* September (Ryan Adams Album)|September (under
the artist name Ryan Adams and the Cardinals) -
(2005)
* 29 (Ryan Adams album)|29 (produced by Ethan
Johns) - (2005)

==Bootlegs==

*Exile On Franklin Street - (2000)
*Destroyer (Ryan Adams album)|Destroyer - (2000)
*The Suicide Handbook - (2001)
*48 Hours (Ryan Adams album)|48 Hours - (2001)
*The Sweden Sessions - (2001)

==External links==

http://www.ryan-adams.com Ryan Adams's official
page

http://www.answeringbell.com Answering Bell
– "Ryan Adams set lists & song
histories"

http://www.tobeyoung.org To Be Young–
unofficial Ryan Adams fanpage

http://www.ryanadams.org RyanAdams.org –
unofficial Ryan Adams internet forum

http://www.ryanadamsonline.com/ Ryan Adams Online
http://www.mp34u.com/songCard.php?posting=1066&by=
results Conversation With Jim DeRogatis's
Answering Machine