ITEM: The latest Doings of My Man Ryan Adams
The current issue of Harp magazine has a great cover story on Ryan Adams. I’ll bottom line it: he hurt his hand over a year ago, got scared he’d never play again, had to re-learn to play, and the whole experience was life-altering. Now he wants to be part of a band-— not the leader and boss, but part of a democratic process—- and he wants to revisit, re-interpret his old songs as opposed to playing them rote, replicating the recorded versions. Both great things. In fact, put them together and Ryan Adams seems to have become… wait for it… a jam band.

The Cardinals are an extremely talented group—- he has said he feels overmatched musically by them—- and they have another two records already in the can for release this year. The next one is supposed to be country, the one after that more a typical Ryan Adams singer/songwriter record.

So has Ryan gone jam? Abso-freaking-lutely. The first indication, of course, was his appearance at the annual Jammy Awards in the spring. Then there’s the fact that he’d added the Dead’s “Wharf Rat” to his set—- he nailed it when I saw him last fall—- and has been playing “Wharf Rat” segueing into another Dead tune, “Birdsong.” And on June 16, Phil Lesh performed the two tunes with him in Austin.

Also, he has a beard now.

The highlight of the Ryan Adams jam band summer, though, has to be the two shows he played as a member of Lesh’s rotating Phil Lesh & Friends line-up in Colorado—- one night at the Fillmore in Denver, the next night at Red Rocks. (Adams and Lesh also played an impromptu duo gig at a club, apparently undocumented on tape or hard drive.)

To my ears—and I’ve only heard the audience tapes, but I’m hoping Phil releases these as part of his free soundboard series—- these are the most energizing, energized shows by Lesh since the final gig (thus far) of his classic quintet (Lesh, Haynes, Herring, Barraco, Molo) in 2003. Adams brought a slew of his own songs to the set, I think all from Cold Roses, which faithful APW readers will know is an homage to the best Dead studio work, American Beauty and Workingman’s Dead. So of course the songs fit perfectly, especially “Beautiful Sorta,” “Magnolia Mountain,” and the irresistible “Let It Ride.” Adams also handled vocals on several Garcia tunes (including the two above-mentioned ones) and played an exuberant rhythm guitar. For my money, if you were assembling the best possible version of the Grateful Dead right now, I’d cast Adams for the Bob Weir role.


ITEM: Raspberries Rock the House
You remember them from junior high—- they sang “Go All the Way.” (Unless of course you remember Frankie Goes to Hollywood from junior high. In which case you’re probably too young to get half my jokes.) The archetypal power popsters, who along with Big Star, Badfinger, and Todd Rundgren essentially invented the genre by playing songs in the style of the Beatles, Who, Hollies, Kinks, Beach Boys etc. in the early 70s when such music had become anachronistic and passé (you do, I assume, remember the one about Jeremiah was a bullfrog… it was all the rage.)

Anyway, they have re-formed—- all four original members, with 4 auxiliary members to round out the sound, and I saw them Sunday night at BB King’s (a NYC clip joint, no offense BB, with good acts. Note that they don't show the prices.) They played all the hits and then some, nailed the Who’s “Can’t Explain,” and just to prove they really could still cut it, did a first encore as a foursome which featured “Please Mister Postman,” “You’re Gonna Lose That Girl,” and “Twist and Shout” (Second encore they tossed in “Roll Over Beethoven.”)

I got grief for writing that they looked old, but they did to me, because they opened the show with a Beatlemania-style video that showed four thin-armed, shaggy-haired teenagers having a Hard Day’s Night kind of ride in the early seventies. Then these guys in their 50s came out. So sue me, it was jarring. But hell, they totally popped, they kicked harmonic butt. It was a privilege to have been there. If they come through your town, even if you don’t know ‘em, go.

ITEM: Power Pop Seems to Be Back
Well, not really. No, I’m not going to write about a bunch of new British bands mining the endlessly vacuous synth-pop fluff of the 80s (if I hear one more kid in his 20s talk about how he was really into classic Duran Duran, I think I’ll rip out my own heart). Not even going to talk about bands with only two members (yeah, Jack White is great. Hire a freaking bass player.)

No, I’m a crusty old curmudgeon about this stuff. But this September, I have tickets to see a reunited dB’s at Maxwell’s in Hoboken (how cool is that?) featuring the original line-up: Holsapple, Stamey, Rigby and Holder. Go here and download their free new song. Then later that month, the new Big Star (I kid you not) record is out, featuring Chilton and Jody Stephens, plus Posies Jon Auer and Ken Stringfellow. I'm not hoping for another Radio City or Number One Record-- not even another Dear 23-- but I think it will be good.

(APW readers know I’ve performed with Jill Sobule, and Jill performed with Stringfellow, and Stringfellow is now in Big Star with Chilton, and Chilton played with Stamey in the late 70s. So you see, we’re all connected.) (I can actually get there a second way, having gone to camp with Lane Steinberg, who is in Tan Sleeve now but in the 80s his band the Wind worked with Mitch Easter, who was in the Sneakers with Stamey…)

Oh. My. God. I just realized-- Ryan Adams was in Whiskeytown, and there is an unreleased Whiskeytown album (Forever Valentine) produced by Chris Stamey. Whoa...

...and I have a platinum record for writing the liner notes for the Allman Brothers 2003 live DVD. And Warren Haynes is in that band. And he was in the classic Phil Lesh Quintet. And Lesh is running with Adams... Double whoa...

Labels: The tunes