That Sweet Southern Air

Tomorrow my "boyfriend" releases yet another album, "Jacksonville City Nights." This is the second of three albums Ryan Adams is releasing just this year. I find that incredible. In this day of big business musicals, complete with tours, tours, tours, and tee shirts, music is rarely about the music. But that is what I love about Mr. Adams. His prolific, albeit quite heterogeneous writing is actually recorded, released, and transmitted along my auditory nerve. There are no strings attached. This truly is a modern anomaly. Great poets and artists have always been keen to express themselves in a sort of emotional supernova, choosing explosion rather than implosion. And in homage of that seemingly lost art, I credit Ryan Adams for following this artistic tradition despite it's dim financial prospects. But he has never been one to play the game of the music industry anyway. For instance, he honored his record company's request to record and release "Rock N' Roll" only if they would release what I consider his best album, "Love Is Hell". The man is no sell out. So whether this album is a jem or junk, a part of me doesn't care (although from what I've heard so far, I'm certainly leaning toward jem). Ryan Adams is a musician for music's sake. I look forward to "Jacksonville City Nights" and it's accompanying DVD documentary.

Check back soon for my review.