Jacksonville City Nights

Ryan Adams | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 27, 2005)
• Original Release Date: 2005
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Lost Highway
• ASIN: B000AOF9RU
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (72 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #16,896 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #83 in Music > Indie Music > Country > Alt-Country & Americana

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Arguably the most eclectically prolific artist since Prince, Ryan Adams continues his chameleon revivalism with his most straightforward country music to date. Having evoked the inspiration of bands ranging from T. Rex to the Grateful Dead on previous solo releases, the former Whiskeytown frontman here channels the likes of Faron Young on "My Heart Is Broken," while framing the shot-and-a-beer opener, "A Kiss Before I Go," with honky-tonk piano and pedal steel. "Seems like I'm always movin'," he sings amid the rockabilly kick of "Trains," as the album finds his restless muse ranging from a dreamy duet with Norah Jones on "Dear John" to naked vulnerability reminiscent of John Lennon on "Silver Bullets." Only Adams would cut a track titled "The End" and sequence it second on the CD, or a song called "Peaceful Valley" and inject it with so much emotion. --Don McLeese

Recommended Ryan Adams Discography

Heartbreaker	Gold	Love Is Hell
Whiskeytown, Pneumonia	Whiskeytown, Stranger's Almanac	Whiskeytown, Faithless Street

Product Description

UK version features 2 bonus tracks, 'Always On My Mind' & 'Jeane'. Ryan & the Cardinals return again in 2005 with another studio album, Jacksonville City Nights. 16 tracks in total. Lost Highway. 2005. --This text refers to an alternate Audio CD edition.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Adams Delivers Another Quality Record, October 19, 2005

By 

Rudy Palma "The Writing Fiend" (NJ) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Jacksonville City Nights (Audio CD)

With his latest release "Jacksonville City Nights," the speedy follow-up to last spring's outstanding double album "Cold Roses," ever-prolific singer/songwriter Ryan Adams, backed by the Cardinals, has gone all out and crafted his first full-fledged country album. However, listeners need not prepare themselves for a drunken stupor after journeying through its 14 tracks. Sure, this is pure country, but Adams is talented enough to bend the genre just enough to still outrightly adhere to its foundations yet still satisfy his primarily alt-country/southern rock fanbase.

The disc opens with the splendid "A Kiss Before I Go," a bittersweet glimpse through a man's eyes at his present surroundings, which happens to include plenty of booze, while the singer/songwriter takes a long, hard look at his hometown of Jacksonville, SC on "The End." Chock full of thoughtful pianos, twangy guitars and slow-burning violins, both tracks were tailor-made for jukeboxes in bars out west, thus beginning the album perfectly.

Although he sings haphazardly about feelings of anxiety and being unable to cope with its effects, the raucous "Trains" is a rhythmic delight and the most easily accessible song on the collection, while lead single "The Hardest Part," waxes on the coming of age in the face of true love amidst delightfully discordant production and is a particularly excellent addition to Adams' catalogue.

Elsewhere, the wrenching ordeal of "Silver Bullets" is appropriately followed by "Peaceful Valley" a sincere yet tongue-in-cheek appeal to God to "take me home to the peaceful valley." Most wrenching of all, however, is "September," the story of a young woman who smiles before committing suicide. "My Heart Is Broken," a bittersweetly performed ode to an ended romance, could easily echo the viewpoint of her boyfriend, regretfully mourning his contribution to her demise.

Other standouts include "Dear John," a profoundly sad collaboration with Norah Jones, the intense "Don't Fail Me Now" and "Hard Way to Fall," which reveals that Adams truly has a knack for writing sentimental tunes that don't leave sap on your fingers.

"How she flips from the back to the front/Reading magazines/Oh my God, I miss those things/And it's a hard way to fall/And this ain't the easy way down/And it's a hard thing to love anyone, anyhow."

Overall, "Jacksonville City Nights" is an excellent addition to Adams' catalogue that proves yet again his uncanny talent to spring from genre to genre in his career with great ease and still create an abundance of top-notch quality music that has the power to enlighten as well as entertain. His next record is penciled in for a December release.

26 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Country Classic, September 29, 2005

By 

R. Sousa "usarj" (Tewksbury, MA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Jacksonville City Nights (Audio CD)

Adams delivers a classic country masterpiece that makes that pop country nonsense that comes out of Nashville sound sillier than ever. The opening cut, "A Kiss Before I Go" immediately requires a few presses of the repeat button and off you go from there. Like a previous reviewer, I'm lukewarm on "Dear John" with Norah Jones because at first listen it doesn't seem to be totally fluid, but the more I hear it the more I think it would have fit better as the last cut on the CD. And with the exception of "Peacful Valley" which is probably a B side compared to the rest of the album, every cut is distinct and first rate. Again Ryan channels some of country's past greats while creating a path all his own. If you don't like country, then maybe this isn't for you, but if you like it at all, this is as good as country gets!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars ....."I can't explain what I don't know", October 23, 2005

By 

J. Sweeney (manchester, mo) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Jacksonville City Nights (Audio CD)

Ryan Adams breaks my heart. His songs, especially his singing, touch me somewhere deep inside. I don't really know why. It's just like the lyrics in "A Kiss Before I Go," where he sings, "I can't explain what I don't know." Well, I can't explain what I don't know either. I am old enough to be his mother, I haven't hung out in bars for years, and excessive drinking is part of a very distant past. Yeah, I've had a broken heart, but not every time I paired up with someone. I'm not from the south either, so I don't really know that kind of life. Still, I feel like I know this world Ryan lives in. His lyrics make it painfully clear what it's like. This is the second cd he has put out with his band The Cardinals. Together they have crossed over to the other side. This is not alt-country, folks. This is pure country, the kind that Hank Williams and Johnny Cash made in the '50's. Brushed drums, pedal steel, upright bass, cello, piano, and violins weave in and out of the electric and acoustic guitars. The vocals are the primary focus on all the songs, especially on "Peaceful Valley," which he sings in a falsetto, straining to hit the high notes. There are a few recording flaws-there ALWAYS are a few in Mr. Adams' releases. Maybe that's why I like his cd's so much-he'd rather go with 95% of what he wanted the sound to be, than pro-tool the music until it strips all the life out of it. At any rate, I can't tell you my favorite song on this cd, because I pick a new one each time I listen to it. That, my friends, is the hallmark of a really great record. You are going to have to buy this if you want to hear it-Ryan Adams and The Cardinals are too country for rock radio, and not cookie-cutter enough for country radio. That's a shame, because this is the best country record in the last 5 years, maybe even the last ten years. Highly recommended!