Essential Ryan Adams Songs
Ryan Adams is pretty awesome. He kinda looks like a hard rock version of Randy Savage there.
My friend Dustin created a masterful mixtape of 4 Ryan Adams CDs for me following a trip to St. Louis to see Ryan in concert. I was a fill-in for the show and was the designated driver, so I believe it was his way of saying thank you (and probably a slick way of creating another fan of Ryan.) It worked. I really dug the third disc the most, which started with this song.
I can't say many lyrics from Ryan Adams reflect my life, though this one hits home. I do give up on things quite often. I'll try for a new job and it doesn't work, so then I stop looking entirely. Well, now I'm tired of giving up.
8. "Am I Safe" (Ryan Adams)
Many of these songs on Ryan's self-titled album are perfect for driving at night with the windows rolled down.
7. "New York, New York" (Gold)
Ryan is hard to nail down- is he a rocker? Is he a folk singer? As if it wasn't hard enough, this song adds in a saxophone that doesn't feel out of place at all. Maybe he's all of those things and more. Ryan rules.
6. "This Is It" (Follow The Lights)
Along with listening to the self-titled, I was also given a copy of his album Rock and Roll since it leaned more towards my rock tendencies. While "This Is It" was a stand out track on that album, I much prefer the reworked version on his E.P., Follow The Lights. It also has a cool cover of Alice In Chain's "Down In A Hole." I could even come up with an equally cool amount of his cover songs for a future list; which would also be equally, if not, even more challenging than ranking ten of his own songs.
5. "Two" (Easy Tiger)
Not much to add here except it's great.
4. "Magick" (Cardinology)
Also found on the 3rd disc of the Ryan Adams mixtape collection that I was given, this song shows off another facet of Ryan's songwriting. While many are sad love songs, he also has a sense of humor which is on display in "Magick."
3. "Gimme Something Good" (Ryan Adams)
In the fall of 2014 several of my friends praised this album by Ryan Adams, even saying it was the best they'd heard in years. While it could've been a true statement, I felt like hype like that often kills off my interest. I gave it a listen anyway and was instantly hooked moments into the first song. It had this laid back classic rock 'sound' that actually hit me at just the right time in life, as I feel like I'm getting away from much of the heavy metal I've listened to for so long. It served as the perfect introduction to Ryan as he's more varied than just writing rock and roll albums but I could dip my toes into the water with his 'rock' side.
2. "Stay With Me" (Ryan Adams)
While "Gimme Something Good" sold me on Ryan Adams, this is the true highlight of the album for me. I especially liked how the MP3 version I had begins with crackles and pops as if it's a vinyl record, adding to the vintage classic rock sound of the album.
1. "Fix It" (Cardinology)
So I was given four discs of Ryan Adams songs, a fantastic mix tape collection, with each CD being titled "Class 101", and so forth. This was the very last track of disc four, which was a stroke of genius by my friend and musical guru Dustin, because I feel like once I heard this song that I had graduated into a full-fledged Ryan Adams fan. Much of Ryan's work seems to lean towards the folk rock genre but this one has such an awesome blues riff that I was instantly hooked.
I recently saw Ryan Adams perform live, and when a fan requested a song, he said he'd play their song forever. He'd follow them around with a portable amp strapped on...well, this would be my song.
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