Easy Tiger Song By Song

First Listen:

"Goodnight Rose"

The rose is the symbol for the Cardinals-it's even on the tour shirts and belt buckles-and this one sounds like a extra left over from "Cold Roses". I could see it on Disc One easily fitting between "Magnolia Mountain" and "Sweet Illusion". The Neil Young comparisons I've read do seem apt on this one. It also has the first "I'm sober now" hint with the line "the bar is closed". A good song to start with.

"Two"

Some early reviews (and himself in the importantly titled "Ryan Adams Didn't Die Now the Work Begins" NYT article) have dismissed "Two" as lesser Ryan but I beg to differ. Yes, it does have that polished 'single' feel (hear the Sheryl Crow guest vocal that adds little!) but that's okay it's still choice bittersweet Ryan Adams. Everybody thinks the lines they like best are the truest about the artists they love but the second verse "well, my money's no good/when I'm up to no good/no good ever comes from it honest/I got a really good heart/ I just can't catch a break/if I could I'd love you like you wanted I promise" seems to sum up its author pretty well right down to his 'it's really not my fault' core. Or maybe that's just because of the poignant vocal delivery that makes me put my hand on my chest and go "oh Ryan".

"Everybody Knows"

Another bittersweet gem, this one was flawlessly sung in the show I saw last week. I especially like the seemingly casual delivery of its impact line "you and I together/but only one of us in love"-it hears pretty but cuts hard. I could totally see him augmenting live with selections from Leonard Cohen's "Everybody Knows".

"Halloweenhead"

Hello Doors influence! (Right down to the thunderstorm ending) I like this one even though I don't like the Doors. I'm not sure I could articulate exactly what a halloweenhead is though I feel like I understand it inutively. The first f-bomb on the record is also dropped in this one. I guess it says something about me but when he sings "I got a bad idea again" as a listener I'm so in for whatever that bad idea might be. I could, however, do without the "guitar solo" declaration. I'm listening pretty close Ryan, trust me.

"Oh My God, Whatever, etc."

More than Halloweenhead this is the title I am voting most likely to be worked into my everyday vernacular for when I am called on to sum up the times when I am made sick and cynical of my own little drama. Extra special bonus points for using a Murphy bed as a cheap sex metaphor-good work sir!

"Tears of Gold"

After one listen I'm throwing this one out.

"The Sun Also Sets"

So poignant, this one sounds like it might have worked as one of the slow songs on "Gold". I hear a little "Wildflowers" or "Goodnight Hollywood Blvd" in it. The line about "one push from the nest" is okay as is "we are only one arguement away from deaf" but "we are only one moment from death"? Not so much for me.

"Off Broadway"

I get that it's lost in your own town but this one is also a throwaway on first listen. The lyrics are weak and it could use a melody. Go ahead, try humming it. See what I mean?

"Pearls on a String"

If there is ever a Whiskeytown reunion this is one solo song Ryan can bring to the party, it would sound so good with Caitlin Cary's fiddle and vocals. This is the happiest "Easy Tiger" gets.

"Rip Off"

Usually I like any song that namechecks a carnival ride (a common Adams image) but this one doesn't do much for me. At least not yet.

"Two Hearts"

Sounds like the second single to me. It's 'bad idea' line makes me wonder if it was written at the same time as "Halloweenhead". Any song that cites a number of words but doesn't say what they are frustrates me. Which three words broke the heart? I hate you? Go fuck yourself? Me You Done?

"These Girls"

I hope the showy string of Ryan's past loves (Alanis, Winona, Beth, Parker, Lindsay, etc) like this song better than I do. I can appreciate the new leaf sentiment and him needing to write this one but I don't think it will have any 'legs' in the long run.

"I Taught Myself How to Grow Old"

Again with the 'I see why he had to write this one'. Entertainment Weekly liked this one best but so far I think it's just okay. I'm glad that Ryan will be growing old so there will be lots more music, though to be honest I never got that preordained doomed vibe from him no matter how bad the substance abuse. Five years from now I'm not sure we'll be hearing this one.


Misc:

I like the photos inside especially the Henry Rollins vs Ryan tattoo contest-though with only 3 myself I would have been bounced pretty quickly I would have liked to been present for that. The front cover (Ryan smoking) is better than the back cover (dog in window) but I wonder about the significance of 4:20 on the watch. (They're selling the watch on tour by the way.)


Overall I am pleased. I don't know if it's the big breakthrough one but it's good. There's more getting to know it and I'm looking forward to it.

Welcome Back Ryan!

Ryan Adams & the Cardinals
Gem Theatre, Detroit
June 20, 2007

It was pure pleasure to Ryan Adams live again, playing Detroit again for the first time in years. Like an old friend you've heard bad things about I didn't know what to expect but he and his current band, the Cardinals, put on a good, if mellow, show. (You know when you see the drum kit and there's no drum higher than a knee and there's no electric guitar in sight it's not gonna rock too hard.) They played 2 hours of mostly newer material with a few favorites given the Cardinals treatment sprinkled in. Ryan, newly sober, was in excellent voice. Except for some brief scampering when he was mocking a roadie creeping out on stage he stayed seated on his stool, pigeon toed like he stands. Though he seemed nervous at first with little or no patter between songs, he gradually warmed up to the enthusiastic crowd who seemed to know even the newest songs-a testament their loyalty and the Internet since the new CD, "Easy Tiger", doesn't come out until Tuesday. The nervousness was confirmed by an aquaintence's preshow conversation with the VP of label promotion who said this mini tour of small venues was designed to be a confidence booster since Ryan is inexperienced at sober live performance. (I only met the man once in an alley in Detroit but I can say he was 4 sheets, no, a whole linen closet to the wind that night.)

By the middle of the show he hit his stride, stopped fidgeting with his shades and came up with some spirited comebacks to the many hecklers and song requests. (Though no one said "Summer of 69"-thank goodness that phase is over.) My favorite was the whispered putdown to a particularly loud fan, "we have to pretend we're not friends now". My only quibble with the whole evening was song selection but that wasn't entirely unexpected. Unless it's a command performance you never get to hear everything you want. My favorites included "Goodnight Hollywood Blvd", "Winding Wheel", "Let It Ride" and the new single, "Two", which at first blush seems like it could stand with his bittersweet best.

Overall, I would say soberiety agrees with the man and the newly added dates I am eyeing hungrily (road trip!) seem to say others feel the same. Welcome back Ryan, I sure missed ya.

One to Watch

In a previous entry I mentioned a Western I read a while back that I loved and since I'm passing it on I thought I ought to expand on that. (I usually don't keep books, unlike some in the biz I am not a bibliophile. Most of the time I just want to read it, I don't need to keep it. I'm proud to say my library card is almost as active as my debit card.)

To say Stef Penney's The Tenderness of Wolves is a Western might not be entirely accurate, can Canadians have Westerns? To qualify as a Western must a book be set in the US? I'm not sure and I don't have the genre rulebook handy so we'll say it's a Canadian frontier story set in a small village called Dove River in 1867. When a man is murdered and the boy who was his protege disappears no one in the village remains untouched. Penney examines the ripple effect on these people in leisurely, almost poetic detail. When the body is discovered:

"I don't pretend to be particularly brave and, in fact, long ago gave up the notion that I have any remarkable qualities, but I am surprised at the calmness with which I look around the cabin. Mt first thought is that Jammet has destroyed himself, but Jammet's hands are empty, and there is no sign of a weapong near him. One hand dangles off the bed. It does not occur to me to be afraid. I know with absolute certainty that whoever did this is nowhere near-the cabin proclaims its emptiness. Even the body on the bed is empty. There are no attributes to it now-the cheerfulness and slovenliness and skill at shooting, the generosity and callousness-they have all gone."

So poetic in fact that the reader doesn't realize how much the suspense is building as the boy's mother travels hundreds of miles in the desolate wilderness to find her son until the search is over and the tension is broken. Penney, a filmmaker by trade, won the Costa (formerly known as the Whitbread) Award for this book, her first. Hopefully, that positive reinforcement will mean more from her in the future.

The Tenderness of Wolves will be published in the US in July 2007.

Me Me Me

The following is a letter put in my mailbox on the occasion of a long time employee's last day. (It is reprinted here without her permission-sorry Meghan.)

Right now work has had me wondering what other chapters of Dante I missed so much that it is these small kindnesses that are keeping me sane and showing up every day.

Sam,

I just wanted to say thanks, after 4 years of working with you, for being a great manager and person. You could always bring a smile to my face and of all the managers, you were always the one who just "got it"-I hope you know what I mean by this. I appreciated so much all the little trinkets and articles you put in my mailbox over the years and I also greatly appreciate the ways in which you conducted yourself during all the various moments of drama at our store. Hopefully I'll be around for some special events and holiday help here and there but I definately wanted to take this opportunity to say thank you and let you know how much I've enjoyed working with you the last 4 years.

Yes, it's bragging I know but if a girl can't toot her own horn on her own blog where can she?

Like I Needed That

I got an e-mail from TicketMaster yesterday reminding me that the Detroit Ryan Adams show is Wednesday night. As if I needed a reminder. As if I wasn't nearly hugging myself with pleasure every time I thought about it. As if it wasn't the big giant carrot getting me through this nasty bit at work (like Al Swearingen from "Deadwood" says, "it's just one vile fucking task after the next") . As if I hadn't been listening to Ryan's entire back catalog in preperation, which considering how prolific he is and how many bootlegs and extra things I own, is quite a time commitment. As if I haven't been busy tracking down songs from the new record, "Easy Tiger", since it doesn't street until the week after the show. As if I haven't seen the man 5 times in 3 states.

Come on.

Are there people who buy concert tickets who forget? Who smack themselves V-8 like the day after the show and say, "Damn, I forgot the show!" If there are I don't wanna sit next to them.

Once Upon a Musical

There seems to be a general feeling that movie musicals are an old fashioned genre of the past. Most these days feel the need for some sort of apologetic hook to explain why characters are bursting into song-like making the songs in "Chicago" just Roxy's prison daydreams for example. The other way to go is completely, winkingly overboard so that the overboardedness becomes the point, like "Moulin Rouge".

A completely different philosophy is on display in the new Irish movie "Once"-make your protaganists musicians and the music will be a natural way for them to communicate. A small story about how meeting the right person at the right time can change everything, I thought "Once" a real charmer. The performances by Glen Hansard (lead singer of Ireland's other big band, The Frames) and Marketa Irglova are awkwardly natural and endearing. But, sorry if I am spoiling anything, the viewers' enjoyment of this movie might depend on their movie romance preference- requited or unrequited? I vote for the latter myself and I think "Casablanca" and "Gone With the Wind" will back me up on that. Regardless, anyone looking for a break from SUMMER BLOCKBUSTER SEASON will find ready relief in "Once".


A happy side effect of "Once" for me was a lovely dream the night I watched it. I don't often remember dreams and when I do they're usually bad so a good one is a treat anyway but this one had a guest star. Perhaps inspired by the bus scene in the movie, in my dream my author crush and I were regulars on the same route-he was muscle for the local heavy-who had sort of become bus friends. It was interesting in that I recogized and was glad to see him as himself but also acknowledged that he was playing a role and, in fact, remember marveling what a good actor he was. I'm not sure why my unconscious served that up and what it means exactly but it made for a nice waking and an even more positive feeling about "Once".

Return of the Prodigal Song

I'm happy to say that a song that had once been lost to me has now come back. I can't speak for anyone else but songs can be tricky that way for me. Ones that are intimately tied in with people become part of the language of that relationship and when that relationship ends the language dies too, at least for a little while. Like being forced to drink from a bitter cup, nothing hurts a healing scar worse than hearing "our song" when you're not expecting it.

But sometimes, after time passes-working its magic-things can come back to you.

I was compiling songs for a wedding/anniversary CD for the newlyweds I know (Surprise guys! I know, a CD from Sam-quick where's the fainting couch?) and World Party's "Sweet Soul Dream" came immediately to mind. I hadn't heard it in years, not since picking it for a first dance for a wedding that never happened and had to hunt it down since I lost the CD in the breakup. When I heard it, it was as good, as rueful and sweet as I remembered but not painful at all. All I thought about was how it would fit into my current project and that felt really, really good. Hopefully, its new listeners will feel the same.

In the Good Ol' Summertime

It's summer time again with all its attendant joys. The advantage of living on the second floor above the pool is you can tell at a glance if it's a good time to go or not. (If Crotch Man is down there it's a definate no go.) None of that turning the corner only to realize it's a full house, wall to wall coed bikinis or, perhaps worse, kiddie hour. It's hard to pretend you were just out for a stroll at that point when you're fully committed in your suit. ("Oh this? I wear this blue hibicus number all the time.")

The disadvantage of our living location is, of course, we see all (Crotch Man again). The coed action can be truly depressing-it used to be a complex of professional adults and the slide into off campus housing (complete with the long tables and plastic cups for drinking games) is sad in both a 'there goes the neighborhood' and 'they are the future?' ways. But, when everyone else is away and you can slip down, read your book, then plunge in the water when you are sufficiently baked it does have a distinct 'this is the life' vibe.

Jim the Boy II

I just found out that one of my favorite books has a forthcoming sequel! Tony Earley has heard the secret wishes of my reading heart and has written the further adventures of Jim from his stellar Jim the Boy.

I'm so excited I want to use lots and lots of exclaimation points!!

A few years back I had an article in Bookmarks magazine (Nov/Dec 2005 issue) where I said Jim the Boy was a "deceptively simple story of a boy being raised by his mother and her many brothers in North Carolina during the Great Depression." When I'm handselling it I usually add it's one of those books you read and think "that was nice" then it hits you like a ton of bricks a few days later. It's definately one you never have to worry about someone coming back and saying, "You know that book you recommended to me? What a pile of crap.." In fact, the editor of Bookmarks said it was that particular title I cited that caught his eye in my submission.

Apparently the new book tells the story of Jim's first love in the days before World War II and, if I didn't trust Earley completely, I might be worried. Some reading and viewing experiences (To Kill a Mockingbird to name just one) are so special and so singular that they should just be let alone. But I trust the new book will be good and I can't wait to read it. I had to come home sick today and this news made for very cheering medicine.

Trendy Tadpoles, Ready Made

Can I just say how much I love Ready Made magazine? Since the untimely demise of Budget Living, it is now my favorite magazine read. It is so optimistic and cheerful. Though I have yet to actually make anything from it's hip DIY pages I like knowing that I could. (Or could with help, depending on the project.) I also like to ponder it's monthly McGuyver Challenge where readers are asked to create something new and cool from some common leftover item (toilet paper roll, Altoids container and the like). Again I haven't actually participated but I am always thinking about it...

A new feature in the latest issue is a section highlighting artists and websites that might be of interest to the Ready Made reader. Since I normally read the ads in the back with a Post It to gather new sites for trendy trolling this is a welcome innovation indeed.

My new favorite find, perhaps because I am hoping there will be need of it for a new family member (painful past experiences bred coyness) is www.trendytadpole.com which has some of the most fun kid stuff I've seen. A onesie that says "I Love Johnny Cash"? The Drool Monster t-shirt? The Old School one with a diaper pin? How could you choose just one?

And of course, it would be no surprise to my staff that I want the " P is for Pony" one for myself, if only it was in my size. (Every time I get called in the back for a delivery my stock question is "Is it my pony?" And yes, I am the funny manager.)

So if you find yourself in need of a one of kind gift or just want a good "awwww" check it out.

We Are Family

Though I don't call my pets my children and I don't approve of people who do, you wouldn't know it from the way I've been acting the past two weeks. My cat is unwell and that has thrown a shadow over everything. I'm like the protaganist in the old song, "when something is wrong with my baby/something is wrong with me". I have been, quite literally, wringing my hands.

She looks like I grabbed her by the tail, hung her out an open car door and dragged her down a gravel road. I didn't, though we have had many fierce fights in our 13 years together-the vet speculates it was a bite of some sort on the face that caused an allergic reaction. Not a life threatening thing-more like a pesky, expensive, hard to heal kind of thing. (You try getting a cat not to clean a wound till it's raw.)

Joe says just because they aren't your children doesn't mean they aren't your family and that feels just right when the nostalgic flashbacks start: how she grabbed me and pulled me to her cage when I was walking down the row at the Anchorage Animal Control, how when she flew from Anchorage to Philadelphia when I picked her up at the airport her meows were at first happy, then angry and how, when we had a sudden change of circumstance and moved from a 3 story townhouse to an apartment I not-so-fondly called "the Brown Motel", she gave me a look that said 'what the fuck just happened here?' plainer than any words.

She's a beast alright-I can't count the number of times I've threatened to punt her across the room when she wakes me up in the middle of the night but when we were at the vet's and she just stood there, uncharacteristically silent, pressing her head in my belly, like a family, all was forgiven.

Reader's Whiplash

I've written before about the lovely synchronicity that can happen when the themes of the multiple books you are reading or listening come together to amplify beautifully. It's a very cool thing. Not so cool is the opposite, reader's whiplash. This happens when two disparate books are experienced so close together your head is left spinning and making that cartoon noise. It's the literary equilvant of eating some citrus after you brush your teeth.

(insert shudder here)

I have no neckbrace but I'm dealing with that whiplash right now. I had finished the great Western I was reading, The Tenderness of Wolves, and I thought I might need a palate cleanser in between that and the crime novel that had come highly recommended, Hard Rain Falling. So I read this Jane Austen chicky thing in a couple of hours, the sorbet if you will, in my reading banquet.

Big Mistake.

Hard Rain Falling is so raw and so far on the other side of the reading sprectrum I'm left gobsmacked and reeling. This book is killing me and I don't mean softly. It's a tribute to the gripping story and skill of the writer, yes, but also, frankly, just damn poor reading planning on my part.

Not Much to Look At

After getting 4 rolls of film developed in as many weeks (yep, I'm old school that way) all I can say is it's a damn shame I'm not more photogenic. Inevitably, I look drunk even when dry sober. Occasionally there'll even be some cross eyed action which is interesting since I'm not cross eyed to look at. The photos of myself that I actually like can probably be numbered in the single digits. I'm certainly always game to have my photo taken so unwillingness is not the cause. I've even been known to elbow people out of the way to get my picture taken, which I guess speaks to either my boundless optimism or utter, complete denial.

Perhaps my face is so expressive and always in motion with great reserves of feeling that it simply can't be captured easily with something as strict and specific as a camera shutter.


Yeah, that's it.

A Question of Law and Order

As everyone in earshot of a TV or radio this week knows, Paris Hilton is in jail. As punishment for DUI and driving with a suspended license (both parole violations for her) she is in solitary confinement. For 23 hours of the day she is in her cell. Now I don't want to say that these are not serious matters, they certainly are, but solitary? Are you serious? Ask yourself is Paris Hilton really the dangerous heinous criminal we need to punish?

I'm Just Sayin

So I read with considerable interest that Rags to Riches, the Kentucky Oaks winner, will be taking on the boys in the Belmont Stakes on Saturday.Though I understand the connections' thinking on this-she's very athletic, her breeding says she can go the distance (her brother, Jazil, won the Belmont last year)and there's no Triple Crown on the line-I'm superstitious enough to wonder about the timing. That night the new ESPN movie "Ruffian" premieres on ABC. Ruffian, whose home track was Belmont, who broke down and had to be destroyed during a 'Battle of the Sexes' match race againest Foolish Pleasure at, where else?, Belmont. In fact, Ruffian is buried in the infield at Belmont so Rags to Riches will literally be running right past her grave. Now, I don't want to borrow trouble, I'm just saying the timing just kind of gives me the creeps. Fingers crossed it will be a exciting, safe day of racing.

Sometimes It Does Take Balls

"Balls"
Elizabeth Cook

When I was home making my requisite stop at the best indie record store I know (Ear X-tacy natch) my eye was caught by the new Elizabeth Cook, "Balls" on one of their listening stations. One or two song samples later I was in. A country throwback in the style of early k.d. lang or Leann Rimes or a modern soundalike like Mandy Barnett (on one of our first dates when I was playing her "I've Got a Right to Cry" Joe asked which Patsy Cline record it was) Cook is lively and fun. Though it was the album's signature song, "Sometimes it Takes Balls to be a Woman" that caught my ear first, with it's Shania Twain-like 'you go girl' energy, that is actually one of the weaker songs offered. While it's still fun after multiple listenings (my favorite line is "Honey, when it comes to the plumbing/sometimes it takes balls to be a woman" it doesn't really speak to the heart the way a good country song should. Far better is her duet with Bobby Bare Jr., in a country classic Beauty & the Beast pairing, "Rest Your Weary Mind" or my favorite, the bittersweet "Mama's Prayers". She strays from the country norm on the obligatory cover, instead of redoing a country classic she turns The Velvet Underground's "Sunday Morning" into a country dirge with some fabulous fiddle by Matt Combs. With production by Rodney Crowell that lets her confidence shine through, "Balls" is a swell record for those listeners who like their country country.