Goodnight Ryan II-Impressionistic Musings

It all started in 1997 when I discovered Whiskeytown's "Stranger's Almanac" at the Borders where I worked. We had a counter dump for it and I was attracted by the rose (later so important in Cardinals graphic design) and the semi on the packaging. I fell for this record pretty quick, none of that annoying 'getting to know you' business. For years, until I moved back last fall, I had to play it every time I drove home as soon as I crossed the border into Kentucky so that "Inn Town" was blasting out over the hills between Cincinnati and Louisville.

Most of my Ryan memories are wrapped up with my friend, Marla, who was as big a fan as me at least until the Cardinals incarnation (she's allergic to twang). We live far apart now and I don't get to see and talk to her as much as I like so listening to Ryan is also like being with her.

Other memories:


-Talking with Ryan in a Detroit alley after a show. The boy was, as the expression goes, drunk as 10 Indians but spoke passionately about Joyce Carol Oates' Detroit set novel, Them (he is the son of an English teacher). That was when Marla, who's a ladybug (ladybeetle!) person gave him a ladybug pin which, I think, confused him some. I joked with her about being a G-rated Plaster Caster fan person, handing out ladybug pins instead of making X-rated molds. Surprisingly, she didn't really think that was funny.


-Seeing him back to back-Cleveland the first night, then Detroit. How Cleveland was so joyfully racuous-Ryan in a jacket and tie ripping up the Stones' "Brown Sugar" (that was after that cover was included on an Uncut complilation)-I think it's still my favorite show. Then the next night, in Detroit when we were with our respective sweeties how much less fun the show was and how we kept insisting, "But he was so good last night".


-Getting a semi drunken phone call from Marla when she lived in Maryland and was in a bar with Ryan and the rest of the band postshow.There were actually a lot of phone calls from shows-I remember another one she went to where she called me at work. I was standing at the registers listening to..was it "Come Pick Me Up"? Wishing I was there but feeling like part of me actually was through the combined magic of friendship and the telephone.


-Going to LA to see him on the "Gold" tour with The Counting Crows at the El Rey to commerate/celebrate Marla's divorce. It was a great, celeb-filled trip. Buried in the 3 hour show was a stunningly beautiful version of "Oh My Sweet Carolina" during which I cheered long and lustily after the lines, "I miss Kentucky/and I miss my family". Then weeks later when we got the bootleg we were shocked and appalled to hear the snooty LA types let the hick jokes fly. Imagine, paying good money for a bootleg on which you are personally mocked!


-There were lots of bootlegs, back when that concept actually existed. Some wacky song versions, some that sounded like they were recorded from the ice bin in the bar. The crazy "Burrito Song" that somehow rhymed 'Raul Malo' with 'burrito'...


-The wacky between song patter that came from the potent mix of stage fright and being high, my favorite being the conversation Ryan and my pal Dean had regarding being like brothers and riding dirt bikes behind the Mini Mart. Ryan also had one of the best heckler responses I've ever heard when he said, "We have to pretend we're not friends now" to shut up one particularly loud fan. And of course, the inevitable shoutout for "Summer of 69" during a certain career phase. I was glad when that phase was over.


-Yeah, it was pretty stupid to call one album "llor n kcor" (rock 'n roll backwards) but I still have the shirt anyway. And I gotta say there are some good songs on that record.

So many memories, further proof of how insinuating our favorite artists are and how there is virtually no corner of our lives they don't touch. Bye, for now, David Ryan Adams. All my best to you. I'll be watching.