Jacksonville City Nights - Dark Publications

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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

Album 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.

Album Details
The Second 2005 Full Length Album from the Prolific Singer/Songwriter and his Critically Acclaimed Accompanists. The 15 Song Set was Produced by Tom Schick and Band Personnel Include J.p. Bowerstock (Electric Guitar), Brad Pemberton (Drums), Jon Graboff (Pedal Steel, 12 String Guitar, Mandolin, Tambourine, Backing Vocals) and Catherine Popper (Bass, Keyboards, Backing Vocals). Among the Tracks is "Dear John", a Haunting Duet with Norah Jones. While the Songs on It's Immediate Precedent "Cold Roses" Found Inspiration from Such Artists as the Grateful Dead and Neil Young, "Jacksonville City Nights" Incorporates Some of the Finest Ingredients of Traditional Country Music. The Arrangements and Melodies Are Enchanting and Adams Delivers Some of the Best Vocals He Has Ever Recorded. Includes the Bonus Track "Always on My Mind".

Customer Reviews: Read 64 more reviews...

5 out of 5 stars

Country Classic September 30, 2005
25 out of 29 found this review helpful

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!

4 out of 5 stars

Adams Delivers Another Quality Record October 20, 2005
21 out of 22 found this review helpful

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.

3 out of 5 stars

let him burn out hard and bright... January 30, 2006
9 out of 10 found this review helpful

I used to be a critic of Adams for releasing so many cd's. Then he played my hometown of Knoxville... for 4 hours... til he got kicked off stage by the theater managers.
It was then that I understood why he sang 'everybody wants to go forever, I just want to burn out hard and bright'. He doesn't care what some jaded music critic is scribbling up about him in a dusty loft apartment somewhere, this is his life.
Yeah, this cd's not that great nor that accessible, but at least he put it out. It's a great listen. The lyrics contain some great imagery of heartache in the dirty south, much like Merle Haggard. It's twangy, rich country. The kind that makes you want to butter up some cornbread with a shot of whiskey.
The big, open-room atmosphere of the recording makes this cd perfect for putting on loop and painting to.
I just think we should all stop creating reasons to not like music. If you don't like a song, hit the Skip> button, don't rail on someone for 'releasing too many songs'. Yeah, absense makes the heart grow fonder, but should Ryan be like Tool and release a cd every 7 years? I'd be heartbroken.

4 out of 5 stars

Pour yourself a drink, and press play September 27, 2005
8 out of 10 found this review helpful

If you absolutely can not stand Country, you can stop reading now and go purchase something else. This is the most Country album that Ryan Adams has ever made. Yes - even more so than the Whiskeytown albums. He even takes an old Whiskeytown track, My Heart Is Broken, and re-records it with The Cardinals making it even MORE Country than before. Honkey-Tonk to the bone, this brilliant album sounds like it was recorded back in the 50's.

The only reason I am not giving this a full 5 Star review is that I am personally not that big of a Country fan. I could have done with a little less Honkey-Tonk, and a little more Rock in these tunes. As far a Country album goes, it is great!

The standout tracks are easily A Kiss Before I Go, The End, Hard Way To Fall, the first single - The Hardest Part, and the heart-breaking September. I could have done without the Norah Jones duet - Dear John - about a marriage gone wrong. Her voice just doesn't blend well with Ryan's on the track.

The production is perfect for the type of album Ryan was trying to make - an Old School Country album. Nothing sounds over-produced, the band sounds full of life & liquor, and Ryan's Country howl is in full effect and pitch perfect throughout the album. See The End and My Heart Is Broken for examples of his brilliant vocal work. Lyrically, Ryan is again head-and-shoulders above his contemporaries. The End (a middle-finger to Jacksonville, his hometown), Hard Way To Fall (an ode to a lover, lost), and September (a love song to a lover who passed away) are all as strong lyrically as anything Ryan has ever written.

All in all, the album sounds like something you'll want to break out when sitting around and having a couple of lazy drinks. While this isn't my favorite Ryan Adams album - it is probably the one most suited for drinking to.

1 out of 5 stars

A little effort would be nice ... January 6, 2006
7 out of 20 found this review helpful

After this latest half-assed attempt by Ryan Adams, at times brilliant and other times atrociously bad, he may very well be named the Joyce Carol Oates of country alternative. Mr. Adams, let's face it, is a polluter, an extremely talented artist who is miring his most masterful accomplishments in tracks that are but creative waste. There is something to be said for an artist who knows when to discriminate and keeps his throw-away tracks locked in a trunk somewhere to be released on a b-side box set once he's dead and gone. Not so with Mr. Adams, who seems to be lacking this discriminatory mechanism in his brain. Like the gratuitously unpleasant "Blossom" from his last 2-disc release (which was, what, a few weeks ago?), this 14-track CD is peppered with songs that go beyond mediocre into a realm closer to laziness. All the songwriting talent that was required for "Don't Fail Me Now" was coming up with the cliche title and knowing how to copy and paste it 20 times; and "September" is almost a flip of the bird to anyone who's ever spent months trying to write the perfect sad song. When albums like this come out, I'm thankful for online programs like iTunes that allow you to download songs individually. Because, frankly, I think both Mr. Adams and his fans would be better served if gems like "A Kiss Before I Go" weren't followed by the uninspired filler that is "Hard Way to Fall" and the like ...

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