Some critics have claimed that the age of the singer/songwriter has passed.
To a certain extent that is true. Radio is full of one-hit wonders, poor
lyrics, and techno rhythms. Even country music, the breeder of
singer/songwriter talents like Gram Parsons, John Prine and Jerry Jeff Walker
have gone the way of old.
Which is what makes Whiskeytown and particularly Ryan Adams so appealing.
When "Faithless Street" was recorded(this after all is a reissue) in 1995, Mr.
Adams was only 23. Which isn't really the amazing part, a young kid making an
album; but a young kid with a voice like Gram Parsons, a nod to country, a
wave to the Stones sure as hell is.
Here, for the first time in a long time, is an album that is full of
veracity, power and heart. Lyrics about drinking, broken bottles and hearts
and truck driving. So, you are in southern California and that doesn't fit
you, well just listen to the title cut, "Faithless Street". Not since Van
Morrison in "And It Stoned Me" has someone spoken so eloquently of being
young, lost and praying to find a way to make it.
Full of pedal steel, acoustic guitars, fiddle and singing that will hit your
gut, this is the place and album to discover true music, all being made under
the corporate "Backstreet Boys" umbrella. Amazing.
Some of these songs and I am not exaggerating here at all, rival songs like
"Angel From Montgomery"(see the songs Faithless Street or 16 Days) and even
dare I say this, most anything Gram Parsons released.
As Ryan Adams sings:
"If angels are messengers from god,
please send one down here...
I've been living on Faithless Street
all by myself working for someone else..."
He sure isn't working for someone else. And to tell you the truth, he doesn't
care if you like his music or that my reviewing it might sell more albums.
Ryan only makes music and if you like it, then that is fine. Trust me, if you
like John Prine, Bob Dylan, Townes Van Zandt, Richard Buckner or even the
album "Working Man's Dead" by the Grateful Dead, there is something here for
