Ryan Adams

Download or read book Ryan Adams written by David Menconi and published by Univ of TX + ORM. This book was released on 2012-09-01 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A chronicle of Adams’s rise from alt-country to rock stardom, featuring stories about the making of the albums Strangers Almanac and Heartbreaker. Before he achieved his dream of being an internationally known rock personality, Ryan Adams had a band in Raleigh, North Carolina. Whiskeytown led the wave of insurgent-country bands that came of age with No Depression magazine in the mid-1990s, and for many people it defined the era. Adams was an irrepressible character, one of the signature personalities of his generation, and as a singer-songwriter he blew people away with a mature talent that belied his youth. David Menconi witnessed most of Whiskeytown’s rocket ride to fame as the music critic for the Raleigh News & Observer, and in Ryan Adams, he tells the inside story of the singer’s remarkable rise from hardscrabble origins to success with Whiskeytown, as well as Adams’s post-Whiskeytown self-reinvention as a solo act. Menconi draws on early interviews with Adams, conversations with people close to him, and Adams’s extensive online postings to capture the creative ferment that produced some of Adams’s best music, including the albums Strangers Almanac and Heartbreaker. He reveals that, from the start, Ryan Adams had a determined sense of purpose and unshakable confidence in his own worth. At the same time, his inability to hold anything back, whether emotions or torrents of songs, often made Adams his own worst enemy, and Menconi recalls the excesses that almost, but never quite, derailed his career. Ryan Adams is a fascinating, multifaceted portrait of the artist as a young man, almost famous and still inventing himself, writing songs in a blaze of passion. “Menconi, a veteran music critic based in Raleigh, North Carolina, had a front row seat for alt-country wunderkind Ryan Adams’ rise to prominence—from an array of local bands, to Whiskeytown, and on to a successful and prolific solo career. Here, Menconi enthusiastically revisits those heady days when the mercurial Adams’ performances were either transcendent or tantrum-filled—the author was there for most of them, and he packs his book with tales of magical performances and utterly desperate train wrecks. . . . This interview- and anecdote-laden exposé of the artist's early career will doubtless find a happy home with Adams fans.” —Publishers Weekly

Download or read book Ryan Adams written by Michael Heatley and published by Omnibus Press. This book was released on 2010-05-14 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ryan Adams is American roots music's first superstar of the new century. First finding cult fame with alternative country band Whiskeytown, his rebellious image and photogenic street urchin looks have won a wide fan following that includes Elton John and Noel Gallagher. In this first account of his life, Michael Heatley traces Adams' progress from small town North Carolina to trysts with actress Winona Ryder, the broken romances and personal demons that have fuelled his most affecting work and his dedication to legendary country-rock pioneer Gram Parsons. Still in his mid twenties, Adams has the world at his feet. If, unlike Parsons, he opts for self-preservation rather that the self-destructive image he often portrays. This book assesses the past, present and future of a performer with the potential and the eclecticism to be 'the new Neil Young'.

Download or read book Ryan Adams & the Cardinals written by and published by Harry N. Abrams. This book was released on 2010-03-01 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ryan Adams and the Cardinals: A View of Other Windows reveals an unprecedented, intimate look at Ryan Adams and his band the Cardinals through the evocative photography of lead guitarist, Neal Casal. An intensely personal collection of 200 photographs, Casal has captured the exhilaration of the stage and studio while sometimes exposing the solitary aspects of the creative process and life on the road. With an introduction by Ryan Adams and an afterword by legendary musician Phil Lesh, this collection will be revered by fans and is the official documentation of the beloved band.

Download or read book Waiting to Derail written by Thomas O'Keefe and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2018-06-26 with total page 269 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Long before the Grammy nominations, sold-out performances at Carnegie Hall, and Hollywood friends and lovers, Ryan Adams fronted a Raleigh, North Carolina, outfit called Whiskeytown. Lumped into the burgeoning alt-country movement, the band soon landed a major label deal and recorded an instant classic: Strangers Almanac. That's when tour manager Thomas O'Keefe met the young musician. For the next three years, Thomas was at Ryan's side: on the tour bus, in the hotels, backstage at the venues. Whiskeytown built a reputation for being, as the Detroit Free Press put it, "half band, half soap opera," and Thomas discovered that young Ryan was equal parts songwriting prodigy and drunken buffoon. Ninety percent of the time, Thomas could talk Ryan into doing the right thing. Five percent of the time, he could cover up whatever idiotic thing Ryan had done. But the final five percent? Whiskeytown was screwed. Twenty-plus years later, accounts of Ryan's legendary antics are still passed around in music circles. But only three people on the planet witnessed every Whiskeytown show from the release of Strangers Almanac to the band's eventual breakup: Ryan, fiddle player Caitlin Cary, and Thomas O'Keefe. Packed with behind-the-scenes road stories, and, yes, tales of rock star debauchery, Waiting to Derail provides a firsthand glimpse into Ryan Adams at the most meaningful and mythical stage of his career.

Download or read book To Be the King of Diamonds written by Walter Ryan Adams and published by Trafford Publishing. This book was released on 2011-02-03 with total page 111 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Every person has a story, and all of us can pinpoint certain moments in our lives that have defined who we are today. Even so, not everyone shares the story they have to tell. Walter Ryan Adams, a high school baseball coach, tells his players a story every year. It involves how he answered some of lifes most difficult questions and found his purpose from a speech, a letter, and a baseball. In the course of his story, he explores how to respond to criticism ; how leaving your comfort zone can make a difference in your life; how to overcome challenges that seem insurmountable; and how good friends can make huge differences in your life. By recalling the details of his past, Coach Adams seeks to create a moment that his students will remember. It is these moments, after all, that define us. He doesnt tell this story for himself. He tells it so that others can learn what it means To Be the King of Diamonds.

Download or read book Horror Stories written by Liz Phair and published by Random House Trade Paperbacks. This book was released on 2021-03-09 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The two-time Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter behind the groundbreaking album Exile in Guyville traces her life and career in a genre-bending memoir in stories about the pivotal moments that haunt her. “Honest, original and absolutely remarkable.”—NPR (Best Books of the Year) When Liz Phair shook things up with her musical debut, Exile in Guyville—making her as much a cultural figure as a feminist pioneer and rock star—her raw candor, uncompromising authenticity, and deft storytelling inspired a legion of critics, songwriters, musicians, and fans alike. Now, like a Gen X Patti Smith, Liz Phair reflects on the path she has taken in these piercing essays that reveal the indelible memories that have stayed with her. For Phair, horror is in the eye of the beholder—in the often unrecognized universal experiences of daily pain, guilt, and fear that make up our humanity. Illuminating despair with hope and consolation, tempering it all with her signature wit, Horror Stories is immersive, taking readers inside the most intimate junctures of Phair’s life, from facing her own bad behavior and the repercussions of betraying her fundamental values, to watching her beloved grandmother inevitably fade, to undergoing the beauty of childbirth while being hit up for an autograph by the anesthesiologist. Horror Stories is a literary accomplishment that reads like the confessions of a friend. It gathers up all of our isolated shames and draws them out into the light, uniting us in our shared imperfection, our uncertainty and our cowardice, smashing the stigma of not being in control. But most importantly, the uncompromising precision and candor of Horror Stories transforms these deeply personal experiences into tales about each and every one of us.

Download or read book Ryan Adams written by David Menconi and published by University of Texas Press. This book was released on 2012-09-01 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A chronicle of Adams’s rise from alt-country to rock stardom, featuring stories about the making of the albums Strangers Almanac and Heartbreaker. Before he achieved his dream of being an internationally known rock personality, Ryan Adams had a band in Raleigh, North Carolina. Whiskeytown led the wave of insurgent-country bands that came of age with No Depression magazine in the mid-1990s, and for many people it defined the era. Adams was an irrepressible character, one of the signature personalities of his generation, and as a singer-songwriter he blew people away with a mature talent that belied his youth. David Menconi witnessed most of Whiskeytown’s rocket ride to fame as the music critic for the Raleigh News & Observer, and in Ryan Adams, he tells the inside story of the singer’s remarkable rise from hardscrabble origins to success with Whiskeytown, as well as Adams’s post-Whiskeytown self-reinvention as a solo act. Menconi draws on early interviews with Adams, conversations with people close to him, and Adams’s extensive online postings to capture the creative ferment that produced some of Adams’s best music, including the albums Strangers Almanac and Heartbreaker. He reveals that, from the start, Ryan Adams had a determined sense of purpose and unshakable confidence in his own worth. At the same time, his inability to hold anything back, whether emotions or torrents of songs, often made Adams his own worst enemy, and Menconi recalls the excesses that almost, but never quite, derailed his career. Ryan Adams is a fascinating, multifaceted portrait of the artist as a young man, almost famous and still inventing himself, writing songs in a blaze of passion. “Menconi, a veteran music critic based in Raleigh, North Carolina, had a front row seat for alt-country wunderkind Ryan Adams’ rise to prominence—from an array of local bands, to Whiskeytown, and on to a successful and prolific solo career. Here, Menconi enthusiastically revisits those heady days when the mercurial Adams’ performances were either transcendent or tantrum-filled—the author was there for most of them, and he packs his book with tales of magical performances and utterly desperate train wrecks. . . . This interview- and anecdote-laden exposé of the artist's early career will doubtless find a happy home with Adams fans.” —Publishers Weekly