Adams, Ryan

Ryan Adams (born David Ryan Adams on November 5, 1974) is an alt-country and rock and roll singer/songwriter from Jacksonville, North Carolina. Adams dropped out of high school at 16 to work in a shoe shop and make music. He formed a band named Whiskeytown in 1994; they disbanded in 1999. more...

Adams went on to put out his first solo record, Heartbreaker, in 2000.

Ryan Adams is a highly prolific artist, releasing seven albums as a solo artist between January 2000 and December 2005. He has also produced an album by Jesse Malin, contributed to Beth Orton, the Wallflowers and Counting Crows albums, dated Winona Ryder, Alanis Morisette, Beth Orton, Leona Naess, Carrie Hamilton, and Parker Posey, performed specials with Elton John (who refers to him as "Oh Fabulous One"), Willie Nelson, and Toots & the Maytals, and found time to release a punk record with Jesse Malin under the name The Finger. Additionally, at least ten other session recordings can be found floating around the internet.

Musical Career and personal life

Early years

Ryan started out as a punk artist in a band known as The Patty Duke Syndrome. They released two songs in 1994 on a 7" single (two songs on one side, the other side was a band called GlamourPuss). Ryan would later describe punk rock as "too hard to sing" in the song "Faithless Street" which appeared on the debut album of the same name for his new band, Whiskeytown. The band was part of the burgeoning alt-country movement which traces its roots to the country-rock pioneers, most notably Gram Parsons. Following the success of Uncle Tupelo, Whiskeytown quickly gained critical acclaim with the release of their second full-length album, Stranger's Almanac. Adams' antics soon proved destructive for the band, with only Caitlin Cary enduring Adams for all 3 albums, the rest came and went in rapid succession. Their last album, 2001's Pneumonia (Ryan's first collaborabtion with Ethan Johns) was held up by legal troubles and finally came out as a sort of work-up for Gold, two years after Ryan had left Whiskeytown.

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