Ryan Adams Live on KCRW – Watch/Listen Now!

Our solo acoustic session with Ryan Adams is up now in the archives for your listening/viewing pleasure and there is also a transcript of his hilarious interview.

Check out photos and a review of the session here and a few highlights below:

For hardcore fans:

He flipped through a binder full of songs at his feet throughout the evening and played favorites from his Whiskeytown days through his albums with the Cardinals and highlights off his newest release (“Chains of Love”!), chit chatting with the audience and cracking jokes in between songs.

For potential new fans:

If you don’t know Ryan, this session might cost you a bunch of $$ in iTunes downloads because you’re going to want to own every one of his albums. This is the best representation of Ryan you can ask for – just him and a guitar so you can fully appreciate his lyrics and his voice.

His appreciation of Jason Bentley:

One of my fave parts of the interview is him telling Jason Bentley he has “the greatest voice ever” and inviting him to be on Night Sweats. I really want to make this happen!

His appreciation of legendary producer Bob Clearmountain, who was at the board for this session at Apogee’s Berkeley Street Studio.

I happened to be standing there when Ryan ran into Bob on his way out the door after the performance and told Bob he was “like Gandalf”. Of course his highest compliment is calling someone a wizard! Bob seemed surprised and totally amused by the comparison. It was a fun exchange to watch.

His appreciation of all kinds of music…aside from dance music:

“So you’re talking about Black Metal and what that music is or how it could may or may not influence me, or anybody. But the thing is, I think that there’s all these musicians in the world and anybody that takes enough time to create a record or even think about the fantasy of rock & roll, I mean, it’s a really vulnerable place to be in. It’s a huge thing to do.

I hear that when I listen to Black Metal and I literally can listen to Emperor and listen to Simple Minds, like “Once Upon A Time” — I love that record when I’m hiking — and then it will go off and like Napalm Death Scum will come on and I’m like I’m OK with it. And then like Toots and the Maytals will come on and I’m like I’m OK with it. Or The Go Go’s or whatever, you know what I mean?

All that stuff, it just makes total sense to me. Like there are certain genres of music that maybe I don’t fully understand, a lot of them have to do with dancing.

But that’s just because I’m too shy to move, I can’t do it, I can’t loosen up that way.”

RR