Ryan Adams and the Cardinals Performance DC

I saw Ryan Adams and the Cardinals last night on David Letterman, the performend "Let It Ride". They sounded great, very tight, great guitars, cool song. Their new CD "Cold Roses" is excellent, I have been a fan of his since his Wiskeytown days.

Saw the DC show and thought it was pretty average(having seen him twice before at the 9:30 club). His appearance was a mess, he rambled even more then normal and I thought the actual musical performance was pretty flat.

I am listening to new record now and think that the songs themselves may be part of the problem. The record is perfectly pleasant, but not memorable.

The new record has grown on me after several listens but it is not his best work. If I had to put money on the table, I would venture and say Ryan is smoking quite a bit of the good stuff on a daily basis. This might explain the "Dead" feel and influence depending on what he has been listening to.

When he came out on stage, I almost did not recognize him. Scraggly thick beard, long hair and a flannel shirt with his large glasses. Regardless, I think he is one of the brightess talents in rock for quite a while.

I think the new record has a real Crazy Horse feel to it. I need to listen to it more, but I wouldn't rate it as his best work, or his worse.

Glad to hear those shows were good. I saw him here in Boston last week the show was just ok. He seemed to lack focus and meandered quite a bit. What do you all thnk of the new CD? My Deadhead friends like it...

I saw him recently here in Los Angeles, at the Henry Fonda Theater and he also had a very good night. This band seems to be the best he's played with yet, outside of Whiskeytown - of course.