Ryan Adams - Keep Me In Your Thoughts

Keep me in your thoughts don't disappear - "So Alive"

An exciting CD came through the door the other day. It's a Ryan Adams retrospective in preparation for the forthcoming new album. The most exciting part of it was 2 tracks from Easy Tiger - "Two" and "Halloween Head". If you want to get into a Ryan Adams mood again, fire up iTunes and make the playlist, it looks like this:

1. Two (Easy Tiger)
2. Blue Sky Blues (29)
3. Nuclear (Demolition)
4. Halloween Head (Easy Tiger)
5. So Alive (Rock'n'Roll)
6. Wonderwall (Love Is Hell)
7. Let It Ride (Cold Roses)
8. Two (Easy Tiger)
9. The Hardest Part (Jacksonville City Nights)
10. New York New York (Gold)
11. Halloween Head (Easy Tiger)

It's interesting what songs he picked from each album. Obviously nothing from Heartbreaker as it's on a different label. What one song would you pick to make a mix tape from all 9 studio albums.

So you want to hear about the new tracks? Easy Tiger. Slow down.


The name, says Adams, comes from this girl he's been spending time with. "She wanted to go out to dinner at eight; I wanted to go right away. She said, 'Easy Tiger.' And that hit me. It stuck with me to the point where I called up Neal (that would be Neal Casal, guitarist of The Cardinals) and left a message on his answering machine with those two words. 'Don't forget this,' I said 'cause I want to use it.'"

Two and Halloween Head show different sides of Adams. 'Two' could easily sit on Jacksonville City Nights. It's acoustic guitar, female backing vocals, tinged with melancholy with the chorus 'It takes two, it takes two/ when it used to take only one'. It's kinda got the big acoustic sound of 'This House Is Not for Sale' but with the pedal steel so typical of the Cardinals. There's a strong drum beat and Ryan sings close to the top of his range akin to Sweet Illusions. It's a sweet song, a timeless country gem that Adams seems to be ever striving for.

Halloween Head on the other hand, is a different story. More Cold Roses than Jacksonville, but the all electric guitar line up makes me think pinkhearts era Demolition maybe? Anyway, it's a killer track. I was singing along to the chorus 'I got a bad idea again/ I got a Halloween Head' the first time I heard it.

It's full of all the old Grateful Dead/Black Flag 70s west-coast rock reference that Ryan digs so much. It's simple, features a clanging bell, shouts of "guitar solo!" and leaves you gasping for more.

So far so good, when do we get more?

Easy Tiger.