Ryan Adams- Empty Room/Nutshell 7"

Singer-song writer Ryan Adams recently completed his first tour in two years this past week. During the tour fans were given the opportunity to purchase Empty Room/Nutshell a tour only 7”. The A-side "Empty Room" features Adams’ wife singer Mandy Moore on backing vocals and is the first official song that the couple has recorded together (lets hope there is more in the future), and sounds as though it could have been written during the Cold Roses era. The singles B-side "Nutshell" is an Alice in Chains cover. Adams must be an Alice and Chains fan considering this is the second song by them that he has covered for an album the first being "Down in a Hole" on 2007’s Follow the Lights. With this being his second release this year one can only hope that we'll finally get to hear the infamous Black Hole by the end of the year.

Ryan Adams & The Cardinals- Class Mythology

Ryan Adams has had a busy past few months back in December he released III/IV, which was recorded with The Cardinals in 2006/2007 during the sessions for Easy Tiger. On April 16^th Adams’ released Class Mythology a double 7” containing four tracks that were outtakes from 2008’s Cardinology,

The first track “Go Ahead and Rain” differs greatly from the digi-single version that Adams released 2009. This new version is stripped down and features Adams’ vocals in a falsetto that can be compared to that of Neil Young, featuring Neal Casal on backing vocals. This is one of the more emotional and seductive songs on the album and is very accessible and relatable while the last twenty-two seconds of the songs conclusion features and overdub of a thunderstorm. “Invisible Red” features a foreboding guitar rift at each refrain followed by the thunderous boom response from Brad Pemberton on drums. Followed by a chorus that lightens in mood as Adams wails out “I Think I’m Falling in Love with You Again.”

“You Name is On Fire Tonight” is energetic and upbeat while highlighting the overall sound of the cardinals, and is in a similar key as the Cardinology track “Go Easy.” Where “Future Sparrow” is a little bit on the slow side. What is interesting about all four of these tracks is the fact that they were left on the cutting room because they feel as though they should have made it on the final tracklist for Cardinology. However the fact that we get to hear them now makes up for it, in that they seem to work better being released as a double 7”