CD review: Ashes & Fire by Ryan Adams

It's taken me a while to get to this review, not because I was reluctant to write it but because I wanted to give this album more time, as each time I listened to it there was something deeper and richer about it, and there was a good chance that with even more listening, more textures were going to emerge. And so it has proved.

I am a long-time Ryan Adams fan and, as his fans know, Ryan is brilliant but inconsistent. His last consistent album was either Gold, a decade ago, or Jacksonville City Nights, and the answer is dependent on which version of Ryan you like (rock or country). In and around those albums were many, many other releases that contained some astoundingly beautiful songs that I listen to over and over and over - Cold Roses and Easy Tiger deserve particular mention as being good-song-laden - but they also featured songs that I will not listen to. Ever. Ryan Adams is the only songwriter I know of who can veer so wildly between greatness and mediocrity, seemingly without awareness of same - indeed, one of his former bandmates in the Cardinals (I want to say Neal Casals, but may be wrong) said that Ryan actually can't tell the difference between a good and a bad song, which explains 'Halloweenhead' but doesn't really tell us how he can get it so right so often. Perhaps he's just capricious.

But now to Ashes & Fire, which was released a few weeks ago ... I'm going way out on my Ryan fan limb and saying it's the best album he's ever released. It is certainly his most consistent, and that solid structure gives us the opportunity to really hear what's going on. There are eleven songs of outstanding quality and, yes, they are in the country genre. Each one is worth listening to for years to come, and many times over. They are well constructed without being heavy; delicately drawn without being fluffy; and - for me, at least - they are beautiful and moving. I couldn't pick a favourite because I love them all, but I will say that 'I Love You but I Don't Know What to Say' has to be one of the greatest love songs of all time, because it's not sappy and it's not affected and it captures just what it's like to love someone - not necessarily romantically - over the course of years.

By getting out of his own way Ryan has also, finally, given us the chance to appreciate his voice. It has always surprised me that more is not made of his vocal range, which is usually well displayed in performance but not really on record, because he tends to not move up and down the octaves. He's not doing vocal acrobatics on this album either, but his control of his voice and its sensitivity as an instrument are clearly captured. It's a voice that sounds intimate - like he's right there with you - like the song is coming through him and not just out of his mouth. And if that sounds corny, too bad - because only the best singers can actually become the song.

The reasons behind this 'new, improved' Ryan Adams have been speculated on: he's stopped drinking alcohol and has now been married (to singer Mandy Moore) for a handful of years. Perhaps these things have given him the solid foundations that can be heard behind the songs; perhaps he's just grown up. Whatever it is, it's working.

Ashes & Fire by Ryan Adams is out now through Pax-Am/Sony/Columbia.

Ryan Adams is touring Australia in February and March 2012. For details go to his website at paxamrecords.com.

CD review: The Harrow & the Harvest by Gillian Welch

It's taken me a long time to listen to a Gillian Welch album, and even then it's been because it's a gift from one of my favourite people, and fellow country music enthusiast, Lucy Lehmann.

My first encounter with Gillian Welch was on Ryan Adams's first solo album, Heartbreaker. I have flirted with her own songs since then but never bought an album because, well, there's a lot of great music out there and I can't buy it all. Thanks to Lucy, though, I'm likely to invest in the Welch back catalogue because The Harrow & the Harvest is a very fine piece of work.

The opening track, 'Scarlet Town', is both swampy and fugue-like, and in a way sets the rhythm for the rest of the record.

'Dark Turn of Mind' sounds like its subject matter, with oddly sweet harmonies. It is lonesome and blue without the sad. These harmonies appear throughout the album and give a depth to the whole record that it doesn't sound like it needs but which it would be lacking without.

The lulling, rolling pace of the third track, 'The Way it Will Be', drew me in even when I had it on in the background, trying to concentrate on some work. But I couldn't ignore it - it's almost hypnotic.

There's then a considerable shift to the toughness of 'The Way it Goes'. The lyrics indicate regret - 'that's the way that it is/though there was a time when all of us were friends' - but Gillian's voice is unforgiving.

In turn that tough tone yields to the dirge-like 'Tennessee' and beyond, into musical swamplands that aren't at all swampy. The record is redolent of banjoes and backhoes, of hard times, but when she sings 'hard times ain't gonna rule my mind no more', we believe her. That extraordinary voice is full of light.

And it is Gillian's voice that is perhaps the main reason for buying the album. You'd follow that voice into any tale it wants to tell, down uncertain trails and into harsh homes, then out into the fields and sunlight once more.

www.gillianwelch.com

Gillian Welch, The Harrow & the Harvest (Acony, 2011)

Exciting end to 2011

It's been so long since I posted anything here that I'm not going to make excuses. I'm just going to start afresh.

And what's motivated me to start afresh is the prospect of three incredibly exciting CD releases in September and October. The first is Handfuls of Sky, the second album from Harmony James, who is, without a doubt, an outstanding songwriter and whose first album, Tailwind, is still on high rotation in my home.

There's also a looming new release - if not new songs - from Kasey Chambers. Her next effort is Storybook, an album of cover songs. If you've ever seen Kasey perform live, you'll know she loves doing a cover, and she does them very well, so even though there are no new Kasey songs, I can't wait to hear this one.

Last but not least, there's Ryan Adams's Ashes & Fire, due in October.

A not-forthcoming but, in fact, recently issued release is Karl Broadie's 'mini album', One Constellation, a collection of tunes recorded here and there which he has brought together and released on iTunes ahead of a new studio album.

So there's a huge amount to be excited about over the next few weeks. I'm trying to decide whether I wait for Ryan and buy all the albums at once, in some grand exercise in patience, or get them as they come out, because I'm just too impatient. Only time will tell.