Heartbreaker

Tipped as a man who would (could) be king in the alt. country arena for his band Whiskeytown, this slight departure is altogether a less frantic affair. A prolific writer, Ryan Adams is capable of issuing material written at very short notice, which makes Heartbreaker a record of how he sounded at that particular time.

Basically it’s an introspective, stripped-down affair that allows the raw, real qualities of his writing to shine and as the title suggests there’s a lot of heartache and soul-searching involved. Witness a song like ‘Call Me On Your Way Back Home’ which, like more than a couple of tracks, has a Dylanesque feel overall.

Produced by Ethan Johns, it is more direct than some of the more layered albums that Johns has been involved with before. Fans of David Rawlings and Gillian Welch will delight at their involvement here as part of the basic recording unit. Welch also adds her vocals as does Rawlings, along with Kim Richey and Emmylou Harris, but it is Adams who is the vocal and focal point here. And he does little here to dispel the notion of how strong a creative force he is and will be.