The Witzard

Jacksonville 's very own genre-blending Alt. Country superstar Ryan Adams is in fact, no stranger to recording full-length cover albums; Adams reportedly recorded, and ultimately scrapped, a stripped down 4-track revision of The Strokes' critically-acclaimed debut Is This It? (2001). But for whatever reasons, Adams' " Blues cover version" has rather discouragingly still only been heard by members of his former backing band, The Cardinals . Ryan Adams' second attempt (or third, if you count his unheard Vampire Weekend album), at a full-length cover album: a self-described Smiths -indebted version of Taylor Swift 's recent career-redefining 1989 has been very well-documented through his own personal social media accounts. "Ryan's music helped shape my song-writing. This is surreal and dream-like. Countdown to [Ryan Adams' 1989] @TheRyanAdams ," @taylorswift13 frantically Tweeted Thursday afternoon, upon the sudden announcement ...

It all started when my older cuz Josh burned me a stack of CD-R's full of pirated music; I couldn't really tell you what was in there... But probably some Beastie Boys , mid-90's Ska, Dave Matthews Band , Phish, mash-ups, and Ryan Adams - "To Be Young (Is to Be Sad, Is to Be High)." It's a self-loathing Alt. Country romper pulled from Adam's solo debut, Heartbreaker (2000), which was later featured in Accepted and Old School . Ryan Adams' abridged discography includes about 13 albums and he's recorded [and vaulted] records-full of everything from Death Metal to Hip-Hop and unreleased Vampire Weekend/The Strokes covers CD-R's. Judd Apatow 's latest film, This Is 40 showcases a specially-formed Ryan Adams Band along with keyboardist Ian McLagan (The Faces) who performed during it's final scenes. Ryan Adams even contributed re-recorded live tracks for inclusion on it's soundtrack, "Lucky Now" and "Shin...

Ryan Adams - "Wasted Years" (Iron Maiden) Many years ago [2000], when I was first REALLY "getting into" the Indie Rock music scene... my tech-savvy, older cuz Josh passed me a Led Zeppelin Greatest Hits 3-CD set, a box of cassette tapes, and a collection [Read: "stack of data CD-R's"] of shit to check out. Contained within the bounds of one of those CD-R's was "To Be Young (Is to Be Sad, Is to Be High)," a playful, little ditty from Alt. Country singer-songwriter Ryan Adam 's debut long-player, Heartbreaker . Since his 2000 inception, Ryan Adams has released 6 individual solo albums, 4 records with his [former] band The Cardinals , got married to Mandy Moore , released a Heavy Metal album as "Orion," upstarted his very own record label imprint, and unleashed a handful of mp3's from his assorted "side endeavors." In the mix of what may easily seem like to some a schizophrenic musical career, Adams man...