Heartbreaker
As a founding member of the band Whiskeytown, Ryan Adams was considered one of alt-country\'s most skilled, mercurial talents when he entered the studio to record this solo debut. Tracked in Nashville in two weeks and featuring contributions from Dave Rawlings, Gillian Welch, and Emmylou Harris, *Heartbreaker* is a stunner. It contains two of Adams\' most enduring tunes—the shambling \"To Be Young (Is to Be Sad, Is to Be High),\" and the, well, heartbreaking \"Come Pick Me Up,\" a paean to the recklessness of young love. But there\'s not a bad song here. \"My Winding Wheel\" is sweeping alt-folk, \"Amy\" is a sweet orchestral ballad, and \"Shakedown on 9th Street\" is crunchy dancehall rock. *Heartbreaker* is a classic, hands down.
Ryan Adams, part-time solo musician, full-time frontman of indie-country\n\ band Whiskeytown, is from North Carolina. As chance has it ...
As Whiskeytown finally ground to a halt in the wake of an astonishing number of personal changes following Faithless Street (coupled with record company problems that kept their final album, Pneumonia, from reaching stores until two years after it was recorded), Ryan Adams ducked into a Nashville studio for two weeks of sessions with Gillian Welch and David Rawlings.