Ryan Adams - 29 (2005/2014) [TR24][OF]

Heaven knows why Ryan Adams decided to release three albums in the calendar year of 2005. He's always been prolific to a fault, boasting about completed unreleased albums when his latest work was just seeing the light of day, but he never saturated the market with new material the way he did in 2005, when it seemed he was trying to break Robert Pollard's record for most music released within a year. Grinding out three albums in a year is a marathon, not just for Adams but for any of his listeners, and by the time he got to the third album, 29, in the waning weeks of December, he seemed like a winded long-distance runner struggling to cross the finish line: completing the task was more important than doing it well. There's little question that 29 is the weakest of the three records Adams released in 2005, lacking not just the country-rock sprawl of Cold Roses but the targeted neo-classicist country that made Jacksonville City Nights so appealing. Which isn't to say that 29 doesn't have its own feel, since it certainly does. After opening with the title track's straight-up rewrite of the Grateful Dead's "Truckin'," it slides into a series of quiet, languid late-night confessionals. It's like Love Is Hell transported to a folk/country setting. Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine

TRACKLIST
1. 29 05:48
2. Strawberry Wine 08:00
3. Night Birds 03:53
4. Blue Sky Blues 05:20
5. Carolina Rain 05:27
6. Starlite Diner 03:53
7. The Sadness 06:43
8. Elizabeth, You Were Born To Play That Part 05:12
9. Voices 05:08

BAND
Ryan Adams — Vocals, acoustic guitar, piano, electric guitar
Wayne Bergeron — Trumpet
JP Bowersock — Electric guitar, mandolin, acoustic 12-string guitar, guitarone
Jennifer Condos — Bass
Ethan Johns — Drums, bass, pedal steel guitar, chamberlin, synthesizer, acoustic guitar, ukulele, harpsichord, string arrangement, brass arrangement, conducting
Alan Kaplan — Trombone
Dennis Karmayzn, David Low — Cello
Bruce Dukov, Endre Granat, Phil Levy, Rafael Rishik, Anatoly Rosinsky, Lisa Sutton — Violin

Recorded: August 2004, Three Crow Studios, Los Angeles, CA.