Ryan Adams - The Real Show

After the WFPK Listener Appreciation debacle a month or so ago, I think Ryan Adams' management pretty much agreed they had to get him and The Cardinals back in Louisville on the next tour. Well Easy Tiger hit stores and the toured started with a date at The Brown Theatre in Louisville. Sarah, Aaron, Sara and I got tickets to the Wednesday night show that featured no opener (GREAT SUCCESS!) and assigned seats. Ryan gets high acclaim for being what music writers call a "songwriters songwriter." That basically means that he has his act together and should be mentioned in conversations with Bob Dylan and Neil Young. He is that good. As for the show, it was rocking. Much better and more normal than the WFPK show. A recent interview I heard with Ryan said that he plans for the band to morph from being Ryan Adams & The Cardinals to just being The Cardinals, with him being one of 2 singers. I think that is very evident that this would be a distinct possibility in the not to distant future. The band plays well together. There was more of a set break than an encore. The show lasted 2+ hours. They didn't play any music previous to The Cardinals joining Ryan. Sadly, they didn't play The Hardest Part off the Jacksonville City Nights album (one of my all-time favorite album covers). Overall, a great show.

That wasn't the only show I went to this week though. Ryan Shaw played at the WFPK live lunch on Friday and I took a long lunch to go check it out. If you haven't heard of Ryan Shaw or his debut album This Is Ryan Shaw, you need to check it out soon. He is a soul singer from Georgia who plays and sings in the same style as if someone picked him up from the 60's and put him in 2007. The WKPK studio is tiny with only about 100 people in the room. People were going wild. 50 year old ladies were standing up dancing and 20 year old dudes were grooving. His music has great crossover appeal because he is so talented and innocent. After the show, I met Ryan and his band. Then picked up a signed set list (Me Rikey).

Song Recommendation - I Found The Love by Ryan Shaw