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Cold Roses

by Ryan Adams & The Cardinals

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Here is the album that many fans have been hoping Ryan Adams would make since his much heralded emergence with Whiskeytown. Though Adams has been as eclectic (and erratic) as prolific over his solo career, this double-disc gem delineates the possibilities of alt-country in 2005 while transcending the limitations typically associated with the genre. The organic arrangements of his new band, the Cardinals, blend acoustic and electric strains, sparked by the interplay between J.P. Bowersock on guitar and Asleep at the Wheel alumna Cindy Cashdollar on pedal and lap steel. With the set-opening "Magnolia Mountain," Adams and band draw inspiration beyond the title from the era of Neil Young's "Sugar Mountain" and the Grateful Dead's "Sugar Magnolia," though much of what follows shares as much in spirit with Bright Eyes (or even the poppier side of Prince) as it does with retro country-rock. On "Mockingbird Street," Adams builds from the stripped-down intimacy of a heartbeat toward the majesty of an anthem. Except for the rock and roll swagger of "Beautiful Sorta," the material exposes an open-hearted vulnerability, emotions that range from the rapturously romantic ("Cherry Lane") to the tremulously tender ("Mockingbird") to the broodingly bittersweet ("Rosebud"). On the engagingly uptemo "Let It Ride," Adams confesses to "27 years of nothing but failure and promises that I couldn't keep." This release represents promise fulfilled. --Don McLeese