Ryan Adams (born November 5, 1974) is an American singer-songwriter, musician, producer, poet and painter. He is best known for his prolific solo career, and as a former member of alternative country band Whiskeytown, with whom he recorded three studio albums. In 2000, Adams left Whiskeytown and released his first solo album, Heartbreaker, to critical acclaim. In 2001, Adams released the UK certified-gold Gold, which included the hit single, “New York, New York”. Adams has also produced albums for Willie Nelson, Jesse Malin, Jenny Lewis, and Fall Out Boy; and he has collaborated with Counting Crows, Weezer, Norah Jones, America, Minnie Driver, Cowboy Junkies, Leona Naess, Toots and the Maytals, Beth Orton and Krista Polvere. He has written Infinity Blues, a book of poems, and Hello Sunshine, a collection of poems and short stories. (More from Wikipedia)
Together with Ryan Adams, Jesse Malin co-founded a hardcore punk rock band in 2002 called The Finger. Ryan Adams (not to be confused with Bryan Adams) has been active in music since about 2000. I remember well a music video for his song “New York, New York” that was filmed just 4 days before September 11, 2001, showing the World Trade Center in the background.
Interestingly, The Finger took its name from a notorious hardcore punk rock band from Raleigh, North Carolina called Finger; Ryan Adams was a big fan of this group. Although I haven’t confirmed it, Finger might have grown out of an earlier Raleigh hardcore band called Colcor. Several songs by this band were included on a 1982 cassette-only compilation album called No Core that also features Corrosion of Conformity. I was delighted to find an LP of the music from this cassette (probably a bootleg) that was among the first albums that surfaced from the Katrina mud. Hardcore and thrash punk is not really my thing, but I do love that album.
(June 2013/2)
