Entertainment Weekly
IT Troubadour
Ryan Adams
Age 26 Why Him? Until he rode into town with last years blazing Heartbreaker, the torpid alt-country scene had spent a decade yearning for a swaggering savior. Now its got more than one, if you consider Adams aptitude for cloning himself: This year brings Pneumonia- a rescued gem from his former band, Whiskeytown - and Gold, a double disc solo mother lode.
EARLY INFLUENCES- Instead of name checking the usual roots-rock totems, Adams pours forth a literary litany-Edgar Allan Poe, Emily Dickinson, Edith Wharton, Sylvia Plath, Hubert Selby Jr., Albert Camus. "My mother is a teacher, and the room I was raised in had all of her college books I shouldnt have been reading. I read Henry Millers Black Spring and Tropic of Cancer when I was about 13."
WHAT NEVER LEAVES HIS GUITAR CASE- The collected works of Patti Smith.
ODD NOCTURNAL HABIT- When touring, "I tend to sleep on a hotels couch. I dont ever think to jump in the bed."
BEST ADVICE- From fellow North Carolinian Chris Stamey of the dBs. "He told me if I ever had an idea for a song, to sit down and stay with it until it was done, because those moments of inspiration will pass."