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- Date Released: January 1, 2000
- Genre: Country/Folk
- Style: Singer-Songwriter, Alternative
- Label: Bloodshot Records
Ryan Adams' masterpiece?
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We Say...
After three albums with cultishly adored alt country troupe Whiskeytown, it was widely appreciated that Ryan Adams was a smart, literate songwriter and a distinctive singer. However, Heartbreaker, Adams' 2000 solo debut, marked the moment at which the artists he'd already been compared to — Bob Dylan, Paul Westerberg, Steve Earle, Gram Parsons — began to seem less like useful reference points and more like Adams' peer group.
Though Heartbreaker was only the beginning of what has been a prolific and enthralling solo career, it seems some way more than likely that it will be recalled as Adams' masterpiece. Every note and breath here is suffused with swaggering confidence. The album's weird start — an obscure argument about Morrissey with collaborator David Rawlings, followed by a false start to the opening track — can only be intended to evoke Dylan's double-take on "Bob Dylan's 115th Dream." The song that follows, the swinging bluegrass romp "To Be Young," doesn't disgrace the association.
It is, though, a somewhat misleading opening bid. The rest of Heartbreaker is a match for the title, a collection of exquisitely mournful ballads to which Adams' careworn croon catalogues the wreckage of a relationship, and articulates with wracking plausibility the ensuing derangement. "Why Do They Leave?," "Winding Wheel" and "Oh My Sweet Carolina" — the last of which is haunted by Emmylou Harris's backing vocals — are impeccable examples of the sort of monologues that the deserted deliver to indifferent bartenders. "Come Pick Me Up" and "Damn, Sam (I Love A Woman That Rains)," meanwhile, are gorgeous, wry exercises in doing what country music does best: wringing comedy, bleak though it may be, from tragedy. -
They Say...
As Whiskeytown finally ground to a halt in the wake of an astonishing number of personal changes following Faithless Street (coupled with record company problems that kept their final album, Pneumonia, from reaching stores until two years after it was recorded), Ryan Adams ducked into a Nashville studio for two weeks of sessions with Gillian Welch and David Rawlings. While arch traditionalists Welch and Rawlings would hardly seem like a likely match for alt-country's bad boy, the collaboration brought out the best in Adams; Heartbreaker is loose, open, and heartfelt in a way Whiskeytown's admittedly fine albums never were, and makes as strong a case for Adams' gifts as anything his band ever released. With the exception of the Stones-flavored "Shakedown on 9th Street" and the swaggering "To Be Young (Is to Be Sad, Is to Be High)," Heartbreaker leaves rock & roll on the shelf in favor of a sound that blends low-key folk-rock with a rootsy, bluegrass-accented undertow, and while the album's production and arrangements are subtle and spare, they make up in emotional impact whatever they lack in volume. As a songwriter, Adams concerns himself with the ups and downs of romance rather than the post-teenage angst that dominated Whiskeytown's work, and "My Winding Wheel" and "Damn, Sam (I Love a Woman That Rains)" are warmly optimistic in a way he's rarely been before, while "Come Pick Me Up" shows he's still eloquently in touch with heartbreak. Adams has always been a strong vocalist, but his duet with Emmylou Harris on "Oh My Sweet Carolina" may well be his finest hour as a singer, and the stripped-back sound of these sessions allows him to explore the nooks and crannies of his voice, and the results are pleasing. Whiskeytown fans who loved the "Replacements-go-twang" crunch of "Drank Like a River" and "Yesterday's News" might have a hard time warming up to Heartbreaker, but the strength of the material and the performances suggest Adams is finally gaining some much-needed maturity, and his music is all the better for it.
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| 01. |
(Argument With Rawlings Concerning Morrissey) |
0:37 |
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| 02. |  |
To Be Young (Is To Be Sad, Is To Be High) |
3:04 |
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| 03. | |
My Winding Wheel |
3:13 |
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| 04. | |
Amy |
3:46 |
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| 05. | |
Oh My Sweet Carolina |
4:57 |
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| 06. | |
Bartering Lines |
3:59 |
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| 07. | |
Call Me On Your Way Back Home |
3:09 |
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| 08. | |
Damn, Sam (I Love A Woman That Rains) |
2:08 |
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| 09. | |
Come Pick Me Up |
5:18 |
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| 10. | |
To Be The One |
3:01 |
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| 11. | |
Why Do They Leave? |
3:38 |
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| 12. | |
Shakedown On 9th Street |
2:53 |
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| 13. | |
Don't Ask For The Water |
2:56 |
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| 14. | |
In My Time Of Need |
5:39 |
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| 15. | |
Sweet Lil Ga (23rd / 1st) |
3:39 |
|
15 Total Tracks, 51:57 Total Length
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Credits
- Emmylou Harris - Singer // Ethan Johns - Bass // Ethan Johns - Drums // Ethan Johns - Glockenspiel // Ethan Johns - Organ (Hammond) // Ethan Johns - Producer // Ethan Johns - Engineer // Ethan Johns - Vibraphone // Ethan Johns - Chamberlin // Ethan Johns - Mixing // Ethan Johns - Musician // Kim Richey - Singer // Gillian Welch - Guitar (Acoustic) // Gillian Welch - Banjo // Gillian Welch - Bass (Electric) // Gillian Welch - Voices // Gillian Welch - Singer // David Rawlings - Guitar (Acoustic) // David Rawlings - Banjo // David Rawlings - Guitar (Electric) // David Rawlings - Tambourine // David Rawlings - Singer // Gina R. Binkley - Design // Ryan Adams - Guitar (Acoustic) // Ryan Adams - Banjo // Ryan Adams - Harmonica // Ryan Adams - Piano // Ryan Adams - Guitar (Electric) // Ryan Adams - Vocals // Ryan Adams - Main Performer // Allison Pierce - Singer // Shawn R. Britton - Mastering // Pat Sansone - Piano // Pat Sansone - Vocals (Background) // Pat Sansone - Chamberlin // David McClister - Photography // Patrick Himes - Assistant Engineer // Merle Chornuk - Pre-Production // Tony Monaco - Graphic Design // Tony Monaco - Booklet // Tony Monaco - Reproduction
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