It's common knowledge the Ryan Adams writes 14 songs a day, cuts three albums a week, and still finds time to operate the weirdest website on the internet. Well, maybe only that third point is totally true, but the man is as prolific as they come in the music business. There are a whole host of albums that were 'shelved' or never intended for actual release...and 'Destroyer' is one of them. I had originally thought this was a Post-Heartbreaker effort, done around the time of '48 Hours' (another shelved project), but this isn't the case.. Turns out that it's an album that was recorded before the Heartbreaker sessions, sometime in 1999.
Like all things that don't technically 'exist', this album was incredibly easy to procure through illicit means. Ryan, I promise I'll buy the material if you've ever got a price tag on it. I neglected to look at the track listing upon download, figuring I'd recognize some tunes, and wanted to be surprised.
Right off the bat, I knew what I had. You see, kicking around in my CD book that occupies my car is a bootleg of some Ryan Adams gig from October of 1999, and I instantly recognized the opening track Born Yesterday, which also kicks off most of the live sets from that week long or so tour that he was doing on the material from this album. That show has long been a favorite of mine, and I was stoked to realize that I had most likely fallen into 'official' recordings of some of those great songs. You might also know that Born Yesterday is on '48 Hours', but the version here is a totally different mix, with Gillian Welch offering some assists on the vocal duties. Perhaps the most important thing to note on this entire album is her presence, as a backing vocalist on what seems like just about every song on the disc.
I have been fascinated with the Ryan Adams era that intersects with Welch/Rawlings, and feel that nothing they've ever collaborated on has ever gone awry (well, except for that show where Adams kicked out the fan for heckling...). Hell, you could make a strong argument that Rawlings (and to a lesser degree, Welch) are the reason 'Heartbreaker' is so tragically great. It's after these guys stopped being cozy that Adams appeared to go off on his little tangents; a litany of unreleased material, smashed together Label releases, band changes, and running up Rock Legend Widow's AMEX accounts. Shit like that. What is clear from this recording, which has the Rawlings/Welch footprint, even more than 'Heartbreaker', is that Adams was in a great songwriting place. I don't know if he's tapped the Americana/Roots influences any better, other than pieces of 'Heartbreaker', and it's almost certainly Adams that shines through. There's no way you could really play the 'Who's Adams Trying to Sound Like' game here. All the songs are HIM. It took him all the way to 'Jacksonville City Nights' to get back to that, I believe.
The shuffling country song Poison & the Pain, which I had never heard before, is a perfect example of this. It's sloppy, rambling, and emotive. Welch provides some seriously out-of-tune, but oh so perfect vocals over the chorus. You could picture this one being plucked outside the barn, on a Fall night, during the harvest. I'd say this type of songwriting is a direct effect of working with Rawlings/Welch, who write Americana narratives, maybe better than any contemporary songwriters who cross over into the mainstream (Steve Earle comes to mind as competition).
Rainy Days is another standout, with it's layered harmonized vocals, throughout. Welch/Adams compliment each other, but still remain singularly out-of-tune. This track is stripped down, but with a tinkling xylophone like instrument adding a little extra. It's remarkable how quiet the middle of this album is, just in general. Not until the closer, a cover of Welch's Time (The Revelator) do they even plug in.
The studio recordings of these songs are surprisingly great, compared to my perceptions of the live versions. Statuettes With Wounds, co-written with Van Alston (who was featured heavily in the live sets that presented this material in 10/1999), could have certainly have made the 'Heartbreaker' cut. It's a lonely ballad of rejection, with Adams belying his own pain with a great chorus:
Is it funny that you're laughing at me/The joke's on you/Cause I feel sorry for him
Only two cuts here actually made it onto 'Heartbreaker'. One is Bartering Lines, and on this disc we're presented with a strong duet over the chorus with Welch that just freaking pops, and rivals the haunting version that would become the official release. If anything, that backwoods drawl that Adams pulls out of his Easter NC upbringing so rarely these days, is most prominent in this rendition. The entire song seems to have been reworked for 'Heartbreaker'. It evokes more of a tribal Indian rhythm here, and without words might convince you it was time to do the Atlanta Braves tomahawk chop.
In My Time of Need stands out as the gem of the album, perhaps because of it's familiarity. Such an earnest song, which Adams has said he wrote from the perspective of man in his 70's. The reflective 'look back at love' type song can be cliche, but the delivery (which could actually be the same cut/mix from 'Heartbreaker') elevates the song past any cheesiness, and takes you into the soul of the song like only the best songwriters can do.
Material like this is usually for completists. Fans who are OCD and fanatical will seek this stuff out, trade the tapes/CD-R's/mp3's (depending on how old you are), but it will forever be off the radar for the casual guys. That's a damn shame, because what we've got here is a great piece of American songwriting, and it's stuck in 'unreleased' purgatory. I'd rate the final four songs, Time of Need/Bartering Lines/Memories of You/Time (The Revelator) as equal to anything else in his catalog. The soaring Welch cover that closes this thing out is a huge exclamation point on an album that should become a necessity for anyone who claims to appreciate earnest Americana/Alt-Country music. The reworking is straight out of the Neil Young book on riffage, and Welch's classic takes on a grittiness that almost surpasses her seminal work. You can see why she'd have shared such great material with Adams, who must have been this close to embarking on a Gram Parsons/Emmylou Harris type jaunt with Welch. Damn all, if that wouldn't have been amazing.
Grade: An Unreleased 9.0
Destroyer Track Listing
h/t answeringbell.com
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