Release Date: 10.23.07
Despite Ryan Adams’ future with long-time record label Lost Highway currently set at TBD, alt-country’s favorite son has successfully slid at least one more album under the door of 2007, a new 7-song EP entitled Follow The Lights, a release which showcases a pair of new tracks “Follow The Lights” and “My Love For You Is Real”, both peaceful, slow-rocking Cardinal tunes, set to be used this fall in ABC primetime drama “October Road”.
But what will inevitably interest most fans are the alternate recordings of previous material and a cover of Alice In Chains’ “Down In A Hole”, a recent staple in the Cardinals live show. The song feels like it could be straight out of Adams’ own songbook with its witty self-deprecating lyrics; “I have been guilty of kicking myself in the teeth”. “Blue Hotel”, a song Adams wrote for Willie Nelson’s record Songbird last year, bears classic frustration as he sings “She’s inside me like a secret, and I got no one to tell”. Along with his newfound sobriety this past year has come a revitalization in Adams’ voice, which could not be more apparent than on the sans-Norah Jones version of “Dear John”. Its expression more than compensates for the lack of the original’s female counterpart.
Follow The Lights isn’t set out to accomplish anything the full-length Easy Tiger hasn’t already been able to this year, but it does serve as a treat for fans who enjoy keeping up with Adams’ impressive output.
“Follow The Lights”
