The new Ryan Adams album, Cold Roses has been covered extensively by Scenestars because, frankly, a bunch of us like him. I’m a cynic when it comes to Ryan because I’m in that group that thought his last couple of albums lacked the spark of his best work — the Whiskeytown-era songs are the ones that really move me. I once listened to an interview on NPR with Whiskeytown wherein Ryan talks about the importance of sad songs. I can’t quote him precisely, but he said something to the effect of “Sad songs are the ones that mean the most to you, the ones you really remember.” For a few years now, I’ve been waiting for his dual rock and country personas to merge into something really special, to create an album I could latch onto once again. I think Cold Roses is the one. This record demonstrates to me that Gram Parsons, Neil Young, Levon Helm and Roy Orbison must have visited Ryan a million times in his dreams and left him with a million fascinating ideas. Listen to the entire album in my radio blog by clicking here. As always, tell us what you think and be sure to buy it if you like it.

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