Ryan Adams: Pinkheart Sessions (1)

start at the beginning of the Ryan Adams Spotlight....

In December of 2000 - just a couple months after the release of Heartbreaker and a couple weeks before the session known as The Suicide Handbook (stay tuned...) - Ryan Adams and some friends stopped in at Woodland Studios in Nashville to record some songs.


Another studio session intended to be part of a 4-disc Demolition series, The Pinkheart Sessions finds Ryan in his most punk-rock state so far in his solo career. Backed by Billy Mercer, John Paul Keith, Brad Pemberton, and Bucky Baxter - also know as The Pinkhearts - this session produced two songs that would later make it on the only disc to be officially released in the Demolition project. The cuts here of Starting To Hurt and Gimme A Sign are the actual takes that made it on Demolition (2002). Most of the remainder of Demolition came from the second Pinkheart Sessions recorded in the summer of 2001 (again, stay tuned).


Other notable songs from this collection are Mega-Superior Gold and Candy Doll, both of which received considerable live play when Ryan toured some as Ryan Adams & The Pinkhearts. Aside from a couple brilliant songs, this session is a mix of over-powered rock, juvenile satire, and even a couple of instrumental takes. But if you take it for what it actually was - limited studio time booked with the intention to try some things that may make an album one day - it served it's purpose. The standout track from the first Pinkheart Session is Young Winds. Ryan managed to calm his overactive limbs, sit at the piano, and pour out another soulful serenade.


Some tracks are not included for obvious reasons.

1. Starting To Hurt (Demolition)
2. Mega-Superior Gold
3. Gimme A Sign (Demolition)
4. Win
5. Red Red Red Red Wine
6. Candy Doll
7. I Don't Wanna Work
8. Charmed
9. Enemy Fire (instrumental)
10. Testy, Testy (instrumental)
11. Around The World/Under The Bridge (RHCP parody)
12. Young Winds

Check out the rest of my Ryan Adams Spotlight:
1. Took Me Long Enough: Whiskeytown
2. Heartbreaker
3. Gold
4. Exile on Franklin Street
5. The Destroyer Sessions
6. Whiskeytown: The Missing Bridge
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