Viva la Vinyl: Ryan Adams' Rescue Blues 7"....

In 2004, Ryan Adams started up his own small record label, Pax Americana, in order to release demo recordings of some of his tunes that Lost Highway didn't deem worthy. He only released 3 sets - The Rescue Blues [EP], California [EP], and If I Am A Stranger [Single] - all on 7-inch vinyl. Just yesterday, I won an auction for the Stranger Single, completing my PAX-AM collection.

However, word on the street is that this label may soon be resurrected. Apparently, Ryan's art-guy (as seen alongside Ryan in his more recent YouTube vids) twittered about (re)designing "@ryanad_ms vinyl label art" and also posted the above pic.

If you check out Ryan's website, there's a suspicious message that may just corroborate this intel. Decide for yourself, but in the meantime, enjoy these vinyl rips of The Rescue Blues [EP].

A: The Rescue Blues (vinyl rip)
B: Come Pick Me Up (vinyl rip)
C: Enemy Blanks (vinyl rip)
D: Tell Me How You Want Me To Feel (vinyl rip)








These original 4-track versions are definitely demo-quality, but well worth the listen. Come Pick Me Up is especially interesting, recorded at a slower pace, much like his live version. Enemy Blanks (aka Enemy Fire) gets re-structured in this set, beginning with the chorus. Rescue Blues and the unreleased Tell Me are both gritty, heavy-electric takes that showcase Ryan's original intent for his songs.

If you've been keeping up with my Ryan Adams Spotlight, you may have noticed I've been at a standstill in the chronological album reviews. Waiting on deck is Love Is Hell - quite the review-task, if you ask me. That album definitely requires the right mood/mindset to listen to, much less review. But stay patient, I'll get to it. After LIH, Ryan joined up with The Cardinals, and in one year, put out 3 of his most amazing albums. To help bridge this gap, I've created a Ryan Adams (solo) Mixtape of his best unreleased tunes. I've spent a lot of time adding/removing tunes, deciding on a track-order, and cropping them to fit as many as possible. It may just be the next best thing to the elusive unreleased box-set, so keep an eye out for it.

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