Relix - Blogs - Indie Outing (the secret jambands roots of indie rockers)

Current Issue details

Buy Current Issue

March Issue details

January - February Issue details

December Issue details

Blogs > Indie Outing (the secret jambands roots of indie rockers)

Indie Outing: Ryan Adams

Name: Ryan Adams

Band: The Cardinals

Indie-Jam connection: Long before he was popular in jam and Grateful Dead circles, Ryan Adams regularly covered “Wharf Rat.” His love of the Grateful Dead influenced his 2005’s recording Cold Roses, which featured Jaik Miller collaborator J.P. Bowersock on guitar and future Grace Potter & the Nocturnals bassist Catherine Popper. He also picked “Stella Blue” as one of the covers on Songbird, the album he produced for Willie Nelson. Adams also gave some props to Phish on his Facebook page and posted a video of “Waste.”

Notable jam moments: In 2005, Relix and Jambands.com paired Ryan Adams with Phil Lesh at the Jammy Awards. The musicians clicked and Adams joined Phil & Friends for a few shows in Colorado later that year. After that, things got trippy: Adams and Lesh started name dropping each other in the press, booked at joint gig at Vegoose and toyed with the starting a completely new project with its own identity. Then, for unknown reasons, Adams pulled out of the Vegoose gig and the new Lesh/Adams project fizzled. The two musicians seemed to patch things up in time for Adams to sit in with Phil Lesh & Friends during its 2005-2006 New Year’s Eve run, though the often erratic guitarist missed the middle night of the run due to “food poisoning.” In 2006, Adams and Lesh played a few surprise gigs together on the West Coast and Lesh played bass in the Cardinals during an opening spot for Willie Nelson. The two musicians have not shared the stage since Adams sat in with Phil & Friends for two nights in late 2008, though Lesh continues to regularly cover Adams’ music with Furthur and his solo groups. Adams continues to champion the Grateful Dead in concert, as well as on his favorite means of communication, Facebook.

Lot Talk: “I knew for the most part that most Deadheads really objected and hated the fact that I played with Phil [Lesh]. It didn’t affect him. He would always say, ‘Fuck ‘em if they can’t take a joke or they just don’t get it yet,” Ryan Adams, Relix

Comments

There is 1 comment associated with this post

Adam April 20, 2012, 05:32:54

You are right, William, I don’t get blocked too much, aptrly because I am so busy and don’t have time to do a lot of thinking :-) and so I just paint, but also because I feel like I have to make up for lost time-years in which I was doing things other than painting. The writing? I always thought I would be an artist but I have also always toyed with the idea of writing a book or something. So I do like to write and chattering on and on in a blog is really the perfect solution. Plus we live in a fairly isolated area and sometimes I go for days without talking to people outside my family. So when I sit down to write just a few words, it always ends up much longer. Clearly. Now you got me going on this subject so I may have to write another long winded post about me, me, me:-)Omega, Thanks, glad you like the painting. As always, it’s a structure I have painted many times, but I always feel that there is more to say about it and to explore. I love how music can remind of us certain times in our lives, good or bad.