Ryan Adams & The Cardinals
Jacksonville City Nights

THE REVIEW

"Jacksonville City Night" is the second annual release for Ryan Adams & The Cardinals following the splendid and vigorous "Cold Roses," and once again we are faced with a brilliant, timeless album that borders on being a masterpiece. It recalls the legendary country records of the '60s, those unforgettable ones from Mercury and Smash, which inspire the beautiful and boozy cover where the dominant color is the wisdom of Jack Daniels.
"Jacksonville City Night" is the highest proof album of the year, a truly intoxicating album where wine, beer, and whiskey flow through the 14 tracks, mixing together in an attempt to drown out the sorrows of feelings, lost loves, ended summers, life's disappointments, and sometimes life itself.

Ryan Adams has always been the bard of bars par excellence since his days with Whiskeytown, but with this album, he centers all his songwriting visions on the bar counter, and the evocative power of this music projects these images, vivid, flaming, and desperate, into the listener's mind: a country music jukebox in the corner, patrons sitting on stools, each with a story to tell and one to hide, then the girls moving gently to the rhythm of a country ballad, worn out and disappointed as they wait only for someone with the courage to love them after they've been screwed over. It's a place where time stops, where it's always September, where peace is always about to arrive but never actually does. I can see these people, I count them, in total there are fourteen, are they real or are they ghosts from the bartender's mind? What does it matter, the bar is beautiful only when the bartender knows his craft and he absolutely knows it, I look at him better and I recognize him, yes, it's him, it's Ryan Adams, he calls me and offers me a drink... it's a new cocktail, it's called "Jacksonville City Night," and it's delicious.