Ryan Adams - 29 artwork, tracklisting, & live cuts

The ever-diligent kids over at fansite Ryanadams.org have uncovered the info surrounding Ryan's 3rd! album to be released in 2005. Lost Highway Records has set the release date of 29 to December 20th. This release follows closely on the heels of Ryan's newest album Jacksonville City Nights. 29 was produced by Ethan Johns, who produced Ryan's first two records: Heartbreaker & Gold. Both Cold Roses (his first album released in 2005) and Jacksonville City Nights featured his backing band The Cardinals, however, 29 is pretty much a solo affair and will only feature Ryan, Ethan Johns, & Cardinals guitarist J.P. Bowerstock. Although this album is the last to see release, it was actually the first of the three 2005 records to be recorded.

Here is how Ryan described the record in a somewhat recent interview with Pitchfork:

"That one's really fucked up. It has nine songs, and all the songs are nine minutes long, they're all story-songs. And it's basically just me and a piano, me and a guitar, with Ethan. It's really cerebral. The theme of it was that I wanted to write a record where I could write myself out of my twenties. So for each year of my life, in my twenties, I kind of assigned different parts of my character, I gave them names. The last song is a song from the perspective, believe it or not, of a ghost. When it's just passed out of a body, and it goes "Don't go to the light/ I'll show you how to haunt." This spirit is trying to conjure this dead child, this dead person, back to the house where they died. So they can haunt it. It's really fucked up."

OK. There are indeed 9 songs, people who have heard the promo have said the song are (thankfully) not all nine minutes long. Here is the tracklist with some live versions of the tracks I've obtained so far.

1. 29

2. "Strawberry Wine"

3. "Nightbirds" : YouSendit link | Rapidshare link (recommended)

4. "Blue Sky Blues"

5. Carolina Rain

6. Starlite Diner

7. "The Sadness"

8. "Elizabeth, You Were Born To Play The Part"

9. Voices



Read the rest of Ryan's Pitchfork interview here.