Ryan Adams & the Cardinals Alive Volume 1

Ryan Adams is on tour with a new version of The Cardinals. He has released a live album (MP3 download) of highlights from the first leg (June 2023) free to fans (go to Pax Am for details). Typically, these Ryan Adams free albums have shown up on streaming services a couple of months later after the fan release if you don’t want to deal with the hassle of a download. However, this is an outstanding release worth the hassle of signing up, downloading to your computer, importing to iTunes, and syncing to your phone just to enjoy for a couple of months before the unwashed masses.

This version of The Cardinals is:

• Ryan Adams
• Brad Pemberton (longtime drummer with Ryan and Cardinals)
• Chris Stills (Stephen’s son – guitarist – and singer-songwriter in his own right and long-time collaborator of Ryan’s)
• Daniel Clarke (keys)
• Don Was (bass – record producer, music director, film composer, documentary filmmaker, radio host and since 2011, president of Blue Note Records – also a mentor of Ryan).

The Cardinals are Ryan Adams’ jam band persona. A latter iteration of the original band had guitarist Neal Casal (also in Chris Robinson Brotherhood and founder of Circles Around The Sun) who I thought was brilliant and irreplaceable. Unfortunately, he passed a few years ago. But this new iteration really works. This band captures the spirit of the original Cardinals: melodic, jammy without being tedious, and wonderful tunes.

No new tunes here, just a nice cross-section from several of the Cardinals’ albums. “Alive – Volume I” tracklist:

1. Cold Roses (from The Cardinals’ album of the same name)
2. Beautiful Sorta (from Cold Roses)
3. Dear Candy (from III/IV)
4. Kisses Start Wars (from III/IV)
5. Peaceful Valley (from Jacksonville City Nights)
6. Dear John (from Jacksonville City Nights)
7. Fix It (from Cardinology)
8. Games (from Jacksonville City Nights)
9. Magnolia Mountain (from Cold Roses)
10. A Kiss Before I Go (from Jacksonville City Nights)
11. Let It Ride (from Cold Roses)

This is a fantastic gift from Ryan and so great to hear him in this band format and in energetic live performances. As much as I love Ryan’s solo concerts, I love the band format even more. Highly recommended and the only downside is Ryan’s inane between-song banter, but that has always been part of the deal with Ryan.