Stranger's Almanac is one of those records, that when i still listened to cd's, got pitched out of the drivers side window of my volvo at eighty miles an hour somewhere on i-81. not because i hated it. because i couldn't hear it anymore. i guess i'm comfortably past that, since i dug up the copy i bought a few months ago, holding it in reserve for the day i knew i was going to need to hear 16 days and Avenues again, and i've ripped it to my itunes, playing the shit out of it here in the house and in the car, other than the random hankering for something a little different, a mary lou lord song that wasn't the right fucking version and some my morning jacket, its been a pretty straight diet of ryan adams when no one fucking knew who ryan adams was. and while i've been an ardent supporter of his solo work, i've got to say, this j. garcia bender that he seems to be on is enough to make me vomit on his gorgeous boots. heartbreaker may honestly be one of the best records to come out in my lifetime, really, it conveniently sets him up in the pantheon of music gods, but he's losing the country, and its starting to grate. because while rock'n'roll is a beautiful record (yes, i really do like it), all i really fucking want from him is the succinct ryan adams punk rock ethic in a country bent kind of way. three minutes. knock my socks off. enough with the noodling foreplay, its less sexy and more annoying. but still, strangers almanac is one of the best things going. at least there's that.