Ryan Adams’ “Blue Light” special

I’ve not yet heard Ryan Adams’ next Pax Am Records seven-inch, “Blue Light,” which has a March 31 release date, so there’s no telling about its quality just yet. Some of Ryan’s indie singles have been great, some have sucked out loud. But at the very least, he sure has dropped some first-rate spiel about this one, rough yet vivid, composed in a tone of deadpan whimsy similar to what you see in the writings of the great singer/songwriter/producer Joe Henry:

This session is a bit of that up there but also some songs that were and still are part of this tear — this, like, “I am living in the 80’s but not in a collective way” tear I am on, musically maybe… like in a way where musically and emotionally I let myself go into some soundspace…an imagined reality of not trying to be good at anything with an 80’s feel… but just a free place… a place to be loose in a way where you aren’t trying to change the world. I don’t want to change the world. I just want to tell you a story. Usually about how I feel…

Plenty more where that came from right here, and you can hear one of the songs below. According to the tagline, Ryan (calling himself “Beast-mode”) wrote this four days ago “From the Emerald Isle.” So even if he won’t play in North Carolina anymore, I guess he’ll still visit and even write here in The Old North State on occasion.

UPDATE/CORRECTION: Well, duh — Van Alston points out that “Emerald Isle” is most likely Ireland; which is what I get for being too danged North Carolina-centric.