Another contest: Win Ryan Adams’ new EP
Never one to let the dust settle under his boots, Ryan Adams‘ newest release with The Cardinals is coming on October 23.
The Follow The Lights EP (Lost Highway) will offer a brand new tune, an official studio version of his Willie-Nelson-loaned “Blue Hotel” (LOVE that song), and a couple older songs re-recorded & an Alice in Chains cover. Tasty.
Follow The Lights EP tracklist
1. Follow The Lights (new song)
2. My Love For You Is Real (older song, never released)
3. Blue Hotel (first official Ryan release, recorded live in studio)
4. Dear John (from JCN, new version live in studio)
5. This Is It (Cardinals version, live in studio – originally on RnR)
6. Down In A Hole (Alice In Chains cover, live in studio)
7. If I Am A Stranger (originally on Cold Roses, live in studio)
Forget girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes, EPs really are one of my favorite things. I love how the best ones possess that perfectly digestible sense of flow and pull throughout the six or seven songs. Like one of those mini-desserts in a shot glass, or tapas.
To win the new Ryan EP, let’s talk in the comments what your favorite EP is and why you love it. Make sure I have a way to contact you (and you may want to spell out the email addy — not sure if that fools the spambots, but it’s worth a try), and the contest will go until Tuesday, so the winners might even get the EP before the street date? We’ll see.
TWO winners will be chosen; I haven’t yet decided whether to pick winners on merit or randomly. But you can’t win unless you enter, so DO IT.
Oct 13 – North Charleston, SC – N. Charleston Perf. Arts Ctr
Oct 14 – Atlanta GA – Fox Theater
Oct 15 – Birmingham AL – Alabama Theatre
Oct 17 – Mobile AL – Saenger Theatre
Oct 18 – Houston TX – Verizon Wireless Theatre
Oct 19 – Dallas TX – McFarlin Memorial Auditorium
Oct 21 – Tulsa OK – Cain’s Ballroom
Oct 23 – Nashville TN – War Memorial Auditorium
Oct 24 – Indianapolis IN – Murat Theater
Oct 25 – Columbus OH – Lifestyles Community Pavilion
Oct 27 – Lakewood OH – Lakewood Civic Auditorium
Oct 29 – Pittsburgh PA – Carnegie Music Hall of Oakland
Oct 30 – Washington DC – D.A.R. Constitution Hall
Oct 31 – New York NY – Hammerstein Ballroom
Name: Heather Browne
Hands down – “Under A Blood Red Sky” by U2 – it’s what got me into the band. Great memories of renting a VCR with a great group of friends to watch the Live At Red Rocks concert tape and the movie Patton! d2squared@cox.net
Anonymous — October 12, 2007 @ 1:11 pm
Iron & Wine’s The Sea & The Rhythm
Waking before you
I’ve got a fever and a childish wish for snow
Seems like a long, long time
Since I spun you to this borrowed radio (Someday The Waves)
This line always gets me, along with the title track.
Brandon — October 12, 2007 @ 2:33 pm
Brandon, believe me, I thought about not putting PJ because of this exact reason but then it’s not everyday that you find your doppelganger in the female form – it’s just something you learn to live with. Heather knew that I would reply with Merkinball when she created this post.
Smik — October 12, 2007 @ 3:28 pm
Black Market Clash.
In 1980, in between the near perfection of London Calling and the ill advised bloat of Sandinista the Clash put out this little gem. Great cover of Toots and the Maytals ‘pressure drop’ and another of Booker T’s ‘time is tight’ but what stands out for me is the final track ‘justice tonight/kick it over’ a track with both a message and a groove. This was at a time when the marketing people claimed that the Clash was “the only band that mattered” and they just might have been right.
Brociner at aol dot com.
David — October 12, 2007 @ 6:17 pm
I fancy the Yeah Yeah Yeahs debut EP. very sexy and full of raw energy. The Yeahs at their finest.
bmcdesign at geeeeeeeeeeeeeeee mail dot com
Easy B — October 12, 2007 @ 8:39 pm
The Black Keys – Chulahoma. It takes you and wrings you out with its blazing blues rock, it leaves you breathless and beat and satisfied enough to light up a cigarette afterward.
shutupmulder at yahoo dot com
zara hemla — October 12, 2007 @ 9:32 pm
“Chimes of Freedom” Springsteen
Great 4 song disc from the ’88 Tour with a fantastic acoustic encore of Born to Run…
tomaguire@yahoo.com
Anonymous — October 12, 2007 @ 10:57 pm
City and Colour EP… it floored me the first time I heard it and it did the same when I put it on last week. Can’t say that about many records.
phillyv at hotmail dot com
Anonymous — October 12, 2007 @ 11:30 pm
coincidentally enough, i’m going to go with alice in chains, ‘sap’, which was a beautiful collection of songs, but more importantly showed a more toned down and melodic side of the band. the significance of ‘sap’ may not be as evident now, in retrospect, as they went on to record an unplugged album.
jamie — October 13, 2007 @ 2:08 am
oh shit. someone already said ‘jar of flies’, which now makes me wonder if i meant that one or ‘sap’. let me check. i guess i meant ‘sap’. they also did a dual release of both e.p.’s on vinyl. i’ve got that here somewhere.
jamie — October 13, 2007 @ 2:13 am
Wilco’s “Bridge EP” (aka Australian, More Like the Moon”) is my choice. A beautiful tracking of six songs with the rough-cut Camera, an early Handshake Drugs, the Guthrie-esque Dylan’s 49th Beard and the wistful closer: More Like the Moon. That song spelled the end of the EP but also for me felt like a grand ride not off into the sunset but the moonlight. Things were changing for me and it seems for the band and for one moment there was mysterious synergy. Oh, and it was a free download!
phillips [dot] adam [at] mac [dot] com
anp — October 13, 2007 @ 10:04 am
the sea & the rhythm
sorry, forgot about this
bjstilb@gmail.com
Brandon — October 13, 2007 @ 1:17 pm
Maybe this is predictable, but I gotta go with R.E.M.’s Chronic Town. A band that changed my perceptions, and that EP is the start.
trampus AT gogtt.net
Andy — October 13, 2007 @ 2:27 pm
Sarah McLachlan Live Acoustic EP, with Fallen, one of my favorite songs of hers ever. Love those lyrics. Poignant song about life and love lost.
jlh@bellsouth.net
JoJo — October 13, 2007 @ 4:08 pm
First of all, great idea…
Let`s be honest here, one of the most underrated artists out there today is Glen Phillips and although I love his solo projects, I regularly go back to his Toad The Wet Sprocket-days, how can you NOT love those albums…and especially the “Acoustic Dance Party”-EP from 1994.
Let`s start with the story behind the album, the boys wanted to record their beautiful “Something`s Always Wrong” acoustically but the day before their equipment was stolen, so the song was recorded with borrowed instruments. How`s that for “Something`s Always Wrong”…?
Also on the EP, 4 acoustic tracks recorded in front of a small audience during their Dulcinea-tour. And it shows Toad at their best: beautiful songs, great harmonies and awesome lyrics, ranging from insightful (Walk On The Ocean) to just plain fun (“You bend your words like Uri Geller spoons” on “Nanci”).
Glen is indeed an amazing songwriter and Toad just made great songs and put on great performances, proof of that can still be found on that great EP: Acoustic Dance Party.
Have a great weekend,
AJ
aj77@orange.nl
AJ — October 14, 2007 @ 1:54 am
Ben Folds- Speed Graphic EP.
Even though I’ve moved away from Folds through the past few years- coincidentally at the time I really fell in love with Ryan’s music- Speed Graphic came at a time in my life where every one of those songs fell into and right back out of all the things that I was grazing with all five senses.
benvoliowillson at yahoo dot com
Benvolio — October 14, 2007 @ 12:24 pm
radiohead- my iron lung ep
polyphonic spree- wait ep (I’m a sucker for cover tunes)
californiarocks7@aol.com
Ian — October 14, 2007 @ 2:34 pm
My two favorite EPs are Matt Wertz’s Orange EP and Elliott Smith’s Needle in the Hay. I still regularly listen to my old scratched copy of the latter.
maxwastler at yahoo dot com
Maxwell Thomas Wastler — October 15, 2007 @ 10:12 am
i’d say one of the better Ep’s is Story Like A Scar by The New Amsterdams
Dustin Christensen — October 15, 2007 @ 4:16 pm
I love M. Ward’s “To Go Home” EP.
To Go Home is a brilliant song, upbeat, hopeful, but with texture and gritty subtly. Classic M. Ward… but the real gems are the 3 other tracks, “Cosmopotian Pop”, where you get a lovely whimsical m. ward, “Human Punching Bag”, where you get the slow, dripping with GOOD m. ward, and lastly “headed for a fall,” where you get another classic m. ward song, like to go home… solid, moving song, but with a lot of texture and creativity.
I’m a huge m. ward fan and love this ep…. however, i’m a bigger ryan adams fan and would love to win this great prize!
steve
steve.joh@gmail.com.
Steve — October 16, 2007 @ 2:24 pm
dunno if anyone said it, but REM’s Chronic town EP, it’s brillant, i think i was fifteen and bought it with my friend (whose birthday was sept. 9th, yes, 9-9, another REM reference.) Ben died a decade ago of a disease he fought all his life, but EVERY time I hear “Boxcars, are rolling out of town.” I thank Ben for making me a copy of chronic town. it’s my form of zen, listening to old rem albums and bootlegs.
mike r.
uppitycrip at gmail dot com
Uppity Disability — October 17, 2007 @ 12:33 pm
my favourite is In the Reins The Iron&Wine and Calexico EP and snow patrols live and acoustic at park ave. they are sooo great live!
backseat driver — October 17, 2007 @ 5:17 pm
So who won this crazy contest?
Anonymous — October 18, 2007 @ 9:51 am
Just finishing the post
heather — October 18, 2007 @ 10:00 am
I got to go with ‘The Format EP’ simply titled EP and a demo that got them signed, ironicly some of there best work to date.
nelso330@msu.edu good luck to all
Anonymous — October 18, 2007 @ 7:57 pm