Ryan Adams & Kasey Chambers

[Pickin' Fool]

I was just wondering what everyone's opinion was on these two artists. If you have not heard them here is a brief description.

Ryan used to front a band called Whiskeytown, they are a pillar in the alt-country genre. Ryan has really came to national exposure in the past year. His second solo album Gold was on tons of top ten lists of the year.
IMO, Ryan is one of the very best songwriters of my generation. I personally perfer his first album Heartbreaker, Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, guested on the majority of the album. Heartbreaker has a much folkier feel than what Gold. but I highly recommend both of them.

Kasey Chambers is an Aussie singer/songwriter who is really starting to create quite the buzz here in the states. She is young, like 21 and writes some great songs. Her song The Captain, from here first album of the same name was featured in The Sopranos. Her first single Not Pretty Enough from her most recent album is starting to receive airplay on some adult alternative stations. If you have not heard this song yet, you will. For all you folks that love Sara's voice check this girl out she is amazing.

She can hear both of these artisits at cdnow.com

[sarah]

i heard kasey chamber's song nullarbor on roswell and fell in love with it. but it's the only song of hers that i like.

[Taipan]

Seems to me that Ryan Adams has changed direction a little - in recent gigs he's apparently not played ANY heartbreaker material and is moving towards the rock'n'roll direction, god forbid anyone should know that country artists are....dare I say.....good. I personally think the album has too many slow songs on....but the melody with Emylou Harris (?) on oh my sweet carolina (now on the Elton John playlist) is beautiful!

[Pickin' Fool]

I agree. I can't deny that Ryan's most recent album is more Rockin than the first, but somebody better than Creed has got to make a good rock n' roll album.
You mention Elton John, he is a huge fan of Adams and he makes a guest appearance in the Answering Bell video, as does Adam Duritz of the Counting Crowes.
Sweet Caroline has got to be in my top 5 favorite songs of all time. It is absolutley fantastic.

[ljsmanz]

Kasey Chambers is my absolute favorite singer! I listen to her latest albulm at least once a day. I've heard her songs play on more and more t.v. shows, including Days of OUr LIves and DAwson's Creek. I think her song writing is brilliant, second only in my opinion to Allison Moorer. My current fave song off her 2nd albulm is Crossfires.

[arob71]

I was a big fan of Whiskeytown's Stranger's Almanac and Pneumonia, but apart from a few songs, Ryan's solo albums haven't done a lot for me. I do, however, really like Caitlin Cary's While You Weren't Looking cd. It's too bad she didn't get more of the spotlight in Whiskeytown, especially for sticking with Ryan when a dozen other musicians came and went in the span of a few years. Her song Pony has the best chorus of any song I've heard this year, and Shallow Heart, Shallow Water has a hook that reels you in instantly. I liked several songs off Kasey's new album too, namely, If I Were You and Not Pretty Enough. Kudos for her working with Buddy Miller and covering Gram Parsons.