I’m taking the show on the road as guest speaker of the first ever LOOP MUSIC SERIES on Friday, October 26^th at 6:00 PM.  A unique coffee, art, and record establishment  located in the Tremont neighborhood (2180 W 11th St), LOOP will be kicking things off with series host Adam Gravatt offering a 2 hour spin through of singer/songwriter Ryan Adams extremely rare and limited 15 Lp Live After Deaf.  The vinyl boxed set, which I obtained through an online ordering frenzy conducted by Ryan Adams very own PAX-AM label, contains excerpts from his June 2011 “Acoustic Nightmare” European tour. These were his first live performances since disbanding his backing band The Cardinals and semi-retiring from music in 2009.

The album’s title refers to Ryan Adams’ struggles with Ménière’s disease, which ultimately led him to take an extended respite from live performances in early 2009.  Ménière’s is a disorder of the inner ear that can affect hearing and balance to a varying degree. It is characterized by episodes of vertigo, low pitched tinnitus, and hearing loss.  During the tour, Adams debuted tracks which would subsequently appear on Ashes & Fire. The tour eventually came to America in select markets with Cleveland hosting a very intimate performance in Playhouse Square’s Ohio Theatre back in January of 2012.

  

David Ryan Adams is one of the leading alt-country Americana singer-songwriters of our time.   Although Adams path into the forefront of the genera began in 1994 with the group Whiskeytown, for me it was an interview I heard on the NPR syndicated radio program The World Café with David Dye in October of 2000 that coincided with the release of his first solo album Heartbreaker.  That was the day that changed my musical life … forever.  There were some other albums that came out prior to Heartbreaker that began this phase of my music odyssey, but it was filling out a postcard that came in a CD packaging from Lost Highway Records that eventually led to being their Street Team captain for Cleveland and Columbus Ohio concerts.  My first assignment was working the Ryan Adams show at the Agoraduring the Gold tour in 2001.  So some of you may have crossed paths with me before … I was   handing out flyers, the iconic rose stickers, and even Halloween candy at one of the Ryan Adams shows that took place at House of Blues, Lakewood Civic, and Playhouse Squarevenue.

   

You could say hanging out at the local record store is part of my blood, which started at an early age growing up in Canton.   I met my co-host Adam Gravatt from his days working at The Exchange in Fairlawn. Running into people you know at shows is always a cool thing; so of course, Adam was one of the usual suspects I would run into at a Ryan Adams show.

My days with Lost Highway ended around the same time Ryan Adams left the label to become an independent artist after the release of Cardinology.  I began writing a music column in a community newspaper called Mimi Vanderhaven’s Fabulous Buys in 2007.  When the newspaper changed from a bi-weekly to a monthly distribution, I found an additional home on The Cleveland Plain Dealer web site in 2009 where I could post stories more often at my digression. Four trips to Nashville for the Americana Music Association conference and additional postings for my blog on the No Depression web site along with WordPress since, my musical addiction has found a home.

So stop by LOOP on Friday and tell a friend about this cool local business.  For more LOOP happenings, check out their Facebook page.