This album is fantastic from start to finish.

"Dear John"- The duet with Norah Jones that seems to be about a person coping with the death of their lover, with lyrics like:

"Because your always mine,
to keep when your gone...
Two silver rings, ones on my finger
and the other ones gone..
It went underground with you, Oh John.."

Is worth the price of the record itself.. If you are a fan of Adams and you do not have this record already, do yourself a favor and order now.

I was really hooked on his solo stuff until I heard this album. The Cardinals add depth to Ryan Adams in a way that is hard to quantify. Listen to the album and you will appreciate this quality right away.

This is a truly excellent record, essentially an homage to old 1960s honky-tonk country records, right down to the fancy lettering and listing off all the songs on the CD cover. Here followeth a track-by-track breakdown:

1. A Kiss Before I Go--short and sweet, clocking in at just over two minutes, this barroom tune full of regret is offset by a toe-tapping beat, tinkly piano and mournful pedal steel. It contains one of my favorite lyrics, "He can't see tomorrow with yesterday's eyes"

2. The End--an ode to Jacksonville, NC, Adams's hometown. The pedal steel gets a very interesting part on this song. It's in 3/4 time, so if you feel like waltzing, this is a good track for it.

3. Hard Way to Fall--a personal favorite of mine. It's a song about the girl who was in your life who's now found someone else, and the process of trying to let her go. It makes me think of my exes (even though none of them drank Scotch)

4. Dear John--a duet with Norah Jones, based around the piano. Slow, mournful, also about a broken relationship (something Adams writes about frequently)

5. The Hardest Part--contains themes similar to "Hard Way to Fall." It talks about how it's hard to love someone who cares for you. I've found this to be true plenty of times.

6. Games--another barely 2-minute track, about love and pain and the title character flaw. Don't you just hate it when people play games?

7. Silver Bullets--one of the weaker songs on the album. It's very quiet, and doesn't really hold my attetion too much. I just end up thinking about werewolves for some reason. Try reading the lyrics while you're listening to it.

8. Peaceful Valley--a cool track about Heaven (though I don't feel it's very accurate) and trying to get through life. Adams explore similar territory on the song "Magnolia Mountain" from "Cold Roses."

9. September--a quiet brooding track about a woman who dies (presumably from cancer). One of my favorite tracks. There's also an alternate, more country version that is available on Rhapsody.

10. My Heart Is Broken--an old tune from the days of Whiskeytown. It's about cheating (following the typical country formula)

11. Trains--a fun track, it moves along at an appropriate speed. "Feels like I'm always moving."

12. Pa--this is a mini-story song, done in sparse acoustic style. You're either really like or really hate it (I really like it).

13. Withering Heights--a truly sad song, about failing in life (and love, consequently). The chorus is very haunting.

14. Don't Fail Me Now--a last, desperate attempt to patch up a failing relationship. Repeats the refrain, "You don't do me right." It has a good fiddle part as well, though at a slow tempo.

Ryan and the Cardinals play the kind of music adults wish their kids liked. The lyrics are nice and the melodies are comforting.

On the surface Jacksonville City Nights would seem to be Ryan Adams at purely his most country, raw acoustic guitar, and heart on his shoulder lyrics.

What Jacksonville City Nights however actually accomplishes is similar to what Rock N Roll, an electrified blast of alternative rock, did, morph Adams into a certain type of performer at a certain moment in time adding another dash to the pallet of his career. That might be impressive artistically but the question is do you all of a sudden like raw country simply because the previous it boy jumps into the genre?

On Jacksonville, Adams actually runs away from his previous core sound and the results are both impressive and jarring. If you want the pop hooks that adulterated his previous records Gold and Cold Roses, then Jacksonville isn't for you. Instead Adams steps into Willie Nelson mode and when it works (The Hardest Part, A Kiss Before I Go) you get some raw pure country sounds. When it doesn't work (title track) you get all the whiney walling that may have pushed you away from the genre. Therefore if you liked raw country before hand, you'll probably like Adams take on the genre, if you're only listening because Adams has jump into the genre, you'll likely find all the reasons you didn't like country music throughout Jacksonville City Nights. Maybe if Adams had spent more time with this focus a more complete feel would overtake the record, however being a relative rookie when it comes to the raw country sound he goes for on Jacksonville, Adams actually sounds like a rookie performer putting out his first record.

Jacksonville therefore is a member of a growing group of Adams records that see him take on a genre and bring all of its strengths and weaknesses to the forefront. So the passion for the genre is there but the experience to pull it off isn't.