Laura Marling and Ryan Adams performing ‘Oh My Sweet Carolina’ at the Abbey Road studios,… what could be wrong with something like this? Nothing really, the two musicians sang together this Adams’ classic from his debut album on Channel 4’s ‘Live From Abbey Road’ last Wednesday night, and Laura replaced Emmylou Harris who sang on the original version.
At the beginning of the video, Adams says he has a special connection with the British songwriter: Ethan Johns, the producer of Heartbreaker and Gold, sent him Laura Marling’s ‘I Speak Because I Can’, and he got a revelation:
'For fuck's sake, I literally threw out 80% of what I had. And it felt good, to ask: 'What am I really capable of?' I felt competitive again to write great songs.’
But his new album ‘Ashes &Fire’ is also the result of a lot of changes in his life. Five years ago, he was diagnosed with Ménière’s disease, which affects hearing and balance, a disease, he admitted, was exacerbated by his alcohol and drug habit.
His mad-party times are now over, he is happily married and has built a new Los Angeles Pax-Am studio, with old analogue famous equipment (used by the Beatles, the Doors or Elvis’ engineer).
I wonder whether Adams will venture into heavy metal again,… since I caught a little discussion on twitter between him and Vacation Vinyl a few days ago; Adams, regretful to have missed a performance in the store, was saying he was ‘at the studio all week every night’, and was inviting the store owner to stop by ‘re: Harassor recording’… errr does this mean I will run into Ryan Adams at Vacation Vinyl one of these days?