Ryan Adams - Jacksonville City Nights CDs • Vinyl Records • LPs • Music Albums

City Nights is also classic Adams -- earthy, rich with pathos and almost disconcertingly dedicated to the idea that life's only two constants are losing a lover you probably didn't deserve in the first place and losing yourself in the bottom of a fifth of Jack Daniel's. The standout tracks are the ones where a wearily bowed fiddle or heavy-hearted piano vamp matches Adams' wounded honky-tonk moan. On the haunting ballad "Dear John" -- a duet with Norah Jones, who ought to make a country album of her own -- the devil is in the details of a marriage gone wrong: overdue bills, a miscarriage, the cats who "went missing from the window you never fixed and the door you never latched." The prolific Adams has got another album due before year's end. If Jacksonville City Nights is any indication of where he's headed, we could be on the cusp of his best one yet.

Adams' prodigious songwriting ability reigns over his penchant to change musical styles as often as he does thrift shop garb. This time out his expert band authentically nails '70s-style roadhouse honky-tonk. Highlights include a delicate duet with Norah Jones and the mournful "September.