Ryan Adams: Losering, A Story of Whiskeytown a new book written by David Menconi, music writer for the Raleigh, NC News and Observer is due for publication on September 5th. For many years, whether it was in the N & O or in the pages of magazines such as No Depression, I always thought Menconi did an outstanding job of chronicling the life of Ryan Adams so I'm looking very forward to reading his book. I know next to nothing about it aside from the title and the day it's coming out so I have no idea of how much (if any) input Ryan himself had in the writing of it.

Cool. I'll be on the lookout for this.

David also has another book out that's been on the market for several years called Off the Record. From my understanding, some of the incidents and characters in that book are also based on Ryan Adams (as well as other area musicians). For anyone that may be interested in doing so, you can learn more about Off the Record here.

I'm interested to see how well that will sell.

Ryan's already got one bio, that covers his beginnings thru Demoliton-era, believe it was written by Michael Hutley.

For anyone that's interested, you can now read an excerpt from Ryan Adams: Losering, A Story of Whiskeytown here.

Kudzu Guillotine wrote:

For anyone that's interested, you can now read an excerpt from Ryan Adams: Losering, A Story of Whiskeytown here.

Looks like it might be kinda OK.

Considering the author wrote so much about Ryan in the early days of Whiskeytown and leading up to his solo career, I get the distinct impression that it will be more than "kinda ok". If you're not familiar with David Menconi, you should be able to access some of his archived articles via the News & Observer and No Depression websites.

Kudzu Guillotine wrote:Considering the author wrote so much about Ryan in the early days of Whiskeytown and leading up to his solo career, I get the distinct impression that it will be more than "kinda ok". If you're not familiar with David Menconi, you should be able to access some of his archived articles via the News & Observer and No Depression websites.

I'm not doubting the quality of Menconi's work, I just don't know how interested I am in that era of Adams' career. I'd be much more interested in reading a bio that covered the Cardinals era.

It's published by the University of Texas, so don't expect to see it in every bookstore.

Duke Silver wrote:

Kudzu Guillotine wrote:Considering the author wrote so much about Ryan in the early days of Whiskeytown and leading up to his solo career, I get the distinct impression that it will be more than "kinda ok". If you're not familiar with David Menconi, you should be able to access some of his archived articles via the News & Observer and No Depression websites.

I'm not doubting the quality of Menconi's work, I just don't know how interested I am in that era of Adams' career. I'd be much more interested in reading a bio that covered the Cardinals era.

Gotcha. I loved Cold Roses for the most part but it wasn't so long after that, and several versions of the Cardinals later, that he really started to lose me. By then, the constant drama (which actually pre-dates Whiskeytown) had grown more than annoying. The material I revisit the most is the Whiskeytown stuff so I'm quite interested in reading about that time period.

If I'm not mistaken, Texas University Press also published No Depression in it's final, bi-annual "bookazine" form. As I recall, they seemed to be pretty easy to find at the local Barnes & Nobles. Not sure how this book will fare.

Thanks for the heads-up. I'm still a rabid Whiskeytown fan and would love to check this out.

I've had this book for years, covers his childhood up until Demolition

Smitty wrote:I've had this book for years, covers his childhood up until Demolition

I'm not sure I understand. Menconi just started writing this book within the past year or so.

***Edited to add: I see now. For whatever reason, the image you posted wasn't present when I first replied.

Duke Silver wrote:

Kudzu Guillotine wrote:Considering the author wrote so much about Ryan in the early days of Whiskeytown and leading up to his solo career, I get the distinct impression that it will be more than "kinda ok". If you're not familiar with David Menconi, you should be able to access some of his archived articles via the News & Observer and No Depression websites.

I'm not doubting the quality of Menconi's work, I just don't know how interested I am in that era of Adams' career. I'd be much more interested in reading a bio that covered the Cardinals era.

Urk, really? Whats interesting about that?

Steve French wrote:

Duke Silver wrote:

Kudzu Guillotine wrote:Considering the author wrote so much about Ryan in the early days of Whiskeytown and leading up to his solo career, I get the distinct impression that it will be more than "kinda ok". If you're not familiar with David Menconi, you should be able to access some of his archived articles via the News & Observer and No Depression websites.

I'm not doubting the quality of Menconi's work, I just don't know how interested I am in that era of Adams' career. I'd be much more interested in reading a bio that covered the Cardinals era.

Urk, really? Whats interesting about that?

Cold Roses and Jacksonville City Nights are two of my favorite records of his. I'd love to read a book about the year he spent making those two and 29 (all came out in 2006, I think?).

They came out in 2005. I'm not sure what era Menconi's book ends in but from the title, it's obvious the focus is on the Whiskeytown years. 2005 also marks the year he last played North Carolina. As is mentioned in the excerpt, he put on a great show in Raleigh that summer. First at Meymandi Hall and then later that night at Slim's (formerly the Lakeside Lounge) with Caitlin Cary and Skillet Gilmore of Whiskeytown (as well as Catherine Popper of the Cardinals). I hope that someday he'll see fit to perform in his homestate again. When he played here that night he hadn't performed in NC since 2000 (which also included an impromptu Whiskeytown reunion at the Lakeside Lounge). I really enjoyed that first incarnation of the Cardinals but by the time Easy Tiger was released whatever magic they had seemed to be gone. Perhaps because of the lineup changes; perhaps because Lost Highway wanted a more commercial sounding record or maybe even a combination of the two.

For those that may be interested, David Menconi has started a blog for the book called LoseringBook.

http://www.utexas.edu/utpress/books/menrya.html


Excerpt from UT Press, looks like,it covers some solo years....Also looks to be a good read. I always thought Ryan was a strange dude, should be interesting.


Before he achieved his dream of being an internationally known rock personality, Ryan Adams had a band in Raleigh, North Carolina. Whiskeytown led the wave of insurgent-country bands that came of age with No Depression magazine in the mid-1990s, and for many people it defined the era. Adams was an irrepressible character, one of the signature personalities of his generation, and as a singer-songwriter he blew people away with a mature talent that belied his youth. David Menconi witnessed most of Whiskeytown’s rocket ride to fame as the music critic for the Raleigh News & Observer, and in Ryan Adams, he tells the inside story of the singer’s remarkable rise from hardscrabble origins to success with Whiskeytown, as well as Adams’s post-Whiskeytown self-reinvention as a solo act.

Menconi draws on early interviews with Adams, conversations with people close to him, and Adams’s extensive online postings to capture the creative ferment that produced some of Adams’s best music, including the albums Strangers Almanac and Heartbreaker. He reveals that, from the start, Ryan Adams had an absolutely determined sense of purpose and unshakable confidence in his own worth. At the same time, his inability to hold anything back, whether emotions or torrents of songs, often made Adams his own worst enemy, and Menconi recalls the excesses that almost, but never quite, derailed his career. Ryan Adams is a fascinating, multifaceted portrait of the artist as a young man, almost famous and still inventing himself, writing songs in a blaze of passion.

From what I understand, Ryan put out the word to friends not to cooperate with Menconi. Not sure how that panned out for Menconi when researching the book. I'm looking forward to reading it myself, I just hope it's not an expanded version of the articles Menconi's previously penned for No Depression, the News and Observer and other publications.

I per ordered on my iPad, says Sept 1st i wil receive it. 9.99

hendooman wrote:I per ordered on my iPad, says Sept 1st i wil receive it. 9.99

I put in my order for it through Amazon last week, got a message a day or so later saying it'd already been shipped.

Kudzu Guillotine wrote:

hendooman wrote:I per ordered on my iPad, says Sept 1st i wil receive it. 9.99

I put in my order for it through Amazon last week, got a message a day or so later saying it'd already been shipped.

Nice. I will try and download tomorrow, tonight zzzzzz

New interview with Losering author David Menconi from the Raleigh News & Observer. Anyone else besides myself read the book yet? If so, what did you think?

Menconi: A front-row seat to Whiskeytown’s early years


Ryan Adams, foreground, with his band Whiskeytown.

Kudzu Guillotine wrote:New interview with Losering author David Menconi from the Raleigh News & Observer. Anyone else besides myself read the book yet? If so, what did you think?

Menconi: A front-row seat to Whiskeytown’s early years


Ryan Adams, foreground, with his band Whiskeytown.

I have it and started reading it last week but have not picked it back up. I have quite a bit of traveling coming up so I am looking forward to reading more.

hendooman wrote:

Kudzu Guillotine wrote:New interview with Losering author David Menconi from the Raleigh News & Observer. Anyone else besides myself read the book yet? If so, what did you think?

Menconi: A front-row seat to Whiskeytown’s early years


Ryan Adams, foreground, with his band Whiskeytown.

I have it and started reading it last week but have not picked it back up. I have quite a bit of traveling coming up so I am looking forward to reading more.

As mentioned in another post recently, I found it to be a pretty brisk read at less than 200 pages. Curious to know what you and others think of it. Considering the amount of love I've seen for Ryan Adams and his work with Whiskeytown around these parts, I figured interest in it would be much higher here. Go figure...

I'm interested in it, but the Michael Heatley book I have is pretty in-depth about RA from his childhood up until around Demolition, so I'm not sure if it'd be worth it. I'll eventually get around to reading it.

Kudzu Guillotine wrote:

hendooman wrote:

Kudzu Guillotine wrote:New interview with Losering author David Menconi from the Raleigh News & Observer. Anyone else besides myself read the book yet? If so, what did you think?

Menconi: A front-row seat to Whiskeytown’s early years


Ryan Adams, foreground, with his band Whiskeytown.

I have it and started reading it last week but have not picked it back up. I have quite a bit of traveling coming up so I am looking forward to reading more.

As mentioned in another post recently, I found it to be a pretty brisk read at less than 200 pages. Curious to know what you and others think of it. Considering the amount of love I've seen for Ryan Adams and his work with Whiskeytown around these parts, I figured interest in it would be much higher here. Go figure...

Ha you calling me a fanboy! I am looking forward to reading it, the 3 kids, job, lawn, Chiefs, and whatever the hell else I do are keeping me from getting started.

I'm looking forward to reading it (being a rabid Whiskeytown fan too) but I'm on a spending hiatus. I'll probably DL the Kindle version soon.

Smitty wrote:I'm interested in it, but the Michael Heatley book I have is pretty in-depth about RA from his childhood up until around Demolition, so I'm not sure if it'd be worth it. I'll eventually get around to reading it.

The Menconi book doesn't leave a lot of room to get very in depth which seems to be a restriction placed on all of the books in the University of Texas Press American Book Series. However, I will say that I've always likened Menconi to Ryan in the same way that many liken Dave Marsh to Springsteen as an unofficial biographer. In other words, he was an avid chronicler of all things Ryan Adams for several years there, including the ones he spent with Whiskeytown, which is the focus of the book. I don't think many other people out there had the same sort of access to him that Menconi had, especially during those years. That's what made it such a worthwhile read to me, despite the fact that Ryan refused to cooperate by contributing new interviews to the book. To make up for that he had to rely on lots of old Ryan interviews as well as new ones from people that were close to Ryan during his time in Jacksonville as well as in Raleigh. I think he more than achieved his goal. If Ryan does ever decide to contribute to a biography I'm afraid it will be filled with all kinds of revisionist history. For instance, how he tells the infamous "Summer of 69" story from the Ryman is significantly different than how Peter Cooper (a writer for The Tennessean that I'm sure many here are familiar with) tells it. I'm sure that's only the tip of the iceberg.