Ryan Adams is one prolific artist. He released three albums in 2005, and supposedly has a 4-disc box set coming out this fall. To tide us over until then, Adams has released Easy Tiger. Largely forgoing the genre-hopping of his last few LPs, Easy Tiger is, by and large, firmly rooted in the alt-country mode with lots of pickin', mournful slide guitar and Adams' own country-flecked voice. This is not to say that he has abandoned his Grateful Dead fixation as opener "Goodnight Rose" attests. But even this song is reminiscent of the Dead's country masterpiece, Workingman's Dead, rather than their jam workouts. However, for most of the rest of the album, Heartbreaker-style mid-tempo laments are the order of the day ("Halloweenhead" being an uptempo exception). However, the sameness of tempo and instrumentation serves to make most of the songs indistinguishable from one another, which is uncommon for a Ryan Adams album. One breathes a sigh of relief when a harmonica appears in the album closer "I Taught Myself How To Grow Old" simply because it gives some variation to the sound. Furthermore, Adams' previous albums, both solo and with Whiskeytown, have always demonstrated a true lyrical mastery. His words generally seemed carefully chosen, especially when he spun out tunes based around extended metaphors (e.g. Demolition's brilliant "She Wants To Play Hearts" based around the concept of childhood games reflecting lost love). However, on Easy Tiger, Adams' lyrics take on a much more conversational tone, often leading to less memorable couplets. On "Everybody Knows," for example, he sings, "He says her name, he says it and I know what's up/You come to me sometimes when I'm thinking like a cannonball shooting out a cannon/And I forget whatever it was I was thinking about/With everything changing how am I to know." These words don't exactly trip off one's tongue and similar problems plague most of the songs here. In sum, while Easy Tiger is not a bad album, it is a disappointing outing for Adams. But, hey, we have a 4-disc box set to look forward to.

Greg Ziesemer needs no introduction to folks around here, as his solo as well as group work (with the Spud Puppies currently and too many to name previously) has always been of the highest quality, both instrumentally and vocally. Now we have the pleasure of TWO new discs from the man, along with compatriot Kriss Luckett. Virginia and Bare Bones share the same tracklisting, with the difference being the latter contains, well, bare bones versions of the former. Both albums reside along that country/folk continuum that Ziesemer generally occupies and both are full of rich, gorgeous harmonies, fine playing and thoughtful lyrics. Songwriting duties are split down the middle between Ziesemer and Luckett with Ziesemer's tunes having a touch more country twang than Luckett's. Viriginia finds the tunes fleshed out beautifully with mandolin, violin, dobro, cello, banjo, bass and percussion. However, Bare Bones is equally if not more delightful. Not only can one easily hone in on the beautiful sounds of Ziesemer's and Luckett's great voices, but the excellent guitar playing accompanying each tune is a treat to hear unadorned. This is particularly true when Ziesemer is wielding his 12-string, which frames each song with absolute perfection. You can choose which disc you want depending on how full a sound you're after, but my advice is to purchase both and revel in how the same songs can conjure up different feelings and images depending on the accompaniment.