A ragtag musician keeping the cool in country, Ryan Adams is one of the few artists to have risen from the alt-country scene to commercial success. With a genre-bending sound that dabbles in a multitude of areas, Adams refuses to slot into any particular field, often tailoring and shifting his music between albums. A prolific songwriter - often releasing two or more albums in one year - Adams has built a name for himself as one of the most influential singer-songwriters of our time. Born in Jacksonville, North Carolina in 1974, Adams spent the majority of his teenage years kicking around in local groups, his keen interest in punk rock surfacing in his band The Patty Duke Syndrome. Wanting to explore more melodic music, Adams later formed Whiskeytown, an alt-country band that earned critical acclaim despite the its rocky line-up changes and inevitable collapse. Making his solo debut with 2000's Heartbreaker, Adams quickly rose to prominence, signing with Universal imprint Lost Highway Records and releasing the follow-up album Gold in 2001. This album shied away from his country roots in favour of a more pop-rock sound. 2002 saw the release of Demolition, a compilation of tracks from earlier recording sessions, and the same year also saw Adams work on Love Is Hell, a split-EP (later released as one album) that displayed a more delicate sound. His fourth solo album Rock N Roll was released in late 2003. Following extensive touring Ryan hooked up with backing band The Cardinals in 2005 to record and release Cold Roses and Jacksonville City Nights. Despite releasing another solo album, 29, that same year, Adams returned to work with The Cardinals on the 2007 release Easy Tiger.