After only four and a half months since his Grateful Dead posturing double album Cold Roses, Ryan Adams and his new band The Cardinals shift gears quickly with Jacksonville City Nights, Adams most straightforward pure country solo album to date. If you haven't cared for Adams in the past, trust me when I tell you this album isn't going to convert any naysayers or new listeners. But for those Adams fans (like myself) who thought Cold Roses was a bit too far on the meandering and overstuffed side, Jacksonville is a leaner and much tighter affair.

Adams is a king when it comes to writing tunes that'll put a tear in your beer, and Jacksonville is chalk full of them. Take for instance "The Hardest Part" where Adams voice cracks during the rollicking chorus of "The hardest part is loving somebody that cares for you so much." Or how about the heart wrenching "Silver Bullets" where Adams musters up the quiet lines of "I can't make you love me, and you can't make me stay." Adams even pulls out an old unreleased Whiskeytown song called "My Heart Is Broken," a pedal-steel heavy tune that was co-written with former partner Caitlin Cary back in the day, and it makes me grin from ear to ear thinking about Adams' great former band. Also superb is "Dear John," a melancholy duet with "it" girl Norah Jones, and "Withering Heights," a love letter to acoustic style Bruce Springsteen if there ever was one. My personal favorite though has got to be "Trains." The way that "Trains" chugs along, you can almost hear the tracks beneath your feet and that lonesome whistle blowing. For Adams fans that have been looking for a consistently great country style record since his debut solo album Heartbreaker, well, you've just found it pardner