Ashes & Fire (Pax-Am/Capitol Records)
Release date: October 11

The Skinny: It's been rare since he started breaking out around 2000 for Ryan Adams to go through a period of restraint, but he's been quiet (relatively) in the lead-up to Ashes & Fire. He's put out a few records in the past couple years and issued two books of stories and poems in 2009, though somehow this new album counts as something of a comeback. Only in Adams's world would all of that figure as inactivity, and only in Adams's world does the idea of more and more and more square with how spare and elemental his songwriting can be at his best. For his 13th solo album (depending on how you count), Adams worked with Glyn Jones, whose credits include studio work with the Who, the Clash, the Beatles, and the Rolling Stones. Musical adornment also came by way of Norah Jones and keyboardist Benmont Tench, a storied member of Tom Petty's Heartbreakers.

Fast Fact: Ryan Adams's two books (Infinity Blues and Hello Sunshine) were published by Akashic, an eclectic indie publisher in New York that made news recently with the much-discussed children's book Go the Fuck to Sleep.

Ryan Adams, "Ashes & Fire"

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