Carolina born and bred

I've been listening to Ryan Adam's Heartbreaker album. It's amazing. Possibly one of the best albums i've ever listened to, right up there with Blood on the Tracks and Exile on Main Street and Blonde on Blonde and Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. If anyone still has doubts on the sincerity and talent of Adams then they should go out and buy this record. Nick Hornby, the famous English novelist who writes about music and football with equal passion, has this to say on the album.

"Some people are at their best when they're miserable. Ryan Adams's beautiful Heartbreaker album is, I suspect, the product of a great deal of pain, and 'Oh My Sweet Carolina' is its perfect, still centre, its faint heartbeat, a song so quiet that you don't want to breathe throughout its duration."

'Oh My Sweet Carolina' is one of the most heartfelt and sad songs to have ever been written. I feel sorry for Adams that he had to go through that pain. I know how he feels. Here are the lyrics which don't really do the song justice...you have to hear him sing to understand. You can watch a video of him playing it over at YouTube. There's probably an MP3 of it somewhere on the net but I can't find it.

I went down to Houston
And I stopped in San Antone
I passed up the station for the bus
I was trying to find me something
But I wasn't sure just what
Man I ended up with pockets full of dust

So I went on to Cleveland and I ended up insane
I bought a borrowed suit and learned to dance
I was spending money like the way it likes to rain
Man I ended up with pockets full of cane

Oh my sweet Carolina
What compels me to go
Oh my sweet disposition
May you one day carry me home

I ain't never been to Vegas but I gambled up my life
Building newsprint boats I race to sewer mains
Was trying to find me something but I wasn't sure just what
Funny how they say that some things never change

Oh my sweet Carolina
What compels me to go
Oh my sweet disposition
May you one day carry me home

Up here in the city feels like things are closing in
The sunsets just my light bulb burning out
I miss Kentucky and I miss my family
All the sweetest winds they blow across the south

Oh my sweet Carolina
What compels me to go
Oh my sweet disposition

May you one day carry me home
May you one day carry me home

Catfish