Reviews so far...
NME:
"Whether you just about tolerate, hate or absolutely despise the man, Ryan Adams releasing three albums (or four, if the tracks he recorded for Cameron Crowe's Elizabethtown ever see the light of day) in a single year is an impressive feat - enough to make Axl Rose grind his teeth into a fine powder. Album number 2, "Jacksonville City Nights", is a clutch of earnest honky-tonk melancholia couched in Adams confessional-style. But like, say, Joanna Newsom, it's a brand of confessionalism that, thankfully, dosen't put the listener in an awkward place. As with his previous post-'Gold' LPs, Adams could clearly make use of an editor here - but you can't possibly hate an album that uses pedal-steel on every track." -Mike Sterry 7/10
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Interview:
"With its honky-tonk instrumentation, heavy on pedal steel and weepy violin, Jacksonville City Nights could easily be considered the 'return to alt-country' album many Ryan Adams fans have been waiting for since his 2000 debut Heartbreaker. But to settle for such a description makes this project sound somehow regressive. Adams delivers raw, emotional narratives; on highlights like 'Hard Way to Fall' and 'Trains' he creates a singular feeling-live and loose, but focused and powerful. The restless Adams has spent too much time in recent years convincingly impersonating his heroes. But here he's done something far more impressive - he's made a record that sounds like Ryan Adams."