Ryan Adams album review

Ashes and Fire
3/5
Following last year’s sci-fi metal concept album, the North Carolina native is on more familiar territory here. Clean and sober and happily married, the prolific songwriter (thus far he’s released 17 LPs under various guises) lets country-steeped songs stand sparse and proud. The overall let’s-hang-out-on-the-porch pace certainly suits his elegant musical ruminations. Timeless, not classic, but still pretty great.