Well I like both Ryan Adams and Taylor Swift, but - as this track by track cover album made me appreciate - for different reasons I guess. Adams is sincere here, translating Swift's songs into wistful alt-country troubadour vein, but unfortunately for the most part it doesn't really work - Swift is a quality songwriter but she writes for the 'pow' of her own style and without that delivery and production, affairs are a bit dull, even something of a downer. Exceptions: "Out of the Woods", "This Love", "I Know Places"; not sure why, but those are the three that have come to life for me a little in these first couple of listens.
Also, a good review: ... during a performance in Nashville, Adams, who had discussed his annoyance at being confused with the singer Bryan Adams, performed an elegant acoustic cover of that singer’s 1984 megahit “Summer of ’69.” He didn’t appear to be joking. Instead, he placed the song, as he does with Swift’s music, immediately within his own emotional register. It sounded like a Ryan Adams song. The audience, which in the light of day might be inclined to mock the vanilla middle-American soft rock of Bryan Adams, sang along. It knew all the words.
(1989, the original)
Also, a good review: ... during a performance in Nashville, Adams, who had discussed his annoyance at being confused with the singer Bryan Adams, performed an elegant acoustic cover of that singer’s 1984 megahit “Summer of ’69.” He didn’t appear to be joking. Instead, he placed the song, as he does with Swift’s music, immediately within his own emotional register. It sounded like a Ryan Adams song. The audience, which in the light of day might be inclined to mock the vanilla middle-American soft rock of Bryan Adams, sang along. It knew all the words.
(1989, the original)
