Producers indlude: Ryan Adams, Frank Callari, Luke Lewis, Michael Blair, Ethan Johns.

Recorded at Woodland and Javelina Studios, Nashville, Tennessee; Cello Studios, Hollywood, California and Nord Studio AB, Stockholm, Sweden between December 2000 and October 2001.

Personnel: Ryan Adams (guitar, electric guitar, harmonica, piano, synthesizer, drum machine); Bucky Baxter (guitar, background vocals); John Paul Keith (guitar); Chris Stills (acoustic 12-string guitar, background vocals); Ethan Johns (electric guitar, ukulele, drums, background vocals); Brad Rice (electric guitar); Greg Leisz (steel guitar, dobro); Mikael Andersson (dobro); Svante Henryson (cello); Michael Blair (djembe); Gillian Welch, Julianna Raye (background vocals).

Recording information: Cello Studios, Hollywood, CA; Javelina Recording Studios, Nashville, TN; Nord Studio AB, Stockholm, Sweden; Woodland Studio, Nashville, TN.

Photographer: Dan Donahue.

On more than one occasion, Ryan Adams has played solo acoustic gigs that consisted almost entirely of songs he wrote the afternoon of the show, and after his 2001 album, Gold, finally gave him an audience outside the small but rabidly enthusiastic alt-country scene, the very prolific Adams seemed to waste no time laying down as many songs as he possibly could. If one believes what one reads in New Musical Express, Adams cut about four albums' worth of material during sessions with various musicians and producers within the space of a year (not even counting the much talked about but to date unheard four-track recordings of blues versions of all the songs from the Strokes' debut disc, Is This It). Sensibly enough, Adams and his record company decided that releasing such a huge flood of material wasn't in the best interest of either artist or label, and instead Adams cherry-picked these sessions into a 13-track collection, Demolition. Appropriately enough, Demolition sounds less like "the third Ryan Adams album" than a collection of stray tunes -- some of which are very good, especially the lazy summer vibe of "Tennessee Sucks," the up-tempo acoustic twang of "Chin Up, Cheer Up," the winsome "Cry on Demand," and the heading-off-the-rails rocker "Starting to Hurt." But more than a few of the other songs on the album sound like rough drafts rather than completed works, and Demolition seems to lack a strong thematic or structural center. In short, Demolition sounds like a bunch of demos, which of course is just what it is, and while it preserves a few strong tunes and offers an insight into Adams' creative process, it also makes clear that even the rising wunderkind of Americana can benefit from a bit of judicious editing and polishing. ~ Mark Deming

As part of the prolific flow of material that found him releasing three albums in two years, ex-Whiskeytown frontman Ryan Adams continued to surf his wave of popularity with 2002's DEMOLITION, a baker's dozen worth of demos. Culled from five separate demo recording sessions, these songs find Adams all over the stylistic map indulging in some twangy, pedal-steel-soaked tendencies ("Hallelujah"), making like Paul Westerberg with a Byrds Jones ("Gimme A Sign"), and tucking into echoey ballads ("Dear Chicago").

Adams also delicately duets with fellow y'alternative stalwart Gillian Welch ("Tomorrow"), mixes it up with Dylan's pedal steel player Bucky Baxter ("Chin Up, Cheer Up"), and still manages to get the girls to swoon on solo-acoustic odes laced with plenty of yearning and a forlorn harmonica solo ("Desire"). Until Adams finds time to bang out another double album in-between touring, rubbing elbows with Elton John, and curing cancer, DEMOLITION makes a fine stopgap for both diehard and casual fans.