Out: Ryan Adams. In: Todd Snider

One of the more interesting music-news items I saw during my paternity demi-leave was about the retirement -- or not -- of Ryan Adams.

The prolific y'allternative singer-songwriter hinted on his blog that he was leaving the music world -- though he never actually said he was hanging up his guitar, and the next day, he posted a clarification: "i did not say i was quitting i said i was taking a step back..."

But the part of the story that really hit home was the one that wasn't in dispute: Ryan Adams is taking his Movable Type and going home.

"i won't be blogging here anymore either- but not for effect- it just is not being kind to myself- i need a life that is mine- i need to grow up and grow in to who i have subtly been working back towards since i stopped all that nonsense and i know also no matter what i choose to do in the music world, because i chose to do things my way and never lie i will always be viewed as an [expletive] (i hear and have seen things in the past) and i am not, and i know the truth and i know who i am," wrote Adams, who suffers from an acute case of logorrhea.

This is huge, because his free-wheeling, caps-free, oddly-punctuated, totally emo blog posts are strangely fascinating reads -- and quotes. Which, actually, is one of the reasons he cited in announcing his retirement from the blogosphere, noting that "it is kind of ridiculous to blog as i am a musician and anything i say here just gets reprinted at some point out of context."

So, then, we won't have Ryan Adams to read/quote/kick around anymore.

But in a kinda-sorta related development, at the same time as Adams was backing off, the underrated Portland/then Texas singer-songwriter-buttkicker Todd Snider was firing up his laptop and filling the void with an amazing blog post of his own -- "an open letter to texans, inspired by the 38th birthday of one blank plectrum."

Directed at what a Friend of Post Rock calls "the Texas backwards baseball cap folks," the elliptical, profanity-laced post is a defense of Jack Ingram -- and, really, any other country-leaning Texas artist who finds success in Nashville. And it's truly awesome, even if I can't always figure out what it means.

yesterday i went over to big kennys house to co-write
you wanna hear about people who are ready to [do something unspeakable to] the devil and kill they mothers
for less than two hundred grand in royalties
people who then spend the two hundred grand on four hundred grand worth of [expletive]
i got stories for you
you wanna ponce on about souless clowns who care more about fame than music
well [expletive] brother, ill talk chris cagle with you all night
i got stories
but
if you wanna try to stick jack ingram in that gang
im gonna call you dumb to your face

We'll never forget you, Rhett -- err, Ryan!

By J. Freedom du Lac |  January 26, 2009; 5:07 PM ET Reading Room , Say What? , Screeds
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Posted by: caser555 | January 27, 2009 10:34 AM

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