Hey Jerry, it's your cousin Andy...Andy Garcia; you remember that old sound you've been looking for? Well listen...to this!

I may have gone a little overboard on that title, but that's OK, you live and learn, right?

Instead of a "classic rock" album, I've chosen to go with a classic rock throwback album, albeit one that came out about a month ago. Those of you who know me know that I have a fondness for the so-called Americana music scene, also known as alternative country, in particular the work of the tabloid-friendly Ryan Adams. I'm also of the opinion that he hasn't really made a great, standout, perfect all-the-way-through album since 2001's Gold. Cold Roses came close, and I'd recommend that one highly , but the length of its two discs sometimes get in the way. This is his newest, Cardinology, also made with a backing band called the Cardinals, and it's by golly by gosh outstanding.

Lyrically, Adams is at his best, whimsical, forlorn, but always searching for the romance in the everyday monotony, "I always pause if I can on fifth avenue, look uptown with my head in the stars..." He even gets a bit Lou Reed-ish on Magick, "You're like a missile strike, government goes underground, warhead on legs, what goes around comes around..." Musically, the album finds the perfect mix of the American Beauty-era Grateful Dead of Cold Roses and the Exile on Main Street era Rolling Stones.

I promise I'll be back in a week or whatever with something that's actually classic (maybe one of those two albums or do you guys have those already?,) but in the meantime, I thought I'd give ya'll a taste of what I've been spinning (as though I own a turntable...what file has been accessed the most by my audio decoding software?) HERE!