From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Cardinals are the current backing band of Ryan Adams, featured on the albums Cold Roses, Jacksonville City Nights, and the Adams-produced Willie Nelson album Songbird. Though credited as a solo release, the 2007 album Easy Tiger by Ryan Adams features the Cardinals as his backing band.

The band's line has changed dramatically over the years. When first performing in 2004, the band consisted of Ryan Adams (vocals, guitar), Brad Pemberton (drums), Cindy Cashdollar (pedal steel guitar), JP Bowersock (guitars) and Catherine Popper (bass). They toured in late 2004 and recorded Cold Roses. Cindy Cashdollar left in 2005 and was replaced by Jon Graboff. The band toured around the globe, promoting Cold Roses as their new album, without the pedal steel guitar player who played on the record. During this period the band went back to the studio to record their second album Jacksonville City Nights. Again this album was released when one of the people on the record had left the band. This time JP Bowersock did not return to the stage in the fall of 2005 and was replaced by Neal Casal. This line-up toured in 2005 and 2006 and has recorded several albums, which are not released. In the summer of 2006 Catherine Popper left the band, due to personal reasons. Just before the European tour in the fall of 2006 she was replaced by a friend of the band Chris Feinstein. In 2007 The Cardinals were still backing up Ryan Adams in support of his new album Easy Tiger. The producer of that album, Jamie Candiloro, was added to the line-up on piano. Because of an injury sustained while skateboarding, Ryan Adams didn't play the guitar for some dates and was just singing the songs, while the rest of the band sat down and played the songs in an acoustic way.

Ryan Adams has stated that he wants to quit as a solo artist and continue with The Cardinals. This would mean that he would go without using the name Ryan Adams & The Cardinals, but as The Cardinals. It seems that this wish hasn't been fulfilled yet because of legal matters involving Adams' record company.^{[citation needed]}

The Cardinals are named after Adams' High School Football team that he claims he really wanted to play for, but was unable to for reasons unknown.^{[citation needed]} Adams attended Jacksonville High School. The mascot is also the cardinal.

• Ryan Adams & The Cardinals - Cold Roses (May 2005)
• Ryan Adams & The Cardinals - Jacksonville City Nights (September 2005)
• Willie Nelson - Songbird (October 2006)
• Ryan Adams - Easy Tiger (June 2007)
• Ryan Adams & The Cardinals - Follow the Lights (October 2007)

• The Cardinals official website
• Ryan Adams' official website
• Neal Casal's official website
• Jon Graboff's official website
• Recordings of Ryan Adams and the Cardinals at The Internet Archive

This article on a United States country music band is a stub. You can help by expanding it.