Ryan Adams - "Wildest Dreams"

This cover is one that most people forget about. Ryan Adams put out a beautiful retelling of Taylor Swift's 1989 and it is the kind of music that stays on my radar for years. His voice is poignant as ever and his critical eye of both Swift's beauty and her faults in these songs gave him a plethora of opportunities to make something really beautiful. He fleshed out what was narrow and refined what was bloated, giving each song (of which many already stood to become classics) something magical and lasting. 

Ryan Adams was one of the most popular artists to emerge from the Nineties alternative-country scene, having led in the North Carolina band Whiskeytown before going solo in 1999. Notorious for his hard-drinking and mercurial temper, Adams nonetheless managed to turn out a prodigious catalog of acclaimed music, which ranged from gentle folk to soulful rock to hardcore punk.

Over the course of his career, Adams also developed a reputation for being just as prolific with starlets as he was with music, at times being linked to stars like Winona Ryder, Alanis Morissette and Parker Posey. However, in March 2009, Adams married pop singer and actress Mandi Moore in a ceremony in Savannah, Georgia. While plagued by substance abuse problems early in his career, in 2006 Adams revealed he had kicked drugs and alcohol.

His taste in music is impeccable, as is his taste in women. Kudos Ryan, I'm happy to support both choices!

So today, with the wilderness all around, I choose Ryan Adam's cover of Taylor Swift's "Wildest Dreams" as my, like a panther on the prowl, like mist in the jungle, like rain on a canvas roof, song for an, eagles would fear to fly as high, even diamonds need to be refined, feathers falling all around, Wednesday.