Strum und drang

FIVE years into a career that began in a hail of “new Dylan” and “voice of his generation” buzz, Ryan Adams is looking more like a voice in the wilderness. It’s not that the singer-songwriter has gone away. On the contrary, with today’s release of “29,” Adams will have put out three albums this year alone, bringing his total to six since November 2003.

That’s an unheard-of pace. The problem is, some of the albums have been unheard too. Two of the last five have fallen far short of the 100,000 sales figure that represents his core fan base.

“He’s a very unique soul,” says Luke Lewis, the head of Adams’ label, Lost Highway. “He’s moving on to the next thing so quickly, he’s not going to ponder it.”

But the sales drop is just one measure of the 31-year-old North Carolina native’s transformation from true contender to headstrong renegade. He seemed poised for greatness when he left the acclaimed alt-country band Whiskeytown in 1999 and arrived as an heir apparent to the Gram Parsons legacy, a charismatic kid with the vulnerability of a bruised romantic and the swagger of a rock ‘n’ roller.

The songs spilled out, both aching reveries and hard-bitten indictments, and his first album for the Lost Highway label, “Gold,” sold more than 350,000 copies and earned a couple of Grammy nominations.

But instead of carefully cultivating the momentum, Adams seemed to subvert it, leaving the field open to new forces such as Bright Eyes’ Conor Oberst. The last couple of years have been a dizzying collage of high-profile girlfriends (Parker Posey, Winona Ryder, Beth Orton et al.), public tantrums, battles with his record label, a broken wrist, an ear infection and canceled tours.

Adams’ three albums this year -- the two-CD set “Cold Roses,” “Jacksonville City Nights” and the new “29” -- are the products of the creative drive that Adams put into gear after recovering from the broken wrist -- an injury he suffered early last year in a fall from a stage in Liverpool.

His moments of brilliance have kept fans hooked, but the volume and inconsistency of his output have created a consensus that he would be better off spending more time on one record and putting out fewer of them.

“It probably confused people some,” says Peter Blackstock, co-editor of No Depression, the bimonthly bible of Americana music, speaking about Adams’ three 2005 releases. “And I think, more importantly, it probably diluted the quality of the work ultimately, compared to if he had really focused in on just putting his best stuff out there.

“My sense is that the people who read our magazine remain interested in what he’s doing,” Blackstock says, “but they’re not necessarily as likely to buy every record he puts out as they might have been five years ago, say.”

Lewis, president and founder of Nashville-based Lost Highway, a boutique label owned by the giant Universal Music Group, theorizes that “Gold’s” 350,000 sales figure disappointed Adams, especially after the traditional all-out marketing campaign that accompanied it.

“He just sort of went, ‘I’m going to do it my own way,’ ” says the executive, a jumble of mixed emotions about his unconventional charge.

“It’s really difficult to have a symbiotic relationship with an artist who’s like he is,” Lewis continues. “Ryan is loose and not quite the perfectionist ... and it’s kind of fun for a record guy to have to make those kind of adjustments. You don’t let yourself get locked into any sort of routine.

“Is it my place to muscle up on him and make him go spend a year making a record and throw out half of what he does and [do] all those things record companies normally do? I don’t want to do that to him.... And I don’t think he wants that. I don’t think he wants someone to help him edit himself.... He likes to control his own destiny and his own work.

“I like him, I like his work. If he wants to do a ton of it and I’m making a little bit of money, I’m proud to do business with him. People can snipe at both of us, and guess what: I still got my gig and so does he.”

So is Ryan Adams a self-indulgent artist following his ideal of independence into an isolated corner, or a rugged individualist who just can’t be contained by the record business?

Adams himself is happy to crash this party and weigh in, in no uncertain terms, if he can just pry his eyes open after waking up in the early evening in New York, where he just finished producing an album for Willie Nelson.

“I’m at my girlfriend’s house now and we’re just getting some food and I got Minnie Driver tonight in the studio and just finished Willie and I am just about to lose my mind,” he said by phone late last week. “Would you like to do this interview with me, is that what we’re doing?”

He didn’t even wait for the question.

“What do you want to ask me today? ‘Ryan, why are you so prolific? You are purported to be a kind of a jerk. Your hair is very disheveled.’ ”

He quickly jumped to the new album.

“I am kind of quite sick of people going, ‘If he would have just taken all three of these records and dumped them down to one album he would have a perfect double album.’ It’s like, ‘Well you guys be my

And what about that friendly advice that he take more time on an album? Is that something he’d consider?

“No, because this story’s about me, and it’s not about you. It’s not about the listener; it’s about me. It’s like a book. If a book’s moving too ... fast for you and it’s too many words, put down the book and go pick up a book of the week from the Oprah club.

“You want to read a real book and, like, want to be involved in a real process, this is my process. I’m not going to change my story. People can come to my story when they want. But I’ll ... make as many records as I want ... ‘cause that’s what I’m into.... I’m the best. No one else is going to work at this pace again for a long time with these results.... And everyone can get jealous in my lifetime, but later on they’re just going to have to say, ‘Damn, he was good, he worked hard.’ ”

Good night and good luck. And to Luke Lewis too, who is sounding ever more plaintive in retrospect.

“The three records are good,” Lewis says. “And we’re all sitting around waiting for great.... Hopefully he’ll stumble into that.”