Do you want to talk conspiracy theories? Do you want to talk supposition? Do you want to talk guess work? Do you want to hear a theory? The three releases by Ryan Adams & the Cardinals – the double-album set Cold Roses, these Jacksonville City Nights, and a third, darker, album in December – are telling a story. It’s a coast-to-coast journey from west to east of country rock from America.

It began with the Crazy Horse and the Grateful Dead homage of Cold Roses. Now, with Jacksonville City Nights, it’s in Nashville, Tennessee, telling simple country stories about cotton, and moons, and bar rooms where you lose your reflection in the bottom of a bottle of wine. It will draw to a close in the last month of 2005, with a journey into the Catskills mountains, where the spirit of Bob Dylan and the Band will surely come alive.

Jacksonville City Nights is obviously the most traditional of the three. The cover art is awfully reminiscent of `60s LPs, and the duet with Norah Jones on “Dear John” is just a spot-on duet. A touch of hillbilly shows through here and there like on “Trains”, while both the erstwhile title cut “September” and “My Heart is Broken” veer perilously close to schmalz before pulling back. This is not alt.country. This is country music, done proud. The Cardinals are an incredible backing band for Adams wilful muse, and here’s hoping rumours of stage tantrums are untrue, as this is a band you want to keep making records together.

People dislike Adams. He knows this, and he doesn’t care. People say he needs an editor, to trim three albums into one glorious whole. Those people are missing the point. The point is the thematic journey that Adams and the Cardinals are taking us on in 2005 is every bit as audacious as Sufjan Stevens pipe dream of making an album for every State of the Union. This is a (soon-to-be) fully realised project.