Ryan Adams and the Cardinals...Magnolia Mountain

The ending to Cherry Lane on that record is so badass. The Cold Roses tour was epic, you had Ryan Adams fighting some serious demons on that tour and the first line up of the Cardinals was on point. Great music and the highpoint musically of his career.
The House of Blues NOLA show will always be one of the most memorable shows of my life. Two plus hours of great music interspersed with R.A. bitching about the crowd (The line "playing at HOB is like playing at Wal-Mart" is still a personal favorite.)
At points he would leave the mic and unplug and play acoustically and only the people in front had any clue what was going on. The quietest the crowd was all night was during the playing of Blossom. He got half way through it, complained about the crowd noise, and abruptly left the stage for good. The backing band and the crowd just stood there for a couple of minutes perplexed before everyone left figuring he wasn't coming back.

He is. Though I find he can be hit or miss.

Definitely hit or miss. The catalog is so huge though. A lot of the unreleased material ( 48 hrs, Pinkhearts, etc...) is just as good as anything "officially" released.
The Cardinals definitely got stagnant for me towards the end. Seemed the music, while technically good, was just missing something.
The summer of 2005 will always make me think of Cold Roses. Incredible album.