Ryan Adams & the Cardinals is made up of Ryan Adams and his backing band. The Cardinals consist of Brad Pemberton (drums); Jon Graboff (steel guitar/guitar); Neal Casal (guitar); Chris Feinstein (bass). Cindy Cashdollar was replaced by Jon Graboff as the pedal steel player and JP Bowersock was replaced by Neal Casal as guitar player. Chris Feinstein replaced Catherine Popper on bass in September 2006. They released the album Cold Roses in May of 2005 and Jacksonville City Nights in September of the same year.

David Ryan Adams (born November 5, 1974) is an American alt-country/rock singer-songwriter from Jacksonville, North Carolina. Raised by his mother and grandmother, Adams dropped out of school at age 16 and performed with several local bands before moving to Raleigh and forming the band Whiskeytown. Three albums and five years later Adams went solo, releasing Heartbreaker in 2000. A long-term resident of New York City, Adams is best known for his song "New York, New York," which appeared on his 2001 release Gold. He has since released four more solo albums and three albums with backing band The Cardinals, the latest of which, Easy Tiger, was released on June 25, 2007. An EP was also released late in 2007, Follow the Lights (or Everybody Knows outside US), which contained two new songs and several live-in-studio tracks, including a cover of Alice in Chain's Down In a Hole and Blue Hotel (previously only found on Willie Nelson's Songbird album).

Adams has also produced albums by Jesse Malin and Willie Nelson and contributed to the albums of artists including Beth Orton, The Wallflowers, Minnie Driver, Counting Crows, and America. He also appeared on CMT's Crossroads TV show with Elton John.