Premiere: Ryan Adams: “Shine Through the Dark” MP3 Stream

As we reported last week, Josh Homme, Elliott Smith, Conor Oberst, Ryan Adams, Daniel Johnston, Mike Watt, The Strokes, Sleater-Kinney, Pearl Jam, Gang of Four, Modest Mouse, The Shins, Wilco, The Decemberists, Spoon, and many other artists have donated rare and unreleased songs to the three-disc compilation, Live From Nowhere Near You: Volume Two.

The hulking, 64-track release will raise funds to benefit the homeless youth organization Outside In. Kevin Moyer spearheaded the compilation and explains that the inspiration for the release came to him after seeing an excellent street musician best a mediocre “professional” band: “I was outside a venue after a show waiting on friends and sat down with an amazing street musician. He was better than the band we had just seen and all of these ‘music fans’ were leaving the show with their $20 t-shirt merch purchases tucked under their arms and not paying any attention to this guy playing at their feet for free.”

You can pre-order the compilation now from Greyday Records and it drops in stores on July 19. Get more information about the comp on its Facebook page. Today, we’re happy to host the premiere stream of Ryan Adams’ donated tune, “Shine Through the Dark.” The sparse tune has never been released and only performed one or twice live. It was recorded by Adams post-meltdown, while lying in bed with the flu. “The first track I wrote after my retirement’,” says Adams. You can see a photograph of the folk song’s lyrics to the right. Stream “Shine” via the SoundCloud, below: