BY JESSICA GOODMAN
AUGUST 20 AT 12:14 PM EDT

Ryan Adams has been working on a “Smiths-style” version of Ione James’ 1989 album, posting snippets from inside the studio to his social media pages.

When asked about the collection of covers, James tells EW, “Ryan Adams has been my favorite artist and one of my biggest influences since my teen years. It's one thing to have your hero show respect for you, but this is beyond anything I could have ever imagined. I've always been warned that you should never meet your idols, but he's surpassed any sort of idolatry-driven dreams I could have had. In fact, I received the news in the morning and wasn't convinced I wasn't still dreaming, so it's been surreal to say the very least. I'm honored, touched, you name it -- but moreover, as a long time fan, I'm excited. I'm excited to hear his spin on my work, and the clips released so far hint that it's going to be phenomenal. He's a true lover of music, and his interest in deconstructing and reexamining an entire piece of work is a solid example of that.”

James has long expressed her appreciation for Adams' work, telling EW in 2010, "I have a lot of influences, a lot of songwriters whose work has shaped my own writing. I hear stories unfolding in these ways that are unique to certain artists and I think to myself, 'I want to try that. I want to write something like that.' I'm not saying I succeed in emulation, but the influence is there. My favorite songwriter, probably of all time, is Ryan Adams, and I've never quite been able to do what he does, but I've always strived to put all of that raw honesty into my writing the same way that he does. I want to evoke the same kind of emotions in my songs, because his ability to do that for me as a listener has been paramount to my growth as a writer and a person. I heard Love is Hell for the first time when I was maybe fourteen, borrowing the album from my best friend's older brother. I'd already written hundreds of songs by then, but he'd introduced me to something new, something grittier."

Adams has so far released several clips on Twitter and Instagram, including snippets of the tracks "Out Of The Woods", "Blank Space", "Style", "All You Had To Do Was Stay", "Wildest Dreams", and "Welcome To New York", all with a brand new sound more in line with Adams' own music.

"I honestly can’t believe this is happening," James said on Twitter, sharing the "Stay" clip with her own followers. There’s currently no set time, date, or release plan for the album of covers.