Let us hop into the Wayback Machine and go back about a decade to a simpler time, when "Gawker" was just another rarely-used noun and Pitchfork reviews came in at under 200 words.
In the heady days of 1997, David Ryan Adams was half of the duo at the heart of Whiskeytown, a precocious 22-year-old axeman with a noggin full of hooks and a taste for Grandpa's medicine. He and vocalist/violinist Caitlin Cary whittled an already huge backlog of songs down to 13 for Strangers Almanac, the North Carolina band's major-label debut. By the time Whiskeytown hit the road to support it, Cary and Adams were the only two musicians left in the band who'd worked on the album.
But it's not news that Ryan Adams can be a bit tetchy. What is news is that on March 4, Geffen/Universal will release a two-disc Deluxe Edition reissue of Strangers Almanac—just in time for the fiery combination of Cary's rustic fiddlin' and Adams' heartbreaking lyrics to warm listeners during the last vestiges of winter.
The package will be crammed with outtakes and alternate versions from the Strangers Almanac sessions, B-sides ("Theme For A Trucker," "My Heart is Broken"), covers (Fleetwood Mac's "Dreams," Gram Parsons' "Luxury Liner," Johnny Cash's "I Still Miss Someone), live recordings from a 1997 stop at KCRW...oh yeah, and the original album, which remains one of the pinnacles of the late-'90s alt.country boom. Justin, at music blog Aquarium Drunkard, posted extra information about the history of some of the bonus materials (along with a few choice MP3s) for the extra-curious fans.
Back to '97. That whole three albums in one year thing doesn't seem like such a surprise after reading this quote from a 1998 Rolling Stone interview with Adams: "We've probably got close to like 80 to 100 songs to choose from for the next album...'Cause I just won't quit recording. If I have a day off, I find the studio in town and give 'em $50 and go record."
He may be sober for going on two years now, but he's still just as prolific, and Cary's been busy, too, releasing three solo albums on Yep Roc, plus a collection of duets with Thad Cockrell and a pair of LPs with Tres Chicas (Cary, Tonya Lamm and Lynn Blakey). Adams put out an EP, Follow the Lights, in Oct. of last year, and has a box set on the way sometime in 2008.
And just in case imagineering the Wayback Machine didn't cut it, here's a clip from 1997 of Whiskeytown performing Strangers Almanac's "16 Days" in St. Louis:
Related links:
Paste cover story: Ryan Adams
Ryan-Adams.com
CaitlinCary.com
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