One For The Road
Whiskeytown
Pneumonia
Lost Highway Records *****
Third and final album from now defunct root rockers.
byNick Johnstone
This much-delayed album was originally produced by Ethan (son of Glyn) Johns and recorded at a studio in Woodstock during early 1999. After mixing in LA, the band's label Outpost had them return to the studio with Scott 'Nirvana/R.E.M.' Litt. He apparently "cleaned its face" in ways the band didn?t approve of, but it didn't matter by the end of the sessions because record company mergers left the album (by then, a double with the working title Happy Go Bye Bye) sitting on the shelf. In the meantime, the band broke up and Ryan Adams and sidekick fiddle player Caitlin Cary launched solo careers.
Fast forward to winter 2000, and Ryan Adams was back in the studio with Ethan Johns. They re-mixed a single album's worth of tracks, giving them, a vintage Stones/Beatles sound (something they'd also explored on Adams' critically acclaimed solo debut Heartbreaker) and, with the backing of new label Lost Highway, the record now sees the light of day. All of this accounts for the album's status on the dark regions of the Internet as a legendary epitaph for a band that were talked up as Nirvana of the New Country scene. There were only three members of the ever-changing Whiskeytown line-up left by the time this album was recorded; Adams, Cary and guitarist Mike Daly. The rest were lost along the way to all manner of alleged debauchery. To flesh out the sound, Adams called in two like0minded musician friends: James Iha (ex-Smashing Pumpkins) and Tommy Stinson (ex-Replacements, Guns N' Roses). As icing on the cake, Ethan Johns banged the drums while assorted session musicians filled the gaps whenever necessary.
The 14 tracks that made it past the final cut are a natural evolution of the heights scaled on the band's breakthrough second album Strangers Almanac (1998) but also a taster of where Adams would head with Heartbreaker. It's loosely reminiscent of The Replacements' Hootenanny, in so far as the band tackle a mind-boggling array of musical genres and styles. There's Smashing Pumpkins/Johnny Cash goth-folk ("What The Devil Wanted"), a cheeky Sgt. Pepper pop steal ("Mirror Mirror"), kitschy Hawaiian crooning ("Paper Moon"), rootsy Steve Earle rock ("Crazy About You"), a great cousin of Bruce Springsteen's "Valentine's Day" ("Easy Hearts"), Dylan between '70-'75 ("Ballad of Carol Lynn"), New Country ("Jacksonville Skyline", "My Hometown", "Under Your Breath"), Fleetwood Mac circa Tusk ("Don't Wanna Know Why"), Jackson Browne balladeering ("Reason To Lie"), Pernice Brothers country-pop ("Don't Be Sad"), a tip of the hat to The Pogues ("Bar Lights") and, of course, a blustery, beautiful acknowledgement of Paul Westerberg's influence on Adams' songwriting ("Sit And Listen To The Rain") made even sweeter by the fact that Westerberg's old partner in crime, Tommy Stinson, plays on it.
The whole LP is littered with countless blink-and-you'll-miss-'em moments of inspired magic-a split-second soaring vocal, a sprinkle of banjo, a spine-tingling run of fiddle, a shower of seedy horns, a cluster of melancholic guitar notes run through a flanger, a tinkle of pedal steel, sampled static from an old vinyl record that will touch anyone who appreciates great music. Lyrically, Adams is as despondent as ever but never whiny, always a mile clear of hollow complaining. He's still a proud graduate of the Westerberg school of throwaway one-liners, though, the kind that simultaneously mean everything and nothing, the kind that stay with you for a lifetime. He's there, certificate in hand, when he sings "Then I wouldn't be somebody else that you'd grow accustomed to" on "Reason To Lie" or "Gonna" watch TV and pray for decent re-runs" on "Sit And Listen To The Rain", over music that's a mirror image of the same inexpressible feelings.
And that's what the whole LP is about: the inarticulate speech of the heart. It may be the last handful of soil over the corpse of Whiskeytown, but what a way to go out-tangled up in blue and all shook down.
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