Whiskeytown-
At 23, Adams' rock 'n' roll country ways - and gift for self-expression - are notorious. From the
formation of Whiskeytown in 1994 to the release of their Outpost Recordings debut, Strangers
Almanac, in 1997, he has wandered a landscape of shooting pain and fleeting, bittersweet
pleasure, exploring each and every cul-de-sac off the small-town main drag he calls Faithless Street.
Faithless Street is also the name Adams gave to Whiskeytown's first full-length album, which the
band issued on North Carolina indie Mood Food in January 1996. That critically acclaimed disc
makes its reappearance Sept. 29, 1998, on Outpost in restored, remastered form, complete with
brand new artwork and nine bonus tracks.
"There's a lot of severity to the songs," Adams said of Faithless Street in the inaugural edition of
No Depression, the bible of the alternative country scene. "There's a good depressive feel to
some of them, and a heartwarming feel, too. But the hopefulness definitely comes from the music,
not the lyrics" (Fall 1995).
There you have it, straight from the mouth of the untamed practitioner himself. Nothing much has
happened to change Adams' assessment - if anything, Faithless Street sounds even more
sparkling and grim than it did then - but a lot has changed for Whiskeytown and will continue to
do so, and that's that. All the more reason to acquaint (or reacquaint) oneself with this deluxe
reissue, indubitably a high-water mark of the current decade's Neo-New Country flood and
plague.
Faithless Street received widespread praise on its initial release. No Depression reflected in a
feature on Whiskeytown: "Faithless Street wasn't just one of the finest debut discs of the year or
one of the finest alt-country albums of the year; it was one of the best records of the year period"
(Spring 1996). The album later inspired Option to pronounce: "This North Carolina quintet of
punk-turned-country kids has something going for it that a lot of its peers don't even realize they
should be jealous of: Whiskeytown writes good songs, the kind you find yourself singing"
(November/December 1996).
Despite these kudos, when Adams looks back at the original he exhorts, "You should have heard
it before it got all cut up." Fortunately, the album's many ardent fans will now have the
opportunity to do just that, courtesy of veteran Whiskeytown producers Chris Stamey and Tim
Harper.
"We got real particular," Adams says of the Faithless Street resurrection. "It was intense for us
to go back and mess with it. We deliberated over the mastering as long as we did to make sure we
got it right. It's a precious thing, and I'm really happy with it."
Faithless Street was taped in the summer of 1995 in a studio/barn called The Funny Farm at Apex,
N.C., an agrarian hamlet near Whiskeytown's home base of Raleigh. By all accounts it was a
slapdash affair featuring a sea of booze, roman candle explosions, naked horse riding and songs
made up on the spot to be sung and recorded immediately thereafter. For seven days and nights, a
portrait of Andrew Jackson loomed over the console, Old Hickory's stern gaze the only provision
of discipline in evidence. Yet out of this elaborate chaos and hurry emerged a rude agate of
striking organization.
"If that's so," comments Whiskeytown fiddle player-singer Caitlin Cary, "it's kind of
serendipitous. As far as the order of the songs, at one point we were drawing out of a hat. We were
just going to put them on randomly, but nobody could agree. Phil [Wandscher, Whiskeytown's
original guitarist and co-songwriter, who left the band in 1997] was there for the mixing, and he's
got a really good ear. He made a lot of executive producer-type decisions that I think were really
good."
To the first listeners who encountered Faithless Street, it was plain there was a fearless new voice
on the modern country-rock horizon, a young ruined throat with a vintage crack-up quality highly
prized by purists. Comparisons were made to The Flying Burrito Brothers and The Replacements.
The songs seemed to emerge from a beaten singer's collision course with his complacent Main
Street environment, a clash from which any respite would always remain temporary. Still, the
songwriter's struggle to realize the smallest romantic satisfaction against all odds seemed fated.
The anti-hero of this honky-tonk drama came to manhood in Jacksonville, N.C., a small town
located near the military installation of Camp Lejeune. Ryan Adams' mother was a teacher; his
father built houses. His rebellion began in earnest during his early high school years, when he
formed a punk band called The Patty Duke Syndrome. He was only 16 when he struck out on his
own for the big city - Raleigh - where he eventually grew tired of the orthodox limitations of
punk ("Punk rock is too damn hard to sing," he states wearily on the song "Faithless Street").
Feeling the call of his grandparents' music, Adams founded the country-leaning combo
Whiskeytown, the original configuration of which included Cary (her song "Matrimony" is often
cited as a highlight of Faithless Street.) The band issued an EP called Angels (Mood Food) in 1994
and contributed a cover of Richard Hell's "Blank Generation" to a Hell tribute compilation the
following year. But it was Faithless Street that got folks to talking. Two months after its release,
Whiskeytown played a packed show at the South by Southwest music confab that drew rave
reviews and major label A & R reps. After some fierce showbiz swordplay, Outpost Recordings
bested the field.
In 1997 Outpost released Strangers Almanac, "a staggeringly ambitious album that shimmers with
hooks and mood," according to David Menconi of The Raleigh News & Observer. Menconi
described "16 Days," the first radio track off Strangers, as "a landmark of '90s alternative
country" (July 27, 1997). An archival version of the song appears on the new Faithless Street.
Whiskeytown spent the ensuing 18 months touring the United States (at one point opening for
roots-rock legend John Fogerty). Adams' "confrontational" style - occasionally reminiscent of
Jerry Lee Lewis at his most unreasonable - manifests the uncertain feelings often present in his
recorded compositions. Of course, the subsequent existential confusion has resulted in inevitable
lineup changes, but, as always in the case of Whiskeytown, upheaval has been offset by good
fortune. The newer members have contributed a variety of interpretations to the material,
suggesting fresh possibilities for the past within the group's future.
Before beginning formal strategy sessions for the band's next album - "We've got more than 60
demos to choose from, out of about 120 songs," Adams reports - Whiskeytown indulged in a rare
moment of pause to pow-wow with Stamey and Harper about the reassemblage of Faithless Street.
Winston-Salem, N.C., native Chris Stamey is a musician's musician, a visionary singer-songwriter
and founding member of the dB's, one of the most influential groups of the 1980s. Tim Harper is a
highly respected engineer best known for his work with Raleigh pop stalwarts The Connells. Says
Stamey of Adams and company: "Whiskeytown gives me chills."
That being the case, Stamey and Harper were reluctant to disturb the goosebump-producing
essence of Faithless Street; they chose instead to focus on sonic correction and enhancement,
which nonetheless left them plenty to do. After all, the record was hastily mixed in two days. It
contained improperly triggered bass drum and snare samples, which lent rhythmic inaccuracy to
original skinsman Skillet Gilmore's performances. Not only have Stamey and Harper resuscitated
the original drum tracks, they've rescued vocal, guitar and keyboard parts inexplicably omitted
from the first version of Faithless Street.
The producers also retrieved three important Whiskeytown songs recorded during the Funny
Farm sessions: "Lo-Fi Tennessee Mountain Angel," a favorite from Whiskeytown's live shows of
the period; "Desperate Ain't Lonely," an Adams/Carey duet; and "Tennessee Square," a
now-finished "unfinished waltz." An early version of "Excuse Me While I Break My Own Heart
Tonight," a subsequent reading of which appeared on Strangers Almanac, was supplied as well.
Gone from the original pressing is the closer, "Oklahoma," which Ryan insists he's never liked.
Added to the official song listing, however, is "Revenge," another standout that was previously a
hidden track.
Also included in the revamped Faithless Street are five Whiskeytown songs recorded later in 1996
during what have come to be called the Baseball Park Sessions. Produced by Stamey and Harper,
they comprise the masterful "Empty Baseball Park"; the aforementioned version of "16 Days";
and an alternate rendition of "Yesterday's News," the second radio track off Strangers Almanac.
Confides Adams of the remaining Baseball Park cuts, "Factory Girl" and "Here's to the Rest of
the World: "Those preceded what I was getting ready to start feeling back then. I think they were
the calm before the storm. In retrospect, I knew that was the last optimism I was gonna have for a
long time. I guess those songs aren't necessarily optimistic, but they definitely aren't as dark as
the other stuff."
For Adams, the Baseball Park Sessions "show the timeline of learning." They are the missing link
between Faithless Street and Whiskeytown's later work, and he believes they place the group's
career to date in a much more coherent perspective.
"The music is young and naive - and beautiful for it," he says. "There isn't any second-guessing
about chords, concepts or styles. It just is what it is, even though the lyrics may be very
meditative. I think they're that way - more intense, more free-flowing, with more depth -
because stylistically we didn't have any preconceptions about what we wanted to do. It was just
happening."
"You can't buy back your naivete, musically or otherwise," Adams concludes, "but apparently you
can remix and remaster it."
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