Whiskeytown - Faithless Street
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Free Music Notes for Faithless Street
Free Music Review: The only Whiskeytown album for me
Hit: 5 Stars
I first saw/heard Whiskeytown on the tele during an Austin City Limits show. I immediately bought Stranger's Almanac. After devouring this album I found Faithless Street by chance. Since acquiring Faithless Street, I less often play Stranger's Almanac, and that's not because it's not good, it's excellent, but 'Faithless' has a sort of added character value. What 'Faithless' Doesn't have is the rich, production smooth sound, and scissor cut melded musicianship that is the product of a band playing many gigs, that is found in Stranger's Almanac. But what it DOES have is more songs (3 of the same found on 'Strangers': "16 Days", "Excuse Me While I Break My Own Heart Tonight", and "Yesterdays News"), more raw intimate lyrics, and more drowning in a puddle of whiskey. The musicianship is there maybe even more so, it's just unprocessed, truer and more honest like the lyrics. A reliable steady rhythm section, good steel guitar work found on many of the tracks, and of course Caitlin's fiddle.
Ryan Adam's voice sounds best when its melted and drizzled over country songs. He sounds very serious about heartache and his sometimes helpless emotional position, but is content to just be drinking and dancing and singing about the ladies and their impact on his mental health, as if singing is a sort of exorcism of the pain in his heart and soul. The only song I consistently skip is the one sung by Caitlin (sorry Caitlin). This has nothing to do with her talents, she has a beautiful voice that adds great harmony to Ryan's in all the right places, and she can saw on that fiddle in the most lonesome and melodic way that I've heard, but when I'm listening and bent on Ryan and what he's saying in his songs, it's difficult to switch speeds and listen to "Matrimony" smack dab in the middle of the disc.
Some other stand out tracks other than the ones that make it to 'Strangers' include: "Tennessee square" and "Faithless Street" (both re-recordings of the songs from the earlier disc Rural Free Deliverly where the song "Faithless Street" is titled "Angels Are Messengers From God" ), and "Factory Girl", an accoustic love song picker about a hopless secret admirer.
Faithless Street has some songs that rock and some that ache, but they all make me sing.
Free Music Review: NC's Dylan...
Hit: 5 Stars
Admittedly I am biased... I discovered this album in the winter of 2000 standing on a windy platform, waiting on a train in New Haven, CT... I was in the midst of a terrific divorce and this was the first CD I purchased following the abduction of my music collection... riding that cold MetroNorth commuter into Manhattan, walking through Grand Central and down Park Avenue in the snow, with headphones blasting; this album saved my sanity...It is a brilliant collection of songs that captures the "broke-down-and-busted-but-still-running" Alt. Country spirit so vividly ... bits of Uncle Tupelo; "Drank Like A River", the Jayhawks; "If He Can't Have You", Son Volt; "Top Dollar"... and still Adams breaks out on his own with gems; "Faithless Street", "Black Arrow, Bleeding Heart" and "Yesterdays News"... but he hits the hardest with "Excuse Me While I Break My Own Heart" and "Desperate Ain't Lonely"... and while "Factory Girl" is incredibly sweet with some of the prettiest guitar and gut-wrenching lyrics, a near perfect closer... it's the song "16 Days" that shows the talent that's about to explode...
"Ghosts has got me running away from you"... Thanks Ryan, I needed to hear that one...
Free Music Review: Like Getting Religion
Hit: 5 Stars
Whiskeytown was the best band ever in the alternative country genre, and Ryan Adams is still one of the most talented writers around. My bandmate and I used to listen to a cassette of this, in his truck all the time,traveling to and from gigs (the original CD release,which I still own ,so I can't comment on the bonus tracks,but was a little dissapointed to see them spread throughout the track order of the original release,which had a perfect feel to it the way it was;perhaps the Baseball Park Sessions and other bonuses could have been put out as a separate release as an alternative,especially now that the group is no more.But these songs in any collection merit 5 stars!)."Drank Like A River" has always been my favorite;and I was sorely dissapointed that they didn't play it live when I saw them on the Stranger's Almanac tour (new members didn't know a lot of the older material). Ryan Adams conjures up images of desperate,messed up,almost hopeless people better than any country or rock songwriter I've heard. A favorite quote "So I started this damn country band,cuz punk rock was too hard to sing",sums up Whiskeytown's musical sensibility.Free Music Review: My Desert Island Album
Hit: 5 Stars
Short and simple: if I were stuck on a desert island--one that miraculously had a CD player--and I could pick one CD to listen to for the rest of my life, this would be it. I can't understand the apathy in the other reviews: this CD is one of those rare "classics."Notable tracks are "Black Arrow; Bleeding Heart," "Desperate ain't Lonely" and "Too Drunk To Dream"
This album combines the raw elements of a good counrty album while infusing the sophisticated songwriting that Ryan Adams is know for. The simplicity of this album displays the effect good music can have when written and crafted by someone like Adams.
If you purchased "Gold" and are interested in more Adams music like "Gold", you should note that this album is almost a different genre than Adams' solo work. You may want to buy "Heartbreaker" before checking this out; but if you like Hank Williams Sr., Merle Haggard, Steve Earle, Gram Parsons or even Lucinda Williams--basically if you dig country and like "Gold"--buy this album now! It is already a classic as far as I am concerned.
Free Music Review: Starting at the end and moving upstream
Hit: 5 Stars
I was introduced into Whiskeytown through the solo work of Ryan Adams, their bandleader and main songwriter. Being a lover of comparable alt-country acts, such as Jeff Tweedy and Jay Farrar (both formerly from Uncle Tupelo, who later went on to lead Wilco and Son Volt, respectively), I figured I could not go wrong. Indeed it was so. This album, the first by this seminal act from North Carolina, will knock you out with its country sound blended with straight up rock riffs.
The resemblances with Uncle Tupelo are definitely there, but they rock more than the legendary Illinois band. Some moments of the album hover over clouds of peace and quiet, with a mellow and quiet sound, but its overall tone is upbeat and jumpy, inviting you to clap your hands and join the fun, much like being in a bar, in the middle of Whiskeytown! Though I loved the classics "Excuse Me...", "If He Can't Have You" and "Desperate Ain't Lonely", the songs from the album that caught my ear initially were "Midway Park" and "Mining Town".