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MUSIC

Gone country

RIGHT, so it’s the sanc-
tioned day for the love-
struck tomorrow yet for
whatever reason your
heart feels little more
than the contractions of
a blood pump.

The Starfish Roca is a
good bet to be at if you'd like
to validate delicious melancholy with a big
dose of well-crafted, raggedy edged country-
rock.

It’s the first time in this town for
Whiskeytown. The band calls Raleigh,
North Carolina, home.

My favorite description of this band
comes courtesy of a scribe with the Austin
American Statesman: “The Replacements if
they had a fetish for country-rock instead of
Alex Chilton.”

Lead singer-songwriter Ryan Adams paid
his dues to the punk-rock muse with Patty
Duke Syndrome, a band cut from the cloth
of Husker Du. His driving passion for coun-
try music — fed by absorbing the nuances
of his grandparents’ Hank Williams, Johnny
Cash and Loretta Lynn discs — is what fla-
vors Whiskeytown.

Adams is a gifted songwriter and special-
izes in that wistful heartbreaking stufi uf No
cornball country here, just plenty of ghosts
and regret.

The new disc, Strangers Almanac, is on

Outpost Recordings and features Phil
Wandscher on guitar and organ, Caitlin
Cary on violin and vocals, Steven Terry on
drums and Jeff Rice on bass. Alejandro
Escovedo contributes guest vocals on several
tracks.

The project was recorded in Nashville at
Woodland Studios with producer Jim Scott

(Danzig, Johnny
Cash, Tom
Petty) at the
helm.
The band as
recorded has
long since
imploded, but
Whiskeytown's
Caitlin Cary,
who has been on
the fiddle with the band pretty
much since its inception, says
the present incarnation scems
to be working out.

“The diplomatic way of
saying it, which is actually
pretty much true, is that it's
hard to align five people or six
people.

“One of the hardest things
I’ve ever done is try to work
this closely on something as
personal as music. It just took
a while to find the right peo-
ple to do it with. Everyone up
there (on stage) has as : much
invested in it 2s everyone else,
but one person gets most of
the spotlight usually.”

The tension that Cary says always existed
between the band’s members was good for
the music for a while, but eventually it
became too much.

“Ryan and Phil kind of needed to not
work with each other,” she says diplomati-
cally.

Steve, Phil and Jeff are gone. They've
haai two bass players since Jeff departed.

The band on the road with Adams and
Cary is Ed Crawford on lead guitar and
vocals, Jenni Snyder on bass, the band’s
original drummer Skillet Gilmore, and Mike

Adifferent artist emerges after head injury

From page 2

__ brain injuries understand what

“the injured are going through.

A year and a half after her
‘ injury, McDonald still strug-
gles. She’s trying to relearn
“songs she once played on the
piano. McDonald, a 45-year-
old woman with a degree in
mathematics, is relearning cal-
culus.
Sometimes, she loses her
sight, and she says she’s not
the same person she was.

“I can remember a bit who
Twas, but I can’t be who I
was because something hap-
pened to my brain,” she said
simply.

But she likes her new self.
She believes she’s more open,
she’s less fearful, and she can
even laugh about the injury.
She says she doesn’t remember
her birthday atter the accident.

“I keep saying did anybody
get me anything,” she giggled.
“{ think I got something.
Don’t ask me what.”

MeDonald’s work, framed
by massive steel brackets,
hangs in the rehabilitation
centre at 26th and Laurel as
an inspiration to clients, their
families and staff.

Her daughter is fine.

F The Lowest Price in Town! !

Daly on keyboards, lapsteel and guitar.

Says Cary, “Everybody is nice to cach
other and everybody for the most part gets
to communicate about what they like and
what they don’t like. We all have ro still deal
with Ryan and he’s a pill sometimes, but
overall it’s much less conflicted, much mare
fun to be on tour.”

The connection with Austin-based
Alejandro Escovedo, a dynamic singer-song-
writer in his own right, was made a few
years aga. Recalls Cary: “We played a show
with him real early on in Chicago. Ryan was

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CAITLIN Cary and Ryan Adams bring their North Carolina band Whiskeytown to
Vancouver tornorrow night for a show at the Starfish.

sick and Alejandro gave him some tea. Ryan” “>

had known about the True Believers and
Ryan was a fan. They just got to talking.

“Then I kicked over one of his really
expensive guitars by accident. I had to go
back there and apologize and offer him
money and stuff. It was a real nice acoustic
guitar. I felt pretty bad. He and Ryan really
hit it off. T guess he stayed for our show and
liked Ryan’s songs. He’s kind ofa mentor
for Ryan.”

Mary Lou Lord opens for Whiskeytown
in Vancouver tomorrow night.

Kaus

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With a pledge of $149 to the B.C. charity people will
receive a limited edition print of the painting. For
more on the weekend event see story page 22.

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