Faithless Street

• Artist: Whiskeytown
• Rating:
• Release Date: 1996
• Genre: Rock

Review

Faithless Street serves as an interesting document in the history of alt-country upstarts Whiskeytown, showing 20-year-old bandleader and chief songwriter Ryan Adams' headfirst leap from member of a high-school punk band into an emotionally charged, alcohol-fueled, traditional-minded country singer. The majority of the album was recorded in the summer of 1995 near Whiskeytown's hometown of Raleigh by Chris Stamey (dB's) and overflows with beer bottle, front porch, sun-drenched country anguish. Of the recording, Adams recalls: "All I remember is what we had to drink and Skillet and Ray Duffy's preoccupation with fireworks... the Roman candles and black cats sounded a lot like I'd hope we'd one day sound -- pretty little things all set on fire waiting to get destroyed." Looking back on this statement, the band's history of lineup changes and well-documented onstage fights seems to fit into Adams' five-year plan perfectly. The music itself is often sparse and gritty, brutally honest, and quite beautiful, especially in the introspective "If He Can't Have You," "Desperate Ain't Lonely," and the achingly gorgeous "Excuse Me While I Break My Own Heart Tonight." For all of the attention surrounding Adams' songwriting and Gram Parsons-like self-destructive bluster, one of the album's highlights comes from violinist and vocalist Caitlin Cary's "Matrimony," sung with a fierce independence that is a far cry from Tammy Wynette's "Stand By Your Man," although with a similar heartfelt enthusiasm. Regarding his songwriting in the Faithless Street era, the lead singer later confided: "In retrospect, I knew that was the last optimism I was gonna have for a long time," which sounds implausible regarding most of the album's subject matter, but later proved to be true. Overall, the album (re-released in 1998 by Outpost Recordings with several bonus tracks) stands as a terrific recording on its own, and also foreshadows many of the forthcoming troubles and achievements in the arc of the band's life span. ~ Zac Johnson, All Music Guide

Tracks

Track Title	Composers	Performers	Time
Midway Park (Lyrics)	Phil Wandscher, Ryan Adams, Skillet Gilmore	Whiskeytown	(3:23)
Drank Like a River (Lyrics)	Phil Wandscher, Ryan Adams, Caitlin Cary	Whiskeytown	(2:57)
Too Drunk to Dream (Lyrics)	Ryan Adams	Whiskeytown	(2:53)
Tennessee Square [*]	Ryan Adams	Whiskeytown	(2:49)
What My Seem Like Love	Phil Wandscher	Whiskeytown	(3:46)
Faithless Street (Lyrics)	Ryan Adams, Caitlin Cary	Whiskeytown	(3:55)
Mining Town (Lyrics)	Ryan Adams	Whiskeytown	(2:34)
If He Can't Have You (Lyrics)	Ryan Adams, Skillet Gilmore	Whiskeytown	(3:51)
Black Arrow, Bleeding Heart (Lyrics)	Ryan Adams	Whiskeytown	(2:20)
Matrimony (Lyrics)	Caitlin Cary, Steve Grothmann	Whiskeytown	(3:49)
Excuse Me While I Break My Own Heart Tonight [*]	Ryan Adams, David Ryan Adams	Whiskeytown	(3:20)
Desperate Ain't Lonely [*]	Ryan Adams, Caitlin Cary	Whiskeytown	(2:16)
Hard Luck Story (Lyrics)	Ryan Adams	Whiskeytown	(2:07)
Top Dollar (Lyrics)	Phil Wandscher	Whiskeytown	(2:38)
Lo-Fi Tennessee Mountian Angel [For Kathy Poindexter][*]	Johnny Williams, Kathy Poindexter, Samuel Mintu, Ryan Adams, Caitlin Cary, Lisa M. Cooper	Whiskeytown	(4:32)
Revenge [*] (Lyrics)	Phil Wandscher, Ryan Adams	Whiskeytown	(2:43)
Empty Baseball Park (Lyrics)	Ryan Adams	Whiskeytown	(2:54)
Here's to the Rest of the World (Lyrics)	Ryan Adams	Whiskeytown	(3:07)
16 Days (Lyrics)	Ryan Adams, David Ryan Adams	Whiskeytown	(3:45)
Yesterday's News (Lyrics)	Phil Wandscher, Ryan Adams	Whiskeytown	(2:52)
Factory Girl (Lyrics)	Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Phil Wandscher, Ryan Adams	Whiskeytown	(4:50)

Credits

Greg Woods (Engineer), Whiskeytown (Engineer), Chris Stamey (Pro-Tools), Chris Stamey (Engineer), Chris Stamey (Remixing), Greg Calbi (Mastering), Ray Duffy (Photography), Chris Stamey (Mixing), Ryan Adams (Liner Notes), Chris Bilheimer (Design), Ryan Adams (Photography), Caitlin Cary (Violin), Chris Stamey (Producer), Caitlin Cary (Liner Notes), Caitlin Cary (Photography), Ryan Adams (Vocals), Tim Harper (Engineer), Caitlin Cary (Vocals), Whiskeytown (Producer), Tim Harper (Mixing), Phil Wandscher (Guitar), Phil Wandscher (Vocals), Ryan Adams (Guitar)

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