Pneumonia

Performer: Whiskeytown
Engineer: Trina Shoemaker
Producer: Ethan Johns
Distributor: Universal Distribution

Notes: This is an Enhanced CD which contains regular audio tracks and multimedia computer files. Whiskeytown: Ryan Adams (vocals, guitar, piano, harmonica); Mike Daly (guitar, pedal steel & lap steel guitars, dulcimer, mandolin, keyboards, background vocals); Brad Rice (guitar); Caitlin Cary (fiddle, background vocals). Additional personnel: Tommy Stinson (guitar, dobro); Ethan Johns (guitar, mandolin, keyboards, bass, drums, percussion); James Iha (guitar, background vocals); Richard Causon (keyboards); James "Jumbo" Aumonier (celeste); Jennifer Causon (bass). Principally recorded at Dreamland Studios, West Hurley, New York. This is an Enhanced CD, which contains both regular audio tracks and multimedia computer files. Though Whiskeytown singer Ryan Adams has been anointed by the NO DEPRESSION set as the Bob Dylan of alt-country, his non-world-shaking solo debut proved that despite the boy wonder's talents, Whiskeytown is very much a band. That fact is amply borne out by PNEUMONIA, which strolls amiably down the neo-Americana highway with taste and modest invention (no mean feat in that crowded field). The opener "Ballad of Carol Lynn" suggests nothing so much as Steve Forbert fronting the STAGE FRIGHT-era Band. "Don't Be Sad" answers the question "what would Oasis sound like as an open-hearted American country-rock band?" "Under Your Breath" is a quiet, folkie number reminiscent of Adams's solo work. "Mirror, Mirror" gets decidely Beatlesque, while "Paper Moon" goes for a Cuban-flavored feel. Despite all these stylistic detours, though, the main course plotted on PNEUMONIA is a sunny, jangly roots-rock expansive enough to encompass all the aforementioned influences and Adams's lyrical concerns while still maintaing a common sonic thread.

Rolling Stone (5/24/01, p.86) - 3 stars out of 5 - "...A strong collection of Wilco-like ballads and pop-ish midtempo musings on love, loss and life lessons....a nice farewell from a band that was at the forefront of today's alt-country scene..." Spin (6/01, p.152) - 8 out of 10 - "...A great Saturday-morning record. Its woozy fiddles, grainy acoustic-electric guitars, and pop-strong harmonies give you the courage to face the day armed with roots-rock fortune cookery..." Entertainment Weekly (5/25/01, pp.80-1) - "...Raspy, elegant, sleepy...Strings, horns, and even a stray loop, up the lonesome ante....They exited with a gem..." - Rating: B+ Q (7/01, p.125) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...Songs that breathe the same rarefied air as Ryan Adams solo material....bringing to mind such disparate references as The Band, Cole Porter, and even a Deep South take on the breezy Prefab Sprout. Underpinning everything is [his] honey-and-smoke voice..." CMJ (5/14/01, p.4) - "...Offers insight into the artistoc progression of Adams and violinist/vocalist Caitlin Cary...Unyielding in its variety, from AM-radio/late Fleetwood Mac...to smooth, Martin Denny castanets and classic Hollywood symphonies..." No Depression (5-6/01, pp.122-3) - "...A masterfully assembled and brilliantly played collection of songs that jumps genres gleefully..."

Along with Uncle Tupelo, Whiskeytown is in many ways the quintessential alt-country band. Flaunting a boozy aesthetic more suited to CBGBs than the Ryman Auditorium, the band nonetheless produced some of the most heartfelt, twang-laden rock songs of the 1990s. With their cult status firmly in place, Whiskeytown parted ways after only four albums, while frontman Ryan Adams went on to have a successful and prolific (though controversial and hit-or-miss) solo career, releasing three albums in 2005 alone.

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