by Velouria.

Caitlin Cary emerged on the music scene in the "alt-country" genre defining Whiskeytown.  She sang, played violin and was one-half of the greatly revered songwriting team that included the infamous Ryan Adams.  Most people were watching to see what would become of the more boisterous and scene-stealing Ryan when Whiskeytown folded, but they would have been well served to watch out for Caitlin as well.  Ryan may have become the ultimate rockstar, complete with punk rock antics, but Caitlin's solo work has garnered so much critical acclaim, that former Whiskeytown fans have to recognize what a pivotal role she must have played in the band.  She was able to harness the cyclone-like energy of Ryan and nail down some really great songs.  She was the yin to his yang.  Now she is her own force and has proven that she needs no complement.  We were fortunate enough to catch up with Caitlin who currently has many irons in the fire:

V:  Your solo albums, "While You Weren’t Looking" and "I'm Staying Out" were both met with widespread critical acclaim.  You've been compared to Lucinda Williams, Patsy Cline, and Natalie Merchant.  How has the experience being a solo artist differed from that of being in a band?

CC:  Being on my own is radically different, of course, and in most ways, I see it as a vast improvement.  There were a lot of times in Whiskeytown where I felt as though I simply didn't have the force of will to get my own songs done, or even to contribute in creatively satisfying ways to the songs that Ryan was writing.  So by the time the band broke up, I had a collection of songs that simply HAD to get on record.  I didn't know, going in, whether I could be a "front woman" or not--I only knew that I wanted to try, and that I had a bunch of things that needed saying.  I'm in charge of what's happening in my life and in my music and I feel really fortunate to be surrounded by a fantastic group of people who are willing to help me make my music.  I also can't overstate the benefits of having been in Whiskeytown, I didn't have to start from zero, and I'd had a lot of great experiences that taught me what I loved about music. 

V:  You recently teamed up with Tonya Lamm (Hazeldine) and Lynn Blakely (Glory Fountain) to form the group Tres Chicas, how did this collaboration come about?

CC:  I actually met Lynn and Tonya at about the same time, but in different contexts: Hazeldine did an early No Depression tour with Whiskeytown, the Old 97s, and the Pickets.  It wasn't long before they asked me to sit in with my violin, and a strong bond formed.  When Tonya moved back to North Carolina, it wasn't a week before I was in her living room singing songs with her.  I met Lynn because her band Glory Fountain and Whiskeytown played several shows together, and we would sit in the dressing room singing old-time songs just for the fun of it.  I was playing coffee house-type gigs with each of them separately and one night we met up at a Backsliders show and, rather famously in the bathroom, we cooked up the idea of forming a band.  

V:  The stunning, ethereal harmonies on the recent Tres Chicas' release Sweetwater have led critics to dub the group the female answer to the Thorns (the Matthew Sweet, Shawn Mullins, Pete Droge alt-country supergroup), what is it like for you to be able to sing with two such capable singers as Tonya and Lynn?

CC:  Now that I've had the experience of being a solo artist for several years, I'm absolutely overjoyed to be in a band again.   We laugh all the time, and we really communicate on stage.  Singing with them is the rarest kind of treat because it's so effortless and so, well, easy.  We don't sing in three parts all the time, in fact we try really hard not to always fall back on that, mainly out of a fear of being too "lovely," but let me tell you, when I'm singing a line alone and then they chime in, it's like falling onto a fluffy cloud; I hope I'll always be lucky enough to sing with these ladies.

V:  What is your approach to songwriting?  How does it differ when working with other artists versus writing your solo work?

CC:  I can't really say that I have one approach to songwriting; every one seems to get born in a slightly different way.  I will share a few secrets, though: sometimes I'll go to a noisy bar with a good jukebox, pick a bustling spot -- this is best done on tour where you don't know anyone -- and sit there with my notebook intentionally "mishearing" other people's lyrics and writing down what I imagine they might have said.  This hasn't ever yielded a full-fledged song, which is good because I might accidentally "write" "Mississippi Queen" or something, and not know it.  But I've gotten great lines that have eventually become hooks or whole choruses.  Other than that, it's usually while I'm walking or in the shower.  I'll just be minding my business and suddenly a theme, or on rare blessed occasions, a whole song just comes to me.  I'm not sure that the process is really different when I'm writing with someone else, because most often I'll go into co-writing with a pretty well-formed idea of a song and just get the other person to help me, or else the other person is in the same situation and I get to just contribute.  Both ways are really fun--I love catching someone else's "bug"--there's this excitement that people have when they've got a song brewing, and there's nothing greater than getting to share that.

V:  What are you listening to now?

CC:  I'm loving on all my old Ray Charles records since he died--that's been the main thing lately.  And Skillet, my husband, has soaked me in the Shins, which I'm happy about.  I love Amy Allison's most recent record No Frills Friend, Willard Grant Conspiracy's Regard the End, Thad Cockrell's Warmth and Beauty.  And then there's this amazing band called Dolly Varden, whose record The Dumbest Magnets will, I think, always be my "default" record.  Also, I've been watching the Led Zepplin DVD that came out a year or so ago, and making all sorts of fantastical, but probably true, proclamations about their being the most amazing rock band that ever lived.

V:  We are hearing a lot lately about the Chapel Hill, NC, indie music "scene."  Your musical career started in the Chapel Hill/Raleigh area and your label, Yep Records, is based in Chapel Hill.  In your opinion, is the scene all that it is hyped to be and if so, what makes it unique from other music communities?

CC:  I'm not sure that a "scene" ever really exists or doesn't.  I've met people from tiny towns none of us have ever heard of who are supported, cherished, and loved by their "people."  And I would never claim to have any insight into what the "scene" is here--l tend to think of "scene" as something I've never been cool enough to understand or participate in.  I do think we have a tangible group of musicians and fans who all look out for each other.  There's no denying the fact that you can't step out the door here without bumping into someone who's playing or writing or else on their way to see a band.  And that's lucky.  This past fall I helped to put on a benefit for my friend Alejandro Escovedo.  It was an overwhelming success; literally hundreds of musicians and music supporters busted their asses to make it work, and to the best of my knowledge, it was the most successful of all the country-wide benefits in Al's honor.  That made me truly appreciate the community I live in and work out of.

V:  Sounds like a great community.  Can you tell us a little about Alejandro and your relationship with him and why so many great artists are teaming up for benefits to help cover the costs of his hospital bills?

CC:  It's hard to say where this kind of quality comes from, but he's just so damned easy to love; he's kind and engaged with life and sparkling--there's no one who can touch his "star quality," and yet he's completely approachable and generous.  He reached out to me very early on in the Whiskeytown days--way before we were "cool"--and made me feel like a colleague at a time when I really didn't feel I deserved that distinction.  He is a dear man and a true living legend.

V:  Many Americans do not have health insurance, particularly artists, do you have any thoughts on what can be done to remedy this situation?

CC:  I think that the whole system needs to be rethought.  In my opinion, artists should be, more or less, in the employ of their record labels, with all the accompanying benefits and limits.  In other words, while I wouldn't want to give away the possibility of great financial success (if you're Madonna and you sell ten million records, then by all rights you should be rich), but I'd work really hard for $30,000 a year and benefits, and to some extent, I really don't understand why that isn't the norm.  If an artist "makes the cut" and gets signed to a label, then I think that as that label's main "product," the artist should be afforded the same rights as any other employee.  This might be flawed logic--it's possible that this might quash the artist's creative control--but somehow it just makes sense to me.  Whether or not the market will support this, I have no idea, but I'd be pretty interested in trying it out.

V:  Are there any up and coming artists from Chapel Hill we should look out for?

CC:  Please go out of your way to discover the band Goner.  They've put out two records which might not be easy to find, but will be worth the hunt.  Of course I love Thad Cockrell's music, and fully expect he'll be the next big thing.  There's the old guard: Six String Drag, the Accelerators, Finger, The Backsliders--buy any of their records and you won't be sorry.  And Tift Merrit's record is coming out soon, we're all looking forward to that.

V:  It seems like everything you touch is gold, do you have any advice for artists trying to make it in the music industry?

CC:  I don't have any good advice, really, and I can't say that I see anything gold, at least not in this room.  Seriously, though, I can only say that it might be true that hard work pays off sometimes.  I know so many great artists and bands who are struggling, though--I'm struggling too.  These are hard times and I wish I could say that I know the way "in," but I sure don't.

V:  How do you feel about illegal downloading of music on the internet? 

CC:  Well, I'm obviously not in this for the money, or I'd have quit a long time ago, but I do feel strongly that Americans (and folks everywhere) need to learn how to value and support the arts.  I think that a lot of people assume that having a label, a record in the stores, and your name on a marquee means that you're making a living.  I'll just say that MTV Cribs won't be paying a visit to my house any time soon, and that most of my colleagues in the business are in the same or worse shape financially.  I want everyone who wants to hear my music to be able to, and I'm all for the sort of exposure that the Internet can afford us, but it's critical that we somehow get behind helping artists survive.  Maybe that means government support for the arts, because I know that records are expensive, and I'd certainly hate for anyone to miss out on the great music that's being made by people who can't afford to butter their toast.

V:  What can we expect to see from you in the next few years in terms of solo work or projects with other artists?

CC:  I have a lot of irons in the fire right now.  I'm hoping that the next record I work on will be a collection of duets with Thad Cockrell.  We spent a lot of time writing together a year or so ago, and we've been talking about ways to get a record made for quite some time.  And of course there's got to be a new Tres Chicas record soon--we're already writing for that.  I've got new songs for me, but I'm sort of letting them swirl around, feeling like there's no big rush, and like I've got lots to think about in the meantime.  And then there's this rock band that might happen--I mean, really fucking Rock--but I have to make sure that the rockers in question actually like my songs…

V:  Very intriguing, we'll have to look out for that one.  At the time Whiskeytown was formed, you were in North Carolina State's graduate program for creative writing and put your thesis on hold while the band took off.  Did you ever finish it?   

CC:  No, I never did finish the damn thing.  It got to the point where life was so crazy with the band that I just sort of jumped ship.  I knew I didn't want to remain in academia, so it made sense in some ways to bail, but when I pay on my student loan every month, it sort of gives me a twinge.  Maybe someday.

V:  Any plans to pursue writing fiction again?

CC:  I'm sure that at some point in my life I will return to writing fiction.  Right now, I feel that songwriting fulfills that part of my creative life.  What I prefer about making music is that it's most often a communal effort--really sociable and collaborative--whereas fiction writing often seems to occur in a vacuum, with little opportunity to get input and/or feedback.   But I can imagine a time in the future where a quiet office, a blank page, and an "invisible" audience might be really appealing!

V:  A lot has been written about the antics of Ryan Adams while he was a part of Whiskeytown, what was it like to work with someone with such a strong personality?  Did you write songs together or did you write more independently?

CC:  Ryan and I had a great musical "romance" for a few years.  When things got crazy for the band, some of that got lost or at least occluded by what was going on all around us.  But during those first few years, we were really a good team; mostly I functioned as an editor, sort of: I'd ask him to slow down a bit and really take time with what we were writing.  He'd have a tendency to get bored with a song even before it was finished, and so I'd take it home with me, add a verse or two, or hone the lines, and bring it back to him.  Lots of times what I did would get him back into it.  Of course there were times where we'd sit and fire lines back and forth between us in the heat of the moment, or we'd write songs on the fly in the studio.  He taught me a lot about trusting your instincts and allowing yourself to be spontaneous.  His fearless method inspired me, although I must say that I remain a "cautious" and sometimes overly self-critical writer, which serves me pretty well, even though it's sometimes less fun than that old "off the cuff" method we used to have.

V:  It seems like you two were the perfect balance for each other.  There were numerous other musicians who worked with Whiskeytown at one time or another (I’ve heard as many as 30), do you still work with any of them? 

CC:  Oh yes.  I even married one of them: Skillet, the original drummer.  We only allowed ourselves to admit we were in love after he'd left the band the first time.  And many of the Whiskeytown alums are still very close friends.  Mike Daly, who was in the band for a good many years, has been a steadfast friend and collaborator.  Mike Santoro, who was in Whiskeytown for a brief moment, played bass on While You Weren't Looking, and Jon Wurster who toured with us for quite some time was in my band for quite a while, and played on I'm Staying Out.  And while Chris Stamey wasn't ever in Whiskeytown, he sat in with us on several shows, and recorded some of our best stuff.  I can honestly say that I've remained good friends with most of the revolving cast of characters from those days; despite some scarring, most of them have kept their hands in music, and it's been fun to keep up with their work and their lives. 

V:  There have been recent rumors of a possible Whiskeytown reunion, some say at the Austin City Limits Festival in September, any truth to this?  If not, would you consider a reunion or other projects with Ryan Adams? 

CC:   Well, I'm sorry to say that as far as I know, I won't be playing the ACL festival this year, although it's clear that rumors are flying. There's really no truth in these rumors, although there was a time last year when we were considering doing some recording with Ryan and some form of the band. I think it's pretty clear, though, that for the time being, Ryan and I are content to keep busy with our own things.  I've always believed that we would one day make a record together: there's too much history and too much chemistry for that not to happen.  But I would certainly warn folks not to hold their breath--we'll get to it when we're both ready; we're two stubborn Scorpios, and it might be that we'll be old and crotchety by the time we both figure out that we need to sing together again--won't that be fun?

V: It definitely would be fun, I think some of us will hold our breaths anyway.  Thanks Caitlin.

Labels: Caitlin Cary, Ryan Adams, Whiskeytown