WHISKEYTOWN
Borderline (London, England)
May 7 and 9, 1998

by Peter Blackstock

“I think I’m the only one in the band who still drinks whiskey, so cheers,” fiddler Caitlin Cary proclaimed during the encore of Whiskeytown’s debut performance in London. Indeed, these shows seemed largely focused on how well leader Ryan Adams could adjust to yet another lineup change, as well as a change in his own approach to drinking (he’d recently gone sober). And while neither night delivered any real revelations, Adams did seem to be dealing with both adjustments reasonably well.

Guitarist Ed Crawford and bassist Jenni Snyder, who had joined Whiskeytown last fall after three-fifths of the band was cut loose in the midst of a tour, were replaced just a few days before Whiskeytown left on its first overseas adventure (a short trip that included just a handful of dates in Scandinavia and the U.K.). Snyder, who was dismissed, was replaced by bassist Mike Santoro, formerly of the Swales. Santoro’s former Swales bandmate Mike Daly, who has been playing keyboards and steel guitar with Whiskeytown since last summer, took over the lead guitar spot from Crawford, who left of his own volition in solidarity with Snyder.

The lack of adequate rehearsal time with the new lineup was apparent in some of Daly’s playing. He didn’t seem to have a grip on the countrified twang needed to pull off “Excuse Me While I Break My Own Heart Tonight”, or the swagger that makes “Drank Like A River” such a rambunctious romp when it’s done up right.

On the other hand, there were moments when the band had clearly found new directions for the songs during the Scandinavian shows of the previous week. “The Strip”, which Adams had previously transformed from a hushed ballad to a charging punk-rocker, found a moody middle ground between those two approaches; it worked beautifully, further demonstrating just how good the song is by virtue of its remarkable adaptability.

More intense numbers such as “Not Home Anymore”, “Yesterday’s News” and the set-closing “Breathe” also fared well — but, as has been the case at many of Whiskeytown’s shows in the past several months, the truly special moments were lurking ahead in the encore, when the band showed its versatility by pulling out some of its loveliest acoustic numbers.

Adams led things off with a solo “Avenues” and then was joined by Cary, who kicked off a relatively new number titled “The Battle” with an unforgettable fiddle intro that recalls an old Scottish bagpipes melody. Adams and Cary’s voices harmonize with heartbreaking eloquence on this timeless tune, which may well be the best song they’ve ever performed together. The relatively short (an hour and ten minutes) show closed with an impassioned rendition of “Inn Town”.

After a five-song in-store acoustic performance at Virgin Megastore on Friday afternoon, Whiskeytown returned to the Borderline on Saturday night for a second sold-out show (the club’s capacity is around 250). Much of the set list was the same as Thursday’s show, which wasn’t surprising since it was unlikely the band had gotten a chance to rehearse much more than an hour’s worth of material in this latest configuration.

A couple surprises helped liven up the end of the show, though. James Iha of the Smashing Pumpkins, who were in England shooting a video, emerged to play guitar on “Inn Town” at the end of the set. Whiskeytown returned the favor during the encore by running through “Be Strong Now”, the first song on Iha’s solo debut Let It Come Down, released earlier this year. Though the band had obviously never performed the song before and it came off rather ragged, it was still nice to see them make the effort and to show some support for Iha’s album, a fine pop record that’s much better than the maligning it has received in much of the press.

Saturday’s show concluded with a long, drawn-out version of “Losering”, segueing into a droning cover of Sonic Youth’s “Expressway To Yr. Skull”, that has been a frequent highlight of the band’s live shows this year. Adams added a nice new wrinkle at the end, singing and strumming Johnny Cash’s “I Still Miss Someone” all alone, Daly’s guitar still chiming out a wash of feedback and white noise behind him.

The European dates ended up being Santoro’s only appearances with the band. Upon returning to North Carolina in mid-May, Adams quickly jumped upon the opportunities presented by the recent dissolution of the Backsliders, snapping up bassist Danny Kurtz and lead guitarist Brad Rice.

Also new to the fold is Superchunk drummer John Wurster; original drummer Skillet Gilmore, who left in late 1996 but returned in late 1997 (and played drums on the European dates), is out again. The new lineup played its first show at the Brewery in Raleigh on June 10 (with a set that included a full album’s worth of new material), in preparation for spending much of June and July on the road opening for John Fogerty.

TWO DOLLAR PISTOLS
Local 506 (Chapel Hill, NC)
May 5, 1998

Elementary physics applies to band lineups, too: For every reaction, there is an equal and opposite reaction. So while guitarist Steve Howell’s recent departure from the Backsliders is unfortunate and has thrown that band’s future into disarray, the upside is that he hasn’t gone far. Howell is hanging his hat in Chapel Hill’s Two Dollar Pistols nowadays, and kicking that band to new heights.

This show was the first of a two-night stand that was recorded for a live album (due out late summer on Yep Roc Records), and drew an unusually large crowd for a Tuesday night. After a couple of tentative songs to clear the cobwebs early, it was tremendous. The Pistols’ current lineup is the most stable one frontman John Howie has had since the band formed. It has solidified into a crack honky-tonk unit capable of putting plenty of backsides in motion, transforming Local 506 into a Bakersfield roadhouse for the evening.

As well as everyone played, the Pistols’ hole card was still Howie’s voice. Always a tremendously emotional singer, somewhat reminiscent of Roger Miller and Lefty Frizzell, Howie has lately taken on an added dimension of power. He showed it off on a fine selection of originals and covers, including “How It Feels To Die”, “Me, Myself And Wine”, Carl Butler’s “Honkytonkitis”, and a marvelously over-the-top rendition of the Bee Gees’ 1967 chestnut “To Love Somebody” that had to be heard to be believed.

Although Howell has been with the Pistols only a short time, his playing was just right — never obtrusive, always in place with just the right answer to Howie’s anguished yelps. There was also a hint of good things to come when the Pistols trotted out one of Howell’s songs from the Backsliders, “Lonely Avenue”.

Keep an eye out for this record.

— DAVID MENCONI

COWBOY NATION
McCabe’s (Santa Monica, CA)
May 22, 1998

Chip and Tony Kinman sure have wandering musical spirits. Initially punk rockers singing “I Hate The Rich” in the Dils, the band helped usher in cowpunk in the early ’80s as Rank & File, who, really, were more pop than punk. With that scene fizzling, R&F moved more toward hard rock; soon the band fizzled too. The brothers resurfaced in the clubs of Los Angeles as Blackbird, which positioned them as a duo with a drum machine in a murky concept that suggested the gloomy industrial pop of the Jesus & Mary Chain.

Nowadays the brothers play acoustic instruments and feature a drummer who manipulates little more than a bass drum and a high-hat. They wear cowboy hats as wide as sombreros and are known to crack into an occasional “yee haw” in the middle of songs peppered with images of saddles, coyotes, prairies. Welcome to Cowboy Nation, the Kinman brothers’ foray into cowboy songs and the Wild West.

Sound kinda schticky? Well it should, cuz it is. Not necessarily bad, mind you, but definitely hokey. Their hour-long set for some three-dozen folks at McCabe’s Guitar Shop featured songs that weeped like the cowpoke sitting around the campfire and galloped like the bankrobber getaway. “My Rifle, My Pony And Me”, “Coyote” (a survivor from the R&F days) and well-traveled covers such as “The Alamo” proved to respect the Western tradition while still allowing room for the Kinmans’ own unique charms. Fans of Rank & File will recall that when Tony’s bassoon-like lead vocals mesh with Chip’s Everly-esque soprano, the sound is something to behold. Cowboy Nation did not disappoint in this regard.

But Cowboy Nation is like the aural equivalent to those booths at carnivals where you get a sepia-toned photo of yourself dressed up in some sort of Western get-up. It’s just too make-believe, which, ultimately, is what is so maddening about the obviously talented Kinmans. Punk to cowpunk to hard rock to gloom to home on the range — you wish they’d just stop pre-conceiving, grab whatever instruments they most love and write the songs that come naturally to them. Now that could really be something worth yee-hawin’ about.

— NEAL WEISS