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Whiskeytown, “Empty Baseball Park”
“I always liked that song, and that line in it about stumbling into an empty baseball park — ‘Strike one, strike two, strike three, we’re all out,’that was all about the whole band, the guys in Whiskeytown. We literally rehearsed behind a baseball park for junior league kids in Raleigh. […] We would just get loaded and go over there, and we’d be running around tacklin’ each other and just being fucks. It was the funniest place to hang out. We’d just get loaded and wake up hungover on, like, home plate, like, at 6 a.m. [Drummer] Skillet [Gilmore] would be asleep in the bleachers.”
(Source: pastemagazine.com)
Whiskeytown - Bar Lights
(Source: angelawinnie)
Forget James Brown! Ryan Adams is undoubtedly the hardest-working man in showbusiness. ‘Heartbreaker’, ‘Pneumonia’, ‘Gold’… Three classic albums released in one year. And if it’s up to him he’s got at least five more coming your way soon, including one “motherfucker” of a record! Time to slow down for a minute with the former Whiskeytown mainman and pick Ryan Adams’ mind.
You recently said that you have two new rules. One is not to analyse what you write, and the other is not to read your own press. What are your feelings about sitting down with journalists to discuss yourself and the album?
“Well, it’s not really a feeling as much as it is just trying to make sure that I’m very clear, and if somebody asks me a question just to be as dead-on, directly honest, as I can. If I feel like being facetious, then be facetious. It’s… I don’t know… It’s just what it is, I guess. I don’t have a choice!”
As always, you’ve been extremely prolific in the last couple of years. How important is it for you and your own personal sanity to keep churning out songs?
“One doesn’t necessitate the other. I really enjoy writing songs, and I write tons of songs. What ends up from that is that I make lots of recordings and end up making lots of records or at least records quicker, so I tour more. It is sort of habitual in a way, but it’s not habitual because of anything or in lieu of anything. It’s kind of just something I dig. It makes sense to me. I get inspired a lot. I try to keep myself in an inspired area, not only just because I find it natural to be inspired by other artists or art or playing rock’n’roll or just the sound of guitar. It makes sense to me to do it. I really like the way it makes me feel, and it tucks away nicely the things that are going on with me. It’s a trip. It’s kind of like riding a skateboard. Maybe it’s just that you like to get on the board and ride, and I like to get on the guitar and go. I dig it. I like getting better at explaining myself.”
(Source: web.archive.org)
The people want to hear “Come Pick Me Up,” but Ryan Adams is no one-minute man. He’s a-make you love him, make you want him; he wants you to come prepared. At his marathon Irving Plaza show a few weeks back, demands for the ballad start up minutes after he straps on a guitar, but Adams holds fast—he bulldozes through the rest of his solo material with Springsteenian stamina, nearly empties a bottle of wine, cracks endless stoner jokes, apologizes to an unnamed New York Post reporter for missing his morning interview (“I was so fucking hung-over”), hits on a woman toward the front (“I like your glasses”), solicits reassurance and advice about the mop of hair he’s constantly finger-styling (tonight the coif resembles Tommy Stinson’s on the cover of Let It Be and therefore must answer to nobody), introduces spiritual guide Elton John out of the blue for a surreal but pandemonium-inducing rendition of “Rocket Man” (after which young Ryan is knighted with an embrace, like Axl and Eminem before him), and delivers a brief, sheepish encomium of his past and present hometown, New York City (he moved back just before 911). The natives, though charmed and appreciative, remain restless. “Come pick me up!” squeal two ladies in unison. (Related nonsong requests include “Take off your clothes!” and “Give me your body!”) Sometime before the house lights go up and the band skips back onstage unfazed for another encore, a clothed and chaste Adams finally delivers the song, and the sing-along crowd joins him in a collective barroom spirit of cheerful self-flagellation: “Come pick me up/Take me out/Fuck me up/Steal my records/ Screw all my friends/They’re all full of shit/ With a smile on your face/And then do it again/I wish you would.”
(Source: web.archive.org)
Whiskeytown — Somebody Remembers The Rose
Whiskeytown - Rural Free Delivery “Captain Smith”
My heart is sinking fast just like the titanic
My heart is pumping blood that’s turning blue
Well, I just want this cruise and I just can’t imagine
I’m drowning and it’s all because of you
Just as cold as ice ripped into my bough
Drifted off in moonlight while my ship was going down
