Artist	Song
Whiskeytown	Midway Park
Whiskeytown	Drank Like A River
Whiskeytown	Hard Luck Story
Whiskeytown	Inn Town
Whiskeytown	Excuse Me While I Break My Own Heart
Whiskeytown	16 Days
Whiskeytown	Avenues
Whiskeytown	Dancing With The Women At The Bar
Whiskeytown	The Ballard of Carol Lynn
Whiskeytown	Easy Hearts
Ryan Adams	Hey There Miss Lovely
Ryan Adams	Puddle In A Rainstorm
Ryan Adams w/ Gillian Welch	Return of the Grievous Angel
Ryan Adams	Monday Night
Ryan Adams	To Be Young (Is To Be Sad, Is To Be High)
Ryan Adams	Come Pick Me Up
Ryan Adams	New York, New York
Ryan Adams	Nobody Girl

Comment:

A prodigy of the singer/songwriter mold or just a petulant cry-baby whose talents we've seen before with Steve Forbet? Whiskeytown's former notoriously volatile frontman, Ryan Adams, has given fodder to both sides of the argument. Whiskeytown formed in Raleigh, NC, in 1994 and quickly gained a following among the Uncle Tupelo/Gram Parson fan base that had gained strength in the 90's and spawned the "alt-country" scene. Faithless Street (1996), Rural Free Delivery (1997), Stranger's Almanac (1997) and Pneumonia (2001) comprise the Whiskeytown catalog. Pneumonia was Whiskeytown's record label merger casualty from the late 90's. The record was in limbo and didn't come out until the band had already called it quits. By the time it came out Adams had already released his first solo album Heartbreaker (2000) and his second, Gold (2001), was on the way.

I put this collection of some of my favorite Ryan Adams tunes together for a friend of mine who had a long drive to Minnesota. She's now a fan so I guess mission accomplished. I included a couple of live tracks to increase the unique factor a couple of points. I saw Whiskeytown in '98 and it was as bad as I had heard. Adams was so drunk he couldn't play shit. I then saw him in November of 2001 with his backing band The Pink Hearts and he played a three-plus hour show that kicked ass. What are you going to do?

Track 11- Hey There Miss Lovely, Track 12- Puddle In A Rain Storm, and Track 13- Return of the Grievous Angel all come from Adam's 10/28/99 acoustic show in Nashville. I didn't know the name of the song on Track 12 so I named it Puddle In A Rain Storm cause of the chorus. That and the title sounded so Burt Bacharach when you said it out loud, it made me chuckle. Gillian Welch sings with Adams on the Gram Parson's cover, Return of the Grievous Angel. Great stuff.

Track 17- New York, New York comes from another acoustic show, this one from Norway 10/31/01. New York, New York is not one of my favorites, but on this version he slows it down in a quiet voice that just nails the feeling behind it.

Track 14- Monday Night comes form Down From the Promised Land: A Bloodshot five year anniversary album.

There are songs that I wanted to put on here that I didn't. Whiskeytown's cover of Gram Parson's A Song For You, Adams cover of Hank Williams' Lovesick Blues or Black Flagg's Nervous Breakdown, but this is an introductory thing not a collection of singles and B-sides.

Where does the name of the mix come from? Ryan Adams has this thing about Elmo. He talks about him during shows. He once said the Elmo was the most psychedelic thing he's seen or heard since the Dead's Terrapin Station.

I'd like to thank Maker's Mark and American Spirit Lights. Without them, this mix wouldn't have been possible.

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