I'm Staying Out

Amazon.com
Caitlin Cary's 2002 solo full-length debut served notice that Ryan Adams wasn't the only Whiskeytown alum deserving of attention. Aptly titled While You Weren't Looking, that disc was a surprisingly graceful, fully confident first effort. For the follow-up, Cary and her newly seasoned road band again recorded with producer Chris Stamey, and the result is another accomplished collection that adds richer arrangements and instrumentation to Cary's mix of rock, folk, and country tunes. Stately peals of electric guitar shimmer between verses of the ode to laziness "Sleepin' in on Sunday." Cary steps out for violin solos on "Please Break My Heart" and the twangy title cut. Whether lending color to ballads like "The Next One" or a bouncy soul kick to the up-tempo "You Don't Have to Hide," ex-Jayhawks pianist Jen Gunderman is everywhere. It's a credit to Cary that neither the newfound swirl of sounds nor the bucketful of big-name guests--among them Mary Chapin Carpenter, Don Dixon, Mitch Easter, and Springsteen cellist Jane Scarpantoni--ever threaten to steal the spotlight from her solid songs and expressive soprano. --Anders Smith Lindall

Tracks:

Empty Rooms
Sleepin' In On Sunday
You Don't Have To Hide
The Next One
Please Break My Heart
Cello Girl
Beauty Fades Away
I'm Staying Out
Lorraine Today
In A While
I Want To Learn To Waltz

Amazon.com

Caitlin Cary's 2002 solo full-length debut served notice that Ryan Adams wasn't the only Whiskeytown alum deserving of attention. Aptly titled While You Weren't Looking, that disc was a surprisingly graceful, fully confident first effort. For the follow-up, Cary and her newly seasoned road band again recorded with producer Chris Stamey, and the result is another accomplished collection that adds richer arrangements and instrumentation to Cary's mix of rock, folk, and country tunes. Stately peals of electric guitar shimmer between verses of the ode to laziness "Sleepin' in on Sunday." Cary steps out for violin solos on "Please Break My Heart" and the twangy title cut. Whether lending color to ballads like "The Next One" or a bouncy soul kick to the up-tempo "You Don't Have to Hide," ex-Jayhawks pianist Jen Gunderman is everywhere. It's a credit to Cary that neither the newfound swirl of sounds nor the bucketful of big-name guests--among them Mary Chapin Carpenter, Don Dixon, Mitch Easter, and Springsteen cellist Jane Scarpantoni--ever threaten to steal the spotlight from her solid songs and expressive soprano. --Anders Smith Lindall

Customer Reviews:

Great album........2006-08-27

being lucky enough to live in the same area as Caitlin, i get to see her live every couple of months with all her projects. this cd helps me get through the times when i don't get to see her live. Great voice,songs and music.

Cary On.......2005-01-20

She was an integral part of the alt-country band Whiskeytown with her fiddle and backing vocal work, but Caitlin Cary often found herself overshadowed by the band's lead ringmaster Ryan Adams (perhaps our era's Gram Parsons minus Gram's chemical excesses?). Since the band's break-up, Caitlin has managed to step out on her own with solid results. Her 2003 album I'M STAYING OUT is proof of that.

Although recorded in her native North Carolina with veteran alt-country producer Chris Stamey, and featuring backing help from Tift Merritt's band the Carbines and Mary Chapin Carpenter (whom Caitlin occasionally sounds like), I'M STAYING OUT has as much folk, rock, and R&B influences as it does country, with Caitlin's intricate violin work providing a lot of its traditional country base. "Please Break My Heart", its ironic title notwithstanding, frequently sounds like a long-lost Patsy Cline hit; while "You Don't Have To Hide" occasionally evokes the classic country-rock of Linda Ronstadt. It's hard not to note such influences, but that doesn't mean Caitlin is a derivative singer or a mere imitator of legendary artists. Indeed, with Nashville having succumbed to corporate greed and a maniacal obsession with pop crossovers, artists like Caitlin who evoke legends of the past while plowing their own unique ground are sorely needed and very welcome. I'M STAYING OUT is a fine second album for Caitlin, and here's hoping that she has many more great albums like it up her sleeve in the very near future.

Bipolar .......2004-10-12

Whiskeytown was a country rock band and I wish that Caitlin Cary, the best thing to emerge from that group (yes, I know all about Ryan Adams, thanks), would remember to rock more. When she does, as on Cello Girl, I'm Staying Out is an outstanding CD. Empty Rooms, The Next One, and the title cut are also strong songs, but too much of the rest of the CD is languid where it's apparently meant to be sensuous, e.g. Sleepin in on Sunday and I Want to Learn to Waltz with You. On Please Break My Heart, she does sound like Patsy Cline, too much so. At other points, I hear Kathy Mattea. Those artists are certainly wonderful country voices, but Ms. Cary's talent is such that I want to hear more of it in her own voice. Finally, she also needs the musical equivalent of a ruthless editor; many of the songs in Staying Out meander on endlessly. Cut 'em all by 30 seconds and give us two more cuts on the next CD.

Very Nice!.......2004-06-22

I really enjoyed Ms. Cary's work with Whiskeytown, and her first solo LP, "While You Weren't Looking." This cd is quite good-strong song writing, gentle vocals that play well off of the musical arrangements, and a wonderful backing band. Among the topics she writes about are a broken marriage, sleeping in on Sunday with your lover, about letting your feelings out, a friend she's lost contact with, and she does it in a way that really makes you think about your own life. There's a nice mix of folk, rock, pop and country-sometimes within the same song like "Sleeping in on Sunday." The one straight up country song is called "Please Break My Heart" and it is a real gem. I can imagine Patsy Cline singing this song if she were still alive! "Cello Girl" is a rock song that really grows on you with repeated listens-it's one of my favorite songs on the cd. The closing song is called "I Want To Learn To Waltz With You," and it's the only one that Ms. Cary didn't write herself. It's a song of real grace and beauty, and she does a beautiful version of it here. (Just for the record, Peter Holsapple wrote it, and it was performed by his former band The Continental Drifters on the cd Vermilion.) A must have for all Caitlin Cary fans, and anyone that enjoys well-thought out songs that give equal prominence to the vocals, lyrical content, and the music that accompanies it.

Excellent sophomore album.......2004-05-14

Caitlin Cary may not have took the world by storm like Ryan Adams did, but album by album she is slowly building a reputation as an artist to watch for. Cary is also from the now defunct group Whiskeytown, and she holds her own on this sophomore album, that builds on the sound of her first album WHILE YOU WEREN'T LOOKING. The album has some great songs all throughout, and some truly memorable songwriting that is strong and full of depth and warmth. The album is a combination of folk, pop, soul, and country music. Mary Chapin Carpenter guests on the album, which is great. There are many standouts here but my favorites are "Empty Rooms", the title track, "You Don't Have To Hide", "Cello Girl", "The Next One", and "Please Break My Heart". Check it out!

Average customer rating:

I've been thinking about the way smooth music goes.

The Makers of Smooth Music
Tom Ardolino Presents: The Makers of Smooth Music
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD
ASIN: B000Q44V8M

Customer Reviews:

I've been thinking about the way smooth music goes........2007-06-27

The full title of this CD is "Tom Ardolino Presents: The Makers of Smooth Music (MSR Madness Vol. 2)". MSR Madness Vol. 1 was titled "The Beat of the Traps" and was released on vinyl only. But fear not, 12 of the 16 tracks from The Beat of the Traps are included here, with the remaining 4 tracks included on the MSR Madness Vol. 3 CD. So, what the heck does MSR Madness mean anyway? Well, MSR Records was the leading producer of song-poem records. Okay, so what are song-poems? They are lyrics which have been set to music for a fee. Typically, the service was promoted through small display ads in popular magazines, comic books, tabloids, men's adventure journals and similar publications with a headline reading (essentially) Send in Your Poems - Songwriters Make Thousands of Dollars - Free Evaluation. The term lyrics was avoided because it was assumed potential customers would not understand what the term meant. People who sent their poetry usually received notice by mail that their work was worthy of recording by professional musicians, along with a proposal to do so in exchange for a fee. The melodies were either improvised or recycled and musicians often recorded dozens of songs per recording session using minimal resources, often in one take. The recordings were then duplicated on 45 RPM vinyl singles or compilation LPs with dozens of other songs by amateur lyric writers. Copies were sent to the customer. Promises that they would also be sent to radio stations or music industry executives were rarely if ever kept -- partly because the recordings would not have been taken seriously by professionals. The practice played off the intense desire of unsophisticated people to realize their ambitions of making money from writing popular songs. In the 1990s, some record collectors "rediscovered" these recordings. The main attraction of them is how kooky some of them are. Some these songs have really bizarre lyrics and off-kilter performances. If you enjoy hearing oddball music, you'll probably get a kick out of this CD.

Music Album:

Music Album