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I’M STAYING OUT
(YEP-ROC)
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Former Whiskeytown bassist Caitlin Cary may be overshadowed by all the attention that band’s frontman, Ryan Adams, has received in the wake of their break-up, but she’s no less gifted a songwriter, and I’m Staying Out holds together at least as well, if not better than, anything Adams has released on his own. This is her second solo album, and it’s marked by the same easy-going late-night cabaret vibe that worked so well on While You Weren’t Looking. Cary moves easily from the spare Aimee Mann–ish pop of "Sleepin’ In on Sunday" to the gentle country folk of "The Next One" to the more upbeat countrified rock of "Cello Girl." Every track benefits from her winning intimacy, a product of both her warm, smoky voice and lyrics rife with doubt, pain, and resilience ("Empty Rooms," for example, deals starkly with the loneliness that sets in after the departure of a lover). The disc features clean, crisp production by former dB’s singer-songwriter Chris Stamey, and it closes with a sweet, somber cover of a song by former Stamey bandmate/former R.E.M. sideman Peter Holsapple, "I Want To Learn To Waltz with You." Cary doesn’t come on as strong as Adams, but she radiates an earnestness that her former bandmate has rarely evinced.
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