This is Caitlin Cary‘s first full-length CD since she struck out on her own after the demise of the highly regarded alt-country band Whiskeytown. Cary sings and plays fiddle on all 13 tracks on this CD and its companion single, all of which she wrote or co-wrote. It’s an impressive debut.
The songs on While You Weren’t Looking, while all falling somewhere within the country-folk-rock camp, range from the pop gems “Shallow Heart, Shallow Water” and “Pony” to Byrds-like jangly folk-rock of “Thick Walls Down” to country soul like “Too Many Keys” to honky-tonk like “I Ain’t Found Nobody Yet.” The mini-sized single is graced with two gorgeous songs, the George Jones-worthy “The Battle,” a duet with Whiskeytown frontman Ryan Adams, and “Trickle of Whiskey,” a lilting Irish drinking song.
Cary’s voice has often been compared to the former Linda Thompson’s, although to my ear it’s a bit huskier. She’s definitely influenced by Linda as well as Richard, as evidenced by her cover version of “Withered and Died” on her 2000 EP, Waltzie. Those influences are still showing, particularly in “Please Don’t Hurry Your Heart,” which at times sounds eerily like the Thompsons’ “Wall of Death” if it were sung by Christine McVie. And the waltz-time “The Fair” is another take on the “amusement park as metaphor” theme, asking the question, “What would you do if they cancelled the fair?” and urging the listener to “Try to keep the carousel horses alive/as the summer of you and he dies.” I almost had to check the liner notes to make sure that wasn’t Carly Simon singing “My baby, he’s a pony” on “Pony.” And the beautiful “Hold on to Me,” with its lively two-step verses and dreamy waltz-time chorus, at times sounds like it’s a page from Crystal Gayle’s songbook.
On her website Cary says the songs on While You Weren’t Looking all seem to be about something happening to people while they aren’t paying attention, like the young woman in “Too Many Keys” who goes to New Orleans to find herself, only to find herself still a waitress there after many years. Or the one who finds love slipping away in “Fireworks,” one of the saddest and prettiest love songs of this or any year.
Former Whiskeytown bandmates Mike Daly on guitars and Skillet Gilmore on drums form the core of Cary’s band, which also includes Tonya Lamm and Lynn Blakey, who perform with Cary as Tres Chicas, and producer Chris Stamey on various instruments. The entire CD is excellently recorded; even when there are many layers of strings, horns, keyboards and voices, it never sounds over-produced.
While You Weren’t Looking is one of those records that sounds pleasant enough at first, but becomes more and more impressive with repeated playing. While You Weren’t Looking has made a fan of me.
(Yep Roc, 2002)
