Cary and Cockrell dueted on a cover of Buck Owens’ “Together Again” on his 2001 debut Stack Of Dreams. He returned the favor on Cary’s disc, co-writing and sharing vocals with her on “Thick Walls Down”. Various songs from the Tres Chicas’ repertoire turn up on both Cary’s album and Glory Fountain’s upcoming disc The Beauty Of 23. Other players on While You Weren’t Looking include Cary’s old Whiskeytown bandmate Mike Santoro on bass, former Jayhawks keyboardist Jen Gunderman, ex-Two Dollar Pistols guitarist Mike Krause, Superchunk drummer Jon Wurster, Dag guitarist Brian Dennis, and various members of Shark Quest, Squirrel Nut Zippers and Tift Merritt’s Carbines.
The recording process for While You Weren’t Looking started out catch-as-catch-can. Cary and whoever else was around would go to Stamey’s studio when they had time, while Mark Williams (who had signed Whiskeytown to Outpost) tried to get another label going that would release both Cary’s solo album and Whiskeytown’s Pneumonia. But that turned into yet another frustrating waiting game.
“It was kind of Whiskeytown redux,” Cary sighs. “I was enormously flattered that Mark wanted to do this with me, and I was thinking I’d have this big major-label solo deal. But it wound up taking a year, and then not happening. I figured being ex-Whiskeytown would get somewhere, and it really didn’t.”
Williams eventually wound up taking a job at Interscope, and let Cary know that the home of Limp Bizkit was no place for her. But she found a home with North Carolina independent label Yep Roc, which released her five-song EP Waltzie in 2000 and then stepped up to the plate for While You Weren’t Looking.
Yep Roc gave Cary enough of a budget to go into Mitch Easter’s Fidelitorium Studios and record the basic tracks in one sitting. The arrangements are sturdy, and the judiciously placed details — carnivalesque background noises on “The Fair”, horn riffs on “Too Many Keys”, Gunderman’s somber keyboard hues on “What Will You Do?” — are all just about perfect.
Initially, the most attention-getting aspect of While You Weren’t Looking might be the four-song bonus disc that comes with the first pressing of 8,000 copies. The bonus disc includes “The Battle,” an Adams/Cary duet recorded during the Waltzie sessions. The song was a staple of Whiskeytown’s live set during its latter years but never got documented at that time, save for a rendition on their PBS “Austin City Limits” appearance.
“In an older version of this record in my head, that song would’ve been on the main record,” Cary says. “But once I realized I had more of my own songs, I felt like it behoove me to separate them in this way. I was nervous about it. Should I keep this association with Ryan going? But what the heck, it will probably sell a lot of records. And I’ve always wanted a version of that song out there.”
While You Weren’t Looking includes songs going back a few years, plus one written during recording sessions (the album-opening “Shallow Heart, Shallow Water”). Stamey likens Cary’s collaboration with Daly to the Gillian Welch/David Rawlings partnership; Daly co-wrote eight of the main album’s 11 songs. “Sorry” and “Pony” they wrote by mail. “Too Many Keys” was written in the van during a short tour they did in 2000 to support Waltzie. The bonus-disc cut “Trickle Of Whiskey” dates back to Whiskeytown’s 1998 tour opening for John Fogerty. But Daly’s favorite is “The Fair”.
“That one started out as a song she called ‘What Would You Do If They Cancelled The Fair’,” Daly says. “I thought that was so genius, and I told her I was gonna take that and make it into a song….So I basically stole it, took it up to New York with me and then sent it back: ‘Your song is outta the oven.'”
In addition to the version that appears on the album, two alternate takes of the song are included on the bonus disc. One is titled “Keys To The Fair,” with Cary’s original lyrics voiced by Backsliders frontman Chip Robinson in his best Tom Waits impersonation; Robinson almost steals the show.
Almost, but there’s no stealing this record from Cary herself. While You Weren’t Looking is the sound of an artist serving notice that she’s more than a sidekick. It’s also bittersweet, recalling the best moments of Whiskeytown — and how much Cary contributed, while nobody was looking.
ND contributing editor David Menconi heartily recommends the rosemary bread at Raleigh’s Humble Pie restaurant…and hopes Caitlin Cary won’t find it necessary to wait tables there for much longer.
