Following the breakup of alt-country standard-bearers Whiskeytown, attention gravitated toward frontman Ryan Adams and his solo work, yet vocalist and fiddle player Caitlin Cary quietly assembled her own catalog. In 2000 she issued the minimalist, folk-leaning EP Waltzie on Yep Roc, highlighted by her moving interpretation of Richard Thompson’s “Withered and Died.” March 2002 brought her first full-length, While You Weren’t Looking, also on Yep Roc; the album expanded the sonic range with rock, pop, and country hues under the guidance of jangle-pop veteran Chris Stamey. Fellow Whiskeytown alum Mike Daly and Skillet Gilmore—Cary’s husband—contributed, as did Mitch Easter, Superchunk drummer Jon Wurster, and the Jayhawks’ Jen Gunderman. Ryan Adams co-wrote three songs and supplied vocals for a four-track bonus disc.
Most of the same musicians reconvened for her second album, the equally accomplished I’m Staying Out, which added guest appearances from Mary Chapin Carpenter and Don Dixon. In summer 2005 Yep Roc released Begonias, her collaboration with Thad Cockrell.
Raised in Seville, Ohio, within a musical household, Cary took up violin early and drew inspiration from a cassette her brother, then in Alaska, mailed home containing “Tennessee Stud” and “Mr. Spaceman.” She set the instrument aside during adolescence, only resuming it while completing an English degree at Ohio’s College of Wooster. After some tentative stage appearances she entered North Carolina State’s MFA program in creative writing, but a mutual acquaintance informed Ryan Adams of her fiddle skills and her studies were deferred. The pair subsequently led the spirited country-rock outfit Whiskeytown, often likened to a 1990s Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris. As the group fragmented in the late ’90s—its final release, Pneumonia, repeatedly postponed—Cary began songwriting with guitarist Mike Daly during Whiskeytown tours. Witnessing Sheryl Crow and Gillian Welch at the Sessions at West 54th salute to Gram Parsons, where Whiskeytown also performed, prompted her decisive turn toward a solo path.
