Forgotten Album Friday #15 - Whiskeytown Pneumonia

Ryan Adams can be a musical genius and his work with his first band Whiskeytown is well worth seeking out. Pneumonia was recorded in 1998 but was not released until 2001 due to some legal hoo ha with the record label and possibly some of the band members. The album is more of a solo Ryan Adams album although he has said in a number of interviews that the album would never be released if he had anything to do with it. Fortunately it was released and seems to have softened his views on the album in recent times.

While Pneumonia may not achieve the classic status of the band's best album Strangers Almanac (1996), it comes close.  The songs bounce from the horn-laden "The Ballad of Carol Lynn" to the orchestral sound of "Under Your Breath," a song that would be equally at home on Adams' solo album, Heartbreaker.

The album is produced by Ethan Johns, who produced the early Ryan Solo albums amongst many other things and as you would expect he gives this album a much more polished sound that the earlier Whiskeytown albums.

Essential tracks:

Under Your Breath

The Balld of Carol Lynn

Jacksonville Skyline

Reason To Lie