Former Whiskeytown violinist and singer Caitlin Cary can hear the effects of a year spent touring with a full band in her new album, I'm Staying Out, due April 22nd. "The whole record benefits from it," she says. "When we went in to record the basic tracks, we thought, 'Oh my God, we sound like we know what we're doing this time.'"

Cary and her band -- Jen Gunderman (keyboards, vocals), Dave Bartholomew (guitars, vocals), Brian Dennis (guitar) and Superchunk's Jon Wurster (drums) -- had actually played much of the record live before they headed into the studio. "We were able to work through a lot of arrangement considerations and do a lot of homework before we got to the studio," Cary says, "and you can definitely hear that. There's a certain confidence in a lot of these songs."

Also contributing to that confidence was the way Cary's 2002 debut album, While You Weren't Looking, resonated with fans, critics and peers, including singer Mary Chapin Carpenter, who sings harmony on "Empty Rooms," "The Next One" and "Lorraine Today."

"She just came out of the woodwork last year and sent me an email saying, 'I'm in love with your record, and I just bought twenty copies and I'm giving it away to all my friends,'" says Cary. "We established a friendship over email. She sang with me in Charlottesville [Virginia], when we played there and she agreed to come and sing on the record. She's got a beautiful voice. She can sing really low without sounding growly, so she did a lot of lower harmonies."

Also appearing on the album are the Black Crowes' Audley Freed on guitar, and former R.E.M. producers Don Dixon on bass and Mitch Easter on guitar. Jane Scarapantoni -- who's played with R.E.M., Bruce Springsteen and the Beastie Boys -- plays cello on the song "Cello Girl," which features Cary trying her hand at spoken word.

"I knew what I was getting into making another record, so it didn't drive me completely insane like it did last time," Cary says of the recording process. And certainly getting all that positive feedback helped. It's sort of like when you're a kid, your mom hangs the painting on the fridge so you're not afraid to make another one."

COLIN DEVENISH
(January 28, 2003)